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#23 - David Johnson, Country Manager at Maddyness UK: From Books to Media, The State of UK Startups and SMEs, The French Connection and PR/Media Advice
David Johnson, Country Manager and Editor at Maddyness UK (part of Maddyness, of French origin), joins the show to share his winding journey from running a bookshop to shaping one of the UK’s most influential startup media platforms.
We talk about:
- How David’s background in literature, architecture publishing, and Libya (!) led him to startups
- The real state of the UK tech ecosystem in 2025, and how it compares to France
- Comparing France and the UK when it comes to startups
- What founders and PR people still get wrong when pitching stories
- Why storytelling, not just news, still matters, and what makes a pitch stand out
- What to make of the hype around AI, defence tech, and the “next Silicon Valley”
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Thanks for listening! For more, follow us on LinkedIn.
Runway is a podcast started by Black Unicorn PR co-founders Julija Jegorova and Mauro Battellini to help startup founders, company builders and business leaders with insights, tools and advice from specialists in sales, marketing, PR and more.
Black Unicorn PR is a London-based tech PR agency focused on startups, scaleups and VC.
For more information visit: https://www.blackunicornpr.com/
For even more advice, especially on PR, visit the Black Unicorn PR blog
View all episodes
By Julija Jegorova & Mauro BattelliniDavid Johnson, Country Manager and Editor at Maddyness UK (part of Maddyness, of French origin), joins the show to share his winding journey from running a bookshop to shaping one of the UK’s most influential startup media platforms.
We talk about:
- How David’s background in literature, architecture publishing, and Libya (!) led him to startups
- The real state of the UK tech ecosystem in 2025, and how it compares to France
- Comparing France and the UK when it comes to startups
- What founders and PR people still get wrong when pitching stories
- Why storytelling, not just news, still matters, and what makes a pitch stand out
- What to make of the hype around AI, defence tech, and the “next Silicon Valley”
=================================================================
Thanks for listening! For more, follow us on LinkedIn.
Runway is a podcast started by Black Unicorn PR co-founders Julija Jegorova and Mauro Battellini to help startup founders, company builders and business leaders with insights, tools and advice from specialists in sales, marketing, PR and more.
Black Unicorn PR is a London-based tech PR agency focused on startups, scaleups and VC.
For more information visit: https://www.blackunicornpr.com/
For even more advice, especially on PR, visit the Black Unicorn PR blog