Before she was a VC, Masha Bucher worked in PR and marketing — an experience that has shaped the way she runs Day One Ventures.
After years of working in communications — including executive roles that gave her deep insight into how startups operate — Bucher realized she could either use her business acumen to become one of the most effective PR reps in the game, or evolve into something more.
“I was seeing what was going on in business, and because I could understand the context, I understood business, and because I understood business, my PR pitches would be very business focused,” Bucher told TechCrunch on today’s episode of Equity.
She founded Day One Ventures in 2018 after realizing she could create more impact — and make better returns — by investing in startups and providing them with integrated PR support. By combining these two functions, she could help portfolio companies more meaningfully while backing only the stories she truly believed in.
“The structure of PR services is very misaligned,” Bucher said, noting that PR firms working on a contract basis often lean toward working slower so they can stretch out client payments. “For startups, it’s really important to move fast.”
Beyond speed, there’s a cost barrier: “Early-stage companies shouldn’t be paying $10, $20, or $30 grand per month for six months to get one announcement in TechCrunch. I just don’t think that’s fair, and I don’t think it’s sustainable.”
Day One’s integrated model allows Bucher to work with startups at critical early stages when they need support most. Younger startups might pivot or experience founder shake-ups, and “you need to be trusted to advise and help them make decisions.”
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Backing a company financially gives her something many traditional PR firms can’t offer: She’s literally invested in the story.
“I have an ambition to be, ideally, the first investor in the most important and ambitious ideas and companies of our time,” Bucher said. “I think that starts with you understanding the field, understanding the business, getting a conviction on the business. And once you have this conviction — which you’ve proved by investing in the company — you have the right to introduce it to reporters with much higher integrity.”
Someone in PR who gets access to everything from investor decks to a startup’s data room has serious advantages in positioning the company and understanding what’s at stake. And for Bucher, it makes the work more compelling. Doing PR for whatever companies are big enough to pay might be good business, “but that doesn’t mean it’s a good story.”
As with any VC, Bucher answers to her investors — in Day One’s case, that’s more than 70 LPs, including institutions, individuals, and more than 15 of the firm’s own portfolio founders. That means her bets need to be carefully considered. When Bucher chooses companies, she’s not only asking whether she wants to see their vision become reality, but whether the founder has the ethics and moral compass to maintain their values as the company scales.
She points to Valar Atomics, a startup developing advance nuclear reactors, as an example. Day One co-led a $130 million round into the startup last month.
“I can’t think of a better founder,” she said, referring to Valar’s CEO Isaiah Taylor, noting she trusts him with “literally life-and-death” decisions.
That moral filter means there are companies she wouldn’t back, even if they’re getting hype. Bucher said she wasn’t swayed by AI startup Cluely’s rage-bait “cheat on everything” marketing strategy. Rather, she’s proud to have invested in some of the most innovative technologies in areas like reproductive tech (Orchid’s embryo selection technology), accessible healthcare (Superpower), and law-enforcement software (Abel’s AI-optimized report-writing tools).
Day One’s portfolio includes early bets on companies like Sam Altman’s World, the email app Superhuman, and the remote work platform Remote.com, with at least 12 unicorns under its belt and $115 billion-plus in portfolio value. Last year, Day One closed its Fund III with $150 million, targeting early-stage founders “solving humanity’s most pressing issues,” and has grown over the last six years from $11 million in assets under management to well over $450 million today, says Bucher.
“We want to use comms to solve companies’ business goals, unlock new opportunities, and to help them, ultimately, to grow shareholder value,” Bucher said.
