When ChatGPT Shapes Reputation: Lessons for IROs from Jen Prosek
We’ve been following Jen Prosek for a while now. Anytime she shows up on a podcast or writes on LinkedIn, we pay attention. She’s the founder and CEO of Prosek Partners, one of the world’s top financial communications firms. Her clients include major private-markets firms and leading public companies. She’s built her reputation helping leaders nail their story, protect their reputation, and connect strategy to communication.
We recently listened to her on The Money Maze Podcast, in an episode called “Good Investor, Poor Communicator.” It was full of sharp, modern ideas about storytelling, brand, and AI that go well beyond private markets.
Below are four nuggets from the conversation that we think public-company IROs should pay attention to. I’ve adapted them a bit for our world, but they’re drawn straight from the interview and reflect Jen’s point of view.
1. What ChatGPT Says About You Might Be Your Next Reputation Score
Setup:
Jen calls it straight: “The most powerful thing reputationally now and into the future will be what ChatGPT has to say about you.”
She explains that ChatGPT “not only crawls, it thinks. It connects dots. It gives you an opinion.” For any firm or executive, that means AI will be the new reputational filter.
Why it matters for IROs:
Your IR website, leadership bios, past releases, and interview transcripts are all the inputs AI systems pull from. If you want to influence what “the machine” says about your company, you need to feed it clear, consistent, credible signals.
Think of this as the new SEO for investor credibility. Audit what ChatGPT says about your company, then shape those answers by being deliberate about what you publish. (This isn’t easy but worth understanding and can influence your future content strategy). Some low hanging fruits to optimize for Gen-AI results are: have clear About sections on your IR website, consistent leadership bios, FAQs that correct misconceptions, and fresh thought-leadership pieces. That is how you could train the algorithm over time to “think” right about you.
2. Podcast = Second Meeting
Setup:
Jen makes a simple but powerful point: “The podcast is one of the most effective second-meeting strategies.”
She adds, “If someone listens to this podcast and they like what I have to say, am I having the first meeting with them when I meet them? I’m probably having the tenth meeting.”
Why it matters for IROs:
Investors who hear your CEO or CFO on a 10-minute podcast episode already “know” them. That means when they show up to the real meeting, the relationship starts halfway built.
Short, conversational audio can compress the trust curve. Encourage your CEO and CFO to appear on more podcasts.
Our own learning: We recently worked on an investor-thesis project for a company where I listened to the CEO’s interview with a buy-side analyst. It was thoughtful, confident, and far more substantive than anything in their existing materials. We used that conversation as the foundation for a full investor presentation. CEOs and CFOs who show up on podcasts often end up giving investors and analysts their clearest, most human story.
3. Nail the Narrative Before the First Question
Setup:
Jen often hears GPs say they don’t need marketing or content. Her response is simple: “Do you want to attract great talent? Do you want better deal flow? Do you want to raise more capital?” If the answer is yes to any of these, you need a strong narrative and a deliberate communication strategy.
She adds, “If LPs (or investors) think well of you, if they know your story before you sit down in front of them for the first meeting, are you having the first meeting or the second? You’ve advanced the process.”
She notes that 75% of investors she talks to say “not many GPs can nail their narrative in the first meeting, and that’s a problem.”
Why it matters for IROs:
Same truth in public markets. If an investor has to spend the first five minutes of your presentation figuring out what your company actually does and why it wins, you’ve already lost momentum.
Every CEO, CFO, and IRO should be able to deliver the 30-second, two-minute, and five-minute version of the company’s “right to win,” fluent, confident, and consistent across leadership.
4. A Good Offense Is the Best Crisis Defense
Setup:
When asked how she handles a negative story, Jen’s response is classic comms strategy:
“If you hit a crisis and the FT has written a very negative story about you, what is the Google vacuum or the ChatGPT vacuum sucking up? Only that story and the other bad stories. There’s no context.”
Her fix: “If you have a content machine and you are always putting out positives about your company, its culture, its people, its performance, then at least there’s some context around you.”
Why it matters for IROs:
If something goes wrong, whether it’s an earnings miss, a governance headline, or a product issue, the only thing worse than bad news is no other narrative.
Maintain a steady baseline of “good surround sound” through consistent updates, credible proof points, and thought leadership from executives. Use LinkedIn to publish short reflections or progress notes that show your company’s voice and values. That ongoing presence builds trust and gives AI and media something positive to surface when you need it most.
There were plenty more nuggets in the episode, from the power of convening networks to how to fail fast and move on, but these four felt most relevant for IROs thinking about the next phase of investor communication.
If you want to hear the full conversation, you can listen to Good Investor, Poor Communicator on The Money Maze Podcast. You can also follow Jen Prosek’s newsletter on LinkedIn which we found very useful.
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