Making the Leap: From Silicon Valley to PR Company Founder

Business owner, author, advisor and teacher Sabrina Horn shows how to disarm your fear and organize your risk as you go out on your own.

Sabrina Horn spent years working as a manager in a Silicon Valley technology firm. Inspired by the innovation she saw all around her and by her hardworking immigrant parents, she decided to start her own public relations company, Horn Group, to serve the needs of the growing number of technology startups. Horn Group became a highly successful, sought-after firm, with clients around the world. 

Horn sold her company to Finn Partners, a marketing firm, in 2015, and launched her current company, Horn Strategy. Today she is a celebrated business owner, author, corporate adviser, and teacher. 

While she was very strategic about planning Horn Group and signing a client before she left salaried work, Horn still had some major adjustments to make as a first-time business owner. “I knew how to write and build a brand,” she recalls, “but the operational and financial pieces were challenging.” She also learned the hard way to test people as contractors before hiring them full-time.

Through making mistakes and making adjustments, Horn learned some valuable lessons, which she shares in this interview. She says a key thing for new business owners to think about is this:  “Can you do something different for other people that solves a problem for them not only today, but also tomorrow and the day after?” She also advises that prospective business owners think through how much they need to keep their household afloat and have a plan for generating that income. She calls this exercise "disarming fear and organizing the risk."

Horn also talks about how it's critical for new business owners to build resilience. People will disappoint you and clients may decide they no longer need you, she says, but "try hard not to take things personally."

Explore the entire "Making the Leap" series