By Megan Zaleski
At just 24 years old, Warren H. Cohn, a Tulane alumnus, had a vision for the future of the public relations industry. From the comforts of his parents’ couch, he envisioned a PR agency that invested in their clients, put their best foot forward and had a collaborative atmosphere.
Cohn, who uses the term ‘brick wall’ to describe the mind block that keeps most from pursuing their largest dreams, made the decision to walk away from his post-grad public relations job and set out on his own.
The first few months consisted of Cohn managing three clients in his parents’ living room with just a phone and laptop to get the job done. The hard work paid off when Cohn received his first referral to a non-profit under his (at the time) no-name personal business. With another client signed, Cohn sought out a workspace outside of his parents’ home in the hopes that he would be able to hire a few interns to handle the accounts and new business outreach.
Cohn signed for a 100 sq. ft. office space in Brooklyn, settled on the name HeraldPR (named after his grandfather), had business cards printed to legitimize his operation, and offered school credit to PR-hungry interns. In just one year, Cohn had gone from a single-person operation on his parents’ couch to managing a handful of clients and interns in a 100 sq. ft. office space at the age of 25.
Cohn looked to expand his agency’s offerings by partnering with one of New York’s leading crisis management experts Juda Engelmayer, to bolster HeraldPR’s services and bring in an industry-known professional who had worked on many high-profile accounts. Engelmayer’s reputation in combination with Cohn’s firm vision collectively worked to drive HeraldPR to new heights.
Now, in his seventh year of business, Cohn operates HeraldPR from a two-floor office space in Midtown Manhattan with a variety of clients, from lifestyle brands to tech startups and more, all of which have remained loyal to the agency for years. His vision for HeraldPR has worked to develop new partnerships, such as Emerald Digital, the agency’s digital branch.
With locations in both New York and New Orleans, and plans for expansion, Cohn has broken through his original brick wall in founding HeraldPR, but has also successfully hurdled roadblocks along the way.
