Having founded Here Be Dragons (HBD) in 2014, former Edelman director, Paul McEntee has a few accolades and accomplishments on his mantle — including Creative Moment’s Creative FMCG Campaign of the Year 2024, and PRmoment’s Stunt of the Year 2023.

The agency has gone from strength to strength, which is testament to the its ability to navigate waves of change.

PRmoment caught up with McEntee as he reflects on 10 years as an independent PR agency founder, and reveals a cultural transformation at HBD that aims to further reinforce its street cred for achieving the (almost) impossible dream of attracting and retaining new PR talent.

A moment of reflection

You’ve been in the founders club for a decade now, how has the PR industry changed since HBD’s first birthday?
“It’s more competitive. Over the course of 10 years, there are more PR professionals than journalists. The media got squeezed, but PR kept growing. Back then, you could call a journalist, sit back and watch the coverage come flying in — it was a little bit easier back then. You just can't do that anymore.

“The benefits are that the work has gotten way better. PR got far more vigorous and it's almost like [despite there being less journalists] there were more people listening to us flogging our stories on behalf of our clients, so we have to engineer and really rig our campaigns for success [nowadays].

“Also [another change] is the way brands operate. They used to just broadcast to their customers and the conversation was very one-sided, but now social media is holding brands to account, they’ve got to switch their campaigning and communicating. Those are the seismic shifts I’ve seen over 10 years; it’s more competitive so it’s got harder, but the work has got better.”

Got any pearls of wisdom after 10 years of founder life?
“Energy levels aren’t talked about enough, specifically the energy it takes to be a solo founder. I have an amazing team that does a great job helping run the business but everything is ultimately on your plate. You have to show up every day with your game face on. Samuel Johnson said, ‘when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life’ and if you don’t have the energy to get up, move, keep thinking of new ideas, keep finding new and innovative solutions to problems then you’re a bit fucked, aren’t you?

“One thing I’m most proud about with HBD is that after 10 years in business we’ve have no investment, [we’ve got] no debt, no joint venture, no partnership, umbrella network or advertising agency. All of our sustainable growth has been through independence and I think that's amazing. If I gave up independence, I’d not be able to pick what I said yes and no to."

A look to the future

You’ve got a knack for attracting new talent, but how have junior PRs changed over a decade?
“I think the people that we are seeing coming into PR, certainly the juniors, they've got a real hunger. They’re so ambidextrous, malleable and multi-dimensioned — more so than I ever was going into my career.

“[New PR talent] is very social-first, they are going to be Gen-Z who likely have a side-hustle out of work. Meanwhile, they’re totally au fait with social media and want to get their hands on your agency's social channels. They are also desperate to talk to media because they are fascinated by how social and digital works together.”

Speaking of new talent, can you talk me through the new ‘Dragon Club’ initiative revolving around attraction and retention?
“I always knew there was elasticity to the HBD brand, obviously we are a PR agency but we’ve got strategy, commercial and training. There’s lots of things in the HBD world and it lends itself quite well to apparel, and we already have a merchandise line but wanted to extend it out to make it more meaningful.

“I wanted to drive a feeling of belonging and identity here at the agency and obviously retention in the industry is hard, but we wanted people to champion three core things: curiosity, passion and courage, and then asked the HBD team what they’d expect to be rewarded for those things.”

Any tips for other indy PR agency founders on retaining talent?
“You have to look after people and they will look at how much they are listened to, how much autonomy, can make a suggestion and not get their head bitten off and have the opportunity to develop and know how they can get promoted.

“All those things matter and I think if you pay competitively and don’t take the piss, but also let people feel they have real value in the agency and (ideally) enjoy coming to work, then you’ve hit the sweet spot.”