Shruti Mishra of Image Stereo on Building a PR Agency and Managing Brand Perception
📝Interviews
Building a communications agency from the ground up requires more than industry experience, it demands resilience, clarity of vision, and the courage to start from scratch. Shruti Mishra, Founder of Image Stereo, brings over a decade of newsroom experience from Aaj Tak into the world of perception management and strategic communications.
In this conversation with StartupTalky, she reflects on how journalism shaped her understanding of credibility, what it takes to build a communications agency with purpose, and the lessons she learned while navigating entrepreneurship, leadership, and motherhood.
StartupTalky: What would you tell a woman who wants to leave a senior corporate role in communications and build her own agency, especially in those first six months when clients and credibility are still being established?
Shruti Mishra: Spending over a decade in the newsroom at Aaj Tak fundamentally shaped how I understand perception. Newsrooms teach you one brutal truth, perception is formed in seconds, but credibility is built in layers and years. Most PR professionals focus on amplification, how many stories! how many impressions! Journalism taught me to ask a harder question. Is this believable? A brand is not what it says about itself; it is what survives scrutiny. When you have sat on the other side of the desk, deciding which stories make the cut, you understand the importance of narrative, timing, and the value of authenticity. That instinct never leaves you.
At IImage Stereo, calling ourselves an integrated perception management agency means we do not treat PR as a silo. It is not just media relations. It is message architecture, stakeholder mapping, digital presence, crisis preparedness, and leadership positioning, all aligned to one coherent story. For a healthcare client, that might mean building trust through expert led content, education and patient empathy. For a real estate brand, it could mean credibility through transparency and community narratives. It varies from sector to sector, client to client and individual to individual. Integration means every touch point reinforces the same emotional promise.
When I built my agency from scratch, the single most important decision was choosing depth over speed. I hired for ownership, not resumes. A 30 member team cannot function on hierarchy; it runs on shared ambition. That cultural foundation drove our growth much faster than any marketing push could have.
Working with healthcare, fashion, real estate, power, logistics, FMCG, and diplomats demands narrative discipline. Each sector has its own language, but our idelogy remains constant: clarity, credibility, and empathy. We do not impose a template; we uncover a brand’s truth and articulate it sharply.
Balance, as a mother of an eleven year old, is not symmetry. Some days the agency needs me more; some days my child does. For a women who comes from deep rooted family values, for a women who loves her family as much as her work, balancing becomes a forever conflict. In the early years, sleep and social life were the first sacrifices. Guilt was constant. Over time, I learned to replace guilt with presence. Wherever I am, I am fully there, though sometimes not!
Recognition from SheThePeople, BW Businessworld, PR Moment, IRPRA, and Indian Achievers Award is deeply affirming, but internally, success feels quiet and lonely. It feels like resilience, It feels like it was worth it.
To any woman leaving a senior corporate role to build her own, the first six months will test your confidence and establishment. Cash flow will scare you. Silence will feel personal. Keep showing up. Build relationships before revenue. Remember that you are not starting from zero; you are starting from experience and there, all that counts is your hard work, compassion, loyalty, passion and honest working!
Sakshi Jadhav