The Comms Strategist Behind Anduril, Shopify & Cognition | Lulu Cheng Meservey

Lulu Cheng Meservey is the founder of Rostra and one of the world's most trusted communication strategists, supporting companies such as Anduril, Shopify, Cognition, and Coinbase. In 2016, she co-founded TrailRunner International with Jim Wilkinson, who had just run corporate affairs for Alibaba's record IPO. She had never done comms in her life. One of her first clients was Anduril, in the company's first year, when Palmer Luckey had just been pushed out of Facebook, and no reporter would give him a fair hearing. So they stopped asking. They went to Quantico, to Camp Pendleton, to the CIA, and showed people the technology directly. She left to run communications at Substack, then joined the board of Activision Blizzard—and in October 2022 stepped off the board and into the company as chief communications officer. Microsoft's $69 billion acquisition was under attack from the FTC. She fought back in public, under her own name, which almost no executive in a deal that size is willing to do. It closed in October 2023. In March 2024, she started her own firm, Rostra, and published Go Direct: The Manifesto. The first project out the door was Cognition's launch of Devin, the first AI software engineer. Shopify put her on its board that June. In December 2025, she raised a $40 million fund to back founders she believes in. She takes about a dozen clients at a time and has a waiting list of hundreds. She named the firm after the Rostra, the speaker's platform in Rome, where a man could climb up while the city believed one thing and step down after it believed another. Show notes: https://www.davidsenra.com/episode/lulu-cheng-meservey Made possible by Ramp: ⁠https://ramp.com Deel: ⁠https://deel.com/senra AppLovin: ⁠https://applovin.com/senra David Senra Website: https://www.davidsenra.com X: https://x.com/davidsenra Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidsenra LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidsenra Facebook: https://www.linkedin.com/company/senrashow Threads: https://www.threads.com/@davidsenra Spotify: https://spti.fi/TVrr557 Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/4msoZtb Lulu Cheng Meservey Website: https://rostra.co X: https://x.com/lulumeservey LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lulu-cheng-meservey Chapters 00:00:00 From China to America 00:02:08 Learning to Read the Room 00:06:18 Building a Movement 00:07:30 Learning Comms by Doing 00:10:50 Anduril as an Insurgent 00:15:07 The Power of a Manifesto 00:18:47 Go Direct 00:26:45 Conviction Over Charisma 00:31:30 Why Rostra Exists 00:33:23 How AI Leaders Lose Trust 00:40:40 Tell a Better Story 00:47:55 Do Things That Can’t Be Faked 00:50:55 The Return to Beauty 00:57:11 Originality Over Templates 01:04:02 Do What Only You Can Do 01:07:14 The Jetsons Rule 01:10:41 Trust Yourself 01:12:29 Why Humans Crave Stories

David SenrahostLulu Cheng Meserveyguest

Aug 12, 20261h 17mWatch on YouTube ↗

EPISODE INFO

Released: August 12, 2026
Duration: 1h 17m
Channel: David Senra
Watch on YouTube: ▶ Open ↗

EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Lulu Cheng Meservey is the founder of Rostra and one of the world's most trusted communication strategists, supporting companies such as Anduril, Shopify, Cognition, and Coinbase. In 2016, she co-founded TrailRunner International with Jim Wilkinson, who had just run corporate affairs for Alibaba's record IPO. She had never done comms in her life. One of her first clients was Anduril, in the company's first year, when Palmer Luckey had just been pushed out of Facebook, and no reporter would give him a fair hearing. So they stopped asking. They went to Quantico, to Camp Pendleton, to the CIA, and showed people the technology directly. She left to run communications at Substack, then joined the board of Activision Blizzard—and in October 2022 stepped off the board and into the company as chief communications officer. Microsoft's $69 billion acquisition was under attack from the FTC. She fought back in public, under her own name, which almost no executive in a deal that size is willing to do. It closed in October 2023. In March 2024, she started her own firm, Rostra, and published Go Direct: The Manifesto. The first project out the door was Cognition's launch of Devin, the first AI software engineer. Shopify put her on its board that June. In December 2025, she raised a $40 million fund to back founders she believes in. She takes about a dozen clients at a time and has a waiting list of hundreds. She named the firm after the Rostra, the speaker's platform in Rome, where a man could climb up while the city believed one thing and step down after it believed another. Show notes: https://www.davidsenra.com/episode/lulu-cheng-meservey Made possible by Ramp: ⁠https://ramp.com Deel: ⁠https://deel.com/senra AppLovin: ⁠https://applovin.com/senra David Senra Website: https://www.davidsenra.com X: https://x.com/davidsenra Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidsenra LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidsenra Facebook: https://www.linkedin.com/company/senrashow Threads: https://www.threads.com/@davidsenra Spotify: https://spti.fi/TVrr557 Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/4msoZtb Lulu Cheng Meservey Website: https://rostra.co X: https://x.com/lulumeservey LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lulu-cheng-meservey Chapters 00:00:00 From China to America 00:02:08 Learning to Read the Room 00:06:18 Building a Movement 00:07:30 Learning Comms by Doing 00:10:50 Anduril as an Insurgent 00:15:07 The Power of a Manifesto 00:18:47 Go Direct 00:26:45 Conviction Over Charisma 00:31:30 Why Rostra Exists 00:33:23 How AI Leaders Lose Trust 00:40:40 Tell a Better Story 00:47:55 Do Things That Can’t Be Faked 00:50:55 The Return to Beauty 00:57:11 Originality Over Templates 01:04:02 Do What Only You Can Do 01:07:14 The Jetsons Rule 01:10:41 Trust Yourself 01:12:29 Why Humans Crave Stories

SPEAKERS

David Senra
host
Host of the podcast Founders, known for studying entrepreneur biographies and interviewing notable builders.
Lulu Cheng Meservey
guest
Communications strategist and founder of Rostra, known for advising founders/companies including Anduril and Shopify.

EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of David Senra, featuring David Senra and Lulu Cheng Meservey, The Comms Strategist Behind Anduril, Shopify & Cognition | Lulu Cheng Meservey explores lulu Cheng Meservey on movement-building comms, going direct, authenticity today Meservey traces how growing up across China, Germany, Norway, Canada, and the US trained her to “read the room,” notice unspoken context, and communicate across cultures.

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