WOBURN, April 5—With technology stocks down and layoffs in the high-tech PR sector mounting, most people would consider this a less than optimal time to be launching a new technology public relations firms, but the partners at aMate Communications—all recently employed in corporate communications and public relations at Lernout & Hauspie—are convinced they’ve come up with a formula that will help them buck the trend.

According to founder and chief operating officer Tammy Boisvert, “The big agencies took advantage of the dot-com boom to boost their large retainers. There were lots of firms that wouldn’t take on anything less than $50,000 a month. We can provide senior level staff to work on clients’ business, but we can do so without breaking their budgets.”

aMate Communications will have offices in Woburn and San Jose, and is led by a team of five including president Ellen Walravens, formerly senior vice president of corporate communications with Lernout & Hasupie Speech Products; executive VP Audrey Webb, who worked alongside Walravens at L&H; VP of editorial services Amie Dehner, who has experience at Fitzgerald Communications and Hill & Knowlton; and director of media relations Michelle Doherty.

The firm also announced its first client, Onset Technology, a Santa Cruz-based message conversion solutions provider.
“We were looking for a communications agency that we were very comfortable with, that we felt could serve as an extension to our own team and that could help us successfully convey our corporate and product messages to our key audiences,” said Gadi Mazor, president and CEO of Onset. “We chose aMate because we are convinced that they can be a true partner and help us get the job done.”