How to get press coverage for your startup
Getting press coverage for a startup comes down to four things: an angle an editor wants, an outlet your audience reads, good timing, and a smooth process once someone says yes. Most founders get the first one wrong.
Find the angle
The best story is rarely the one the founder wants to tell. An edtech founder we worked with wanted to talk about features. The article that ran was about why teachers quit in their first year.
Ask what your work shows that readers don’t know yet. That’s usually the story. The product can appear in it without being the headline.
Three questions help:
- What do you see every week that outsiders get wrong about your industry?
- What have you learned that cost you money or time?
- What do your customers ask you that nobody answers well?
Pick outlets your buyers read
B2B software buyers read CIO and TechReport more than mainstream news. For one SaaS client, a CIO mention brought more qualified demos than a bigger outlet did. Make a short list of the five publications your best customers actually read, and start there.
Write a short pitch
If you pitch an editor yourself, keep it to five sentences:
- The story, in one line, from the reader’s side.
- Why now.
- Why you: the experience or data that makes you worth hearing from.
- What you can offer: an article, a quote, data, an interview.
- A link to one thing that proves you’re real.
Leave out the company history and the adjectives. Editors decide in seconds.
Time it
News moves fast in some beats. A cybersecurity CEO’s comment on a breach in the news ran on CyberNews within days. For planned stories, give yourself weeks, not days: editors plan ahead, and a well-timed pitch beats a rushed one.
Be realistic about deadlines, too. A client once asked for 5 outlets in 2 weeks for a launch. We said no to the timeline and offered 3 within the 21 to 60 day window. They came back for their next round.
Make it easy to say yes
- Have a short bio, a headshot and a one-line description of the company ready.
- Know the two or three opinions you’re willing to have quoted.
- Decide who on your side approves the draft, and keep it to one person.
Clients see every draft before an editor does. Most approve with small edits; about one in five asks for a bigger rewrite, which we do before anything is submitted.
Expect a process, not a favor
Coverage in top outlets follows a process: topic approval, writing, review, then the outlet’s own schedule. We commit to a 21 to 60 day window for each placement before the client pays, so launches and fundraising can be planned around real dates.
After it’s published
Share it the same week, from the founder’s profile and the company page. Add it to your website and your sales emails. An article that nobody sends around does a fraction of the work it could.
If you want to see which outlets fit your story, tell us about your company. For the basics, read The Founder’s PR Guide.