The Ultimate PR Guide for Startups

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“I need to be in TechCrunch, Forbes, and so on.”
It’s one of the vital frequent traces we hear as traders.

However PR nonetheless appears like a black field for many founders, particularly these working a course of for the primary time. We frequently evaluate it to a marriage: you intend it as soon as (perhaps a number of) so the planning course of feels new. Even when it’s not the primary, the folks, venue, and timing change each time.

Repetition builds understanding, however early-stage firms not often get that repetition with PR.

On this version, we break down step-by-step easy methods to land in your dream outlet.

Over the previous 12 months, we’ve assist our portfolio firms in securing placements that amplified their tales. We’ve additionally been lucky to earn protection for GTMfund’s fund bulletins.

And simply this week, Max (GTMfund’s GP) joined the Head of Startups at OpenAI and the CMO of Google Cloud on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt to debate constructing a contemporary GTM engine.

The standing-room-only crowd of founders and traders was proof in itself: GTM has develop into one of the vital crucial success components for at this time’s firms.

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Test the complete report right here.

PR Glossary

Earlier than we get into the method, it is a useful glossary of PR phrases to know:

Your PR Information

We’ve helped dozens of startups safe protection for his or her funding bulletins.
It is a step-by-step breakdown of easy methods to run an efficient course of when asserting a spherical.

Step 1: Set your objectives

Earlier than launching any PR marketing campaign, begin by clarifying why you’re doing it. Are you making an attempt to assist recruiting? Construct legitimacy with traders? Open doorways for enterprise partnerships?

Your goal determines your story, your messaging, and the shops you prioritize.

Gross sales usually comes up as a purpose, and whereas it may be PR needs to be considered as a credibility engine, not a pipeline generator. It’s the gas that validates your narrative, not the car that carries it.

Consider PR as jet gas: when layered on high of your owned channels, it amplifies momentum and reinforces belief.

For instance:

Something drove huge visibility by means of virality on X (over 3M views on this submit), hitting $2M ARR in simply two weeks. Once they later introduced $11M in funding at a $100M valuation, TechCrunch protection added credibility to the momentum they’d already created.
Paid introduced a $21M Seed spherical, touchdown TechCrunch protection that strengthened their traction. The announcement submit from Founder & CEO Manny Medina generated over 1,000 reactions on LinkedIn, signalling validation to each traders and clients.

An amazing press hit is third-party validation. It tells traders, recruits, and companions: this firm is value listening to.

Step 2: Establish supreme shops primarily based on these objectives

Your objectives ought to information which shops to prioritize.

In case your goal is fundraising or hiring, deal with Tier I shops with broad tech attain, like TechCrunch or Forbes. These assist validate your model and might sign credibility to traders and expertise.

In case your purpose is demand era, prioritize industry-specific publications that your ICP reads. Relevance will drive much more certified consciousness than attain alone.

Step 3: Ask your traders if they’ve connections to these shops

Until you have already got reporter relationships from a earlier enterprise otherwise you’ve been intentional about constructing them early, you might not have direct entry to the shops.

That is the place your traders can assist. They might have current relationships with reporters and might provide heat introductions or steerage on which shops are most responsive. Don’t hesitate to ask.

Right here’s a easy message you possibly can ship as a place to begin:

“Hello {{first title}} – actually excited to share that we’ll be asserting our $XX [round] elevate quickly. We’re kicking off the PR course of and are concentrating on {{outlet}} and {{outlet}}. Needed to succeed in out and see for those who occur to have any contacts at these shops, earlier than we dive into issues from our finish.”

Step 4: Establish the particular reporters at your goal shops

Now, the perfect state of affairs could be that you just’ve began to construct reporter relationships early. Most founders solely take into consideration reporters once they have information to share. However PR, very like gross sales, rewards relationship-building over time. Chilly pitching not often works in addition to heat outreach constructed on familiarity and belief.

Begin early for those who can. Establish 5–10 reporters who persistently cowl your class, and start following and interesting with their work.

Lead with worth earlier than you ever make an ask. That would imply sharing related {industry} knowledge, connecting them with credible sources, or just commenting thoughtfully on their items. Over time, that consistency builds recognition.

Then, while you do have information, the connection already exists and providing exclusivity to a trusted journalist can considerably enhance your possibilities of significant protection.

This not often occurs in follow — founders are juggling each a part of firm constructing.

That’s why it’s precious to ask your traders about connections. They might have offered a number of names or none in any respect. Both manner, the subsequent step is to judge which reporters are literally related to your story.

Reporters usually cowl particular beats, that are outlined focus areas like AI, fintech, or enterprise software program. You’ll need to be certain that your announcement aligns with what they write about.

Begin by discovering reporters who cowl your particular class. Search their profiles on the outlet’s web site, learn their current articles, and notice the themes they have a tendency to spotlight.

This can assist you to construct a brief, targeted record of journalists who’re most definitely to be all in favour of your announcement (and stop you from losing effort on broad or misaligned outreach).

Step 5: Craft your story

It’s worthwhile to perceive what makes a narrative newsworthy.

What may really feel thrilling internally isn’t essentially compelling to reporters. Jenny He (GP at Place Ventures) lays out a framework beneath to judge whether or not a narrative is definitely newsworthy.

The three pillars of newsworthiness:

Timeliness – Ask: Would this story nonetheless matter if printed 2 weeks later? If not, it’s well timed.
Influence – Map out how many individuals are affected (affect) and who cares (relevance).
Relevance – Layer in third-party quotes, investor testimonials, and buyer anecdotes to strengthen the pitch.

A robust story hits all three:

A significant announcement (the what)
A novel founder or firm backstory (the who)
And clear relevance to a broader development (the why now)

When these components align, you’ve acquired the sort of story reporters need.

Journalists are asking themselves three questions: Why this story? Why now? Why will my viewers care?

That’s why your positioning issues a lot.

Most groups rush into PR hoping for a splashy launch second. However with no differentiated place, even an enormous announcement can fall flat. Earlier than writing a press launch or speaking to a reporter, you want to have the ability to clearly and defensibly articulate your “why us.”

Consider positioning as your North Star. It’s not nearly your product, it’s about the way you’re uniquely fixing an actual, painful downside for a selected buyer. That readability turns into the inspiration in your narrative, your storytelling, and finally, your PR angle.

“A reporter will get lots of of emails per day and has seen 100 firms in the identical area. It’s worthwhile to be so differentiated that they need to write about you.” – Jenny

Step 6: The outreach

You could have three choices for conducting outreach:

You are able to do so in-house your self
You’ll be able to rent a PR guide
You’ll be able to rent a PR company

All include their advantages, drawbacks, and value variations.

For Seed and Sequence A stage firms, hiring a PR guide is commonly going to be the simplest whereas being price (capital and time) environment friendly.

In the case of outreach, one key element issues: exclusivity. Reporters usually tend to have interaction once they have the possibility to break a narrative first. However exclusives include nuance. You must solely provide exclusivity to at least one reporter at a time. Consider it as a waterfall course of:

Attain out to your top-choice reporter first.
Provide the unique with a transparent, quick window (“This unique is open till [date/time]”).
Should you don’t hear again inside that window, transfer to the subsequent reporter in your record.

This retains your course of clear, skilled, and environment friendly whereas respecting journalists’ time and sustaining management over your announcement timeline.

Right here’s an outreach e-mail instance that we despatched for a portfolio firm, which acquired a constructive response and unique function:

Tag @GTMnow so we are able to see your takeaways and assist amplify them.

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