Title: Lessons from Managing PR at a Startup That Raised $680M
I led growth and marketing at a startup that eventually secured a $680 million Series B, and part of my role was managing public relations across six countries simultaneously. At our peak, we had five or more agencies in flight, with roughly $60K+ per month spent on PR across the portfolio (US: $30K/month; UK: £15K/month; plus teams in France, Germany, Spain, and Italy).
This gave me a front-row view of how PR agencies operate in different markets, price points, and cultures. Most of what follows is useful even if you have zero budget.
What agencies actually do
About 80% of what we paid for was execution work. Specifically:
– Building journalist lists: identifying who covers your sector, their emails, and recent coverage of competitors
– Writing press releases and pitch emails
– Sending emails in the right sequence: exclusive first, then broader outreach
– Following up with non-responders
– Competitive intelligence, media monitoring, and pipeline tracking
The remaining 20% determined whether coverage was strong:
– Strategic judgment: choosing the right angle and the story to tell
– Creative instinct: crafting pitches that grab a journalist’s attention
– Relationships: selecting which journalist gets the exclusive and leveraging established rapport; reading the room as responses come in; knowing when to push or pull back
That 20% is where the real value lies. It’s what differentiates a campaign that yields five articles from one that yields none. The 80% is essential and operational, but it doesn’t have to cost $60K/month.
What I’d tell any founder about press
Lead with your story, not your product. Journalists care about people more than features. Why did you leave your prior role to build this? What frustrated you enough to pursue it relentlessly? That vulnerability is what motivates a journalist to write about you.
Offer exclusives, one journalist at a time. Don’t blast 50 reporters at once. Target your top outlet, share the story 7–10 days before launch with an exclusive, and if they pass, move on to the next. This mirrors how expensive agencies operate—and it’s actually straightforward.
Use embargoes. An embargo allows you to brief multiple journalists before launch so they can prepare, and everything can drop simultaneously.
Build a targeted list. Focus on the publications you want to be in and identify journalists who have covered your space or your competitors in the last 90 days. Gather emails from public bios on Twitter or LinkedIn. fifty targeted contacts beat 500 random ones every time.
Pitch from the founder’s email. Do not use [email protected] or an agency address. Journalists respond best to founders. Keep it tight: 3–4 sentences covering who you are, what’s happening, why their readers would care, and a link.
Follow up twice, then move on. A mid-week follow-up and a pre-launch nudge are enough. Journalists receive 50+ pitches daily; avoid turning into the persistent outlier.
Every milestone is a press moment. Partnerships, user milestones, or launches in new markets are all story opportunities. In my role, we ran hundreds of press opportunities across partnerships and milestones. PR is a marathon, not a sprint, and it can be a meaningful growth channel.
Some honest truths
Landing TechCrunch on your first try is unlikely, and that’s okay. Tier 2 and Tier 3 outlets still build your search presence, provide backlinks, and bolster credibility. VCs commonly check press coverage in due diligence, and a single solid article in a relevant niche can be more valuable than a broad mention in a top outlet that your audience never reads.
The value of journalist relationships often surpasses a single article. Share industry insights even without news, and be useful to journalists. That’s how you become the insider they call for a quote.
The real problem
Even with this knowledge, many founders don’t have the time to execute it. Building a quality journalist list can take hours. Crafting personalized pitches for dozens of reporters, sequencing, following up, and iterating angles based on feedback consumes substantial time. When you’re focused on product development, customer development, and day-to-day operations, PR tends to drop to the bottom of the list—consistently.
That gap is what I keep seeing. The playbook exists, but the time cost of execution—more than the monetary cost—stops many early-stage founders.
I’m curious about the community’s experiences with PR campaigns for startups. What worked for you? What felt like a waste of time? For those who haven’t tried PR, what’s holding you back—cost, time, not knowing where to start, or something else?
I’m happy to answer questions about how PR scales based on what I’ve observed.
