Startups often struggle with the high cost and time consumption of running effective PR campaigns. Managing PR across multiple countries and agencies can be expensive and time-consuming, which can be a significant burden for early-stage founders who need to focus on product development and customer engagement.
Pain Points
- High cost of PR agencies
- often exceeding $60K/month.
- Time-consuming process of building journalist lists and writing personalized pitches.
- Difficulty in managing PR campaigns across multiple countries and agencies.
- Lack of time for founders to execute PR strategies effectively.
- Need for strategic judgment and creative instinct to secure good coverage.
I was the first marketing employee (head of growht etc) at a startup that then raised a $680M Series B. Part of my job was managing PR across 6 countries at the same time. At our peak we had 5+ agencies running in parallel. US at $30K/month. UK at £15K/month. Plus France, Germany, Spain, Italy. Total bill: over $60K/month just on PR. I got to see how PR agencies actually work from the inside. Different countries, different price points, different cultures. And honestly, most of what I learned applies even if you have zero budget. So here it is. **What agencies actually do** About 80% of what we paid for was execution work. Basically: * Building journalist lists (who covers your space, what's their email, have they written about competitors recently) * Writing press releases and pitch emails * Sending those emails in the right sequence (exclusive first, then broader) * Following up with people who didn't respond * Competitive intel, media monitoring, pipeline tracking The other 20% was the stuff that actually determined whether coverage was good or not: * Strategic judgment. Deciding which angle to lead with, which story to tell * Creative instinct. Knowing what makes a journalist stop scrolling and actually read your pitch * Relationships. Choosing which journalist gets the exclusive (and actually having a relationship with them). Reading the room when early responses come in. Knowing when to push harder vs back off That 20% is where the real value lives. It's what separates a campaign that lands 5 articles from one that lands zero. The 80% is critical too but it's operational. Needs to be done well. Doesn't need to cost $60K/month. **What I'd tell any founder about press** **Lead with your story, not your product.** Journalists don't care about features. They care about people. Why did you quit your job to build this? What pissed you off so much you couldn't stop thinking about it? That's what gets someone to write about you. Be vulnerable **Offer exclusives, one journalist at a time.** Don't blast 50 reporters at once. Pick your top target. Give them the story 7-10 days before launch with an exclusive. If they pass, move to the next one. This is literally how the expensive agencies do it. It's easy. **Use embargoes.** An embargo = "here's my news, but don't publish before this date." It lets you brief multiple journalists before launch day so they can prepare their articles, and everything drops at the same time. **Build a targeted list.** Go to the publications you want to be in. Find journalists who've covered your competitors or your space in the last 90 days. Get their emails from Twitter bios, LinkedIn. 50 well-targeted contacts beat 500 random ones every single time. **Pitch from the founder's email.** Not from [press@company.com](mailto:press@company.com). Not from an agency address. Journalists respond way better to founders. Keep it to 3-4 sentences. Who you are, what's happening, why their readers would care, and a link. That's it. **Follow up twice, then move on.** Day 5 and day 3 before launch. That's it. They get 50+ pitches a day. Don't be the person who sends 6 follow-ups. **Every milestone is a press moment.** New partnership? That's a story. Hit 1,000 users? Story. Launched in a new country? Story. The best startups turn every milestone into a press campaign. At this startup I was working at, we literally sent 200+ press releases for 300+ partnership announcements. One partnership = one campaign. PR is a marathon not a sprint. PR was a real growth channel for us. **Some honest truths** You probably won't land TechCrunch on your first try. That's ok. Tier 2 and tier 3 publications still build your Google presence, give you backlinks, and add credibility. VCs check press coverage in 92% of due diligence. One solid article in a niche publication that your customers actually read is worth way more than a throwaway mention in a big outlet nobody in your market sees. And the relationship you build with a journalist is worth more than any single article. Share industry insights even when you don't have news. Be useful to them. That's how you become the insider they call when they need a quote. **The real problem though** Even knowing all this, most founders just don't have the time to execute it. Building a proper journalist list alone takes hours. Writing personalized pitches for 50 reporters, hours more. Sequencing, following up, tracking responses, adjusting your angle based on what's working. It adds up fast. And when you're focused on product, talking to customers, and keeping the lights on, PR falls to the bottom of the list. Every. Time. That's the gap I keep seeing. The knowledge is out there. The playbook exists. But the execution cost in time (not just money) is what kills it for most early-stage founders. Curious about this community's experience with this. Have any of you run PR campaigns for your startup? What worked? What was a total waste of time? For those who haven't tried, what's actually holding you back? Cost, time, not knowing where to start, something else? Happy to answer questions about how PR works at scale based on what I've seen.