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PR agency for startups

Startup PR changes with every round. Before the first cheque the story is the founder.

By Series A reporters want growth they can print, and later the company is expected to speak for its whole category.

A good startup PR agency runs a different playbook at each stage, and at some stages you need no agency at all.

From $390 a month, month to month.

By the Pocket PR editorial team.

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Founder placing a product box on a shelf that holds every stage of the company, prototype to retail

Illustration

Why a pitch still starts most startup stories

  • 86%Journalists who say at least some of their stories start from a PR pitchglobenewswire.com
  • 45%Journalists who want embargoes or early access, the core of a funding round announcementcision.com
  • $3,500 to $5,000Monthly range an early-stage boutique asks in the USamworldgroup.com

How to do PR for a startup at pre-seed

Before a round there is rarely hard news, and a launch release from an unknown brand usually lands nowhere.

What you have is the founder's view of the problem.

Most pre-seed teams should do this themselves in a few hours a week and pay only for editing or an introduction to a trade editor.

Startup PR by stage, from pre-seed to after Series B
Startup PR by stage, from pre-seed to after Series B
  • A column by the founder on a problem they have lived with, placed in the trade media your buyers read.
  • Expert comment on sector news, offered to reporters who already cover it.
  • Answers on Featured and Qwoted, where reporters look for named sources.
  • A short note with original data. A survey of fifty buyers is enough to start.

How to get press coverage for a seed stage startup

Seed brings the first real news, usually a round and a product in customers' hands. Do not spend it all in one week.

The round and the launch can sit a month apart, and the first customer story makes a third beat later in the quarter.

Start with the trade press and newsletters that cover your vertical. Go national once there is a number a business desk cares about.

Ukrainian founders can self-publish in the community sections of big tech sites. DOU draws roughly twelve times the monthly visits of MC.today, by Semrush estimates.

Seed stage founder on a phone call beside a customer machine on a factory floor

Illustration

Copy and send

What to pitch when you announce a funding round

Reporters get round announcements every day, and the amount alone rarely makes a story.

The first lines have to say what problem the money solves and why these particular investors bet on it. Proof comes right after.

Embargo rules are in how to pitch journalists.

Funding round pitch outline

Embargo. Offered to [a short list of reporters] until [date and time]
The problem the money solves. [one sentence]
Proof we already have. [customers or pilots a reporter can print]
Why these investors. [investor quote with something specific about the market]
Ready before the first email. [founder photos] [one-paragraph company description]

What PR does a Series A startup need

At Series A the story moves from the founder to the company.

Reporters expect growth numbers they can print and an opinion about where the category is going.

This is where most startups hire their first agency, because the volume outgrows the founder's week. Retainer bands are on how much PR costs.

  • Monthly news flow and conference talks.
  • Trade case studies, plus national interviews built on your own data.
  • Counting original stories, not reprints.
  • Checking whether AI assistants name the company.

How startups build category leadership after Series B

After Series B the company has to explain its market, not only itself.

Stories now come from the company's own research and from comment on regulation, and crisis readiness joins the plan.

An in-house lead usually owns strategy while an agency runs outreach by market.

Speaker at a conference stage under soft stage light

Illustration

What should a startup never pitch to journalists

Some stories fail at every stage and cost credibility with reporters you will need later.

A reporter who gets one pitch far outside their beat tends to skip your next email, even when that one is relevant.

  • A new website or logo.
  • A partnership with no numbers and no quote from the partner.
  • An award the company paid to enter.
  • A claim to be the first or the leading anything, with nothing a reporter can check.
  • The same release resent a week later with a new subject line.

Should a startup hire a PR agency or do it themselves

StageUsually worksWhen to bring in help
Pre-seedfounder does it, a few hours a weekediting, trade editor introductions
Seedfounder plus a part-time helper or small planround and launch announcements
Series Aagency or dedicated in-house leadmonthly news flow in more than one market
Series B and laterin-house head plus agency supportresearch reports and crisis readiness

The deciding question is whether there is news every month. Pay a retainer through a quiet quarter and you mostly buy reports about activity. Pocket PR plans run month to month from $390, so you can stop for a quiet quarter.

If you run a local business rather than a venture-backed startup, read our guide to PR for small business instead. The tactics there start from your town, not from a round.

Can grants or accelerators pay for startup PR

Usually not, so plan communications from the company's own budget. Accelerators help in another way.

Many run demo days with invited press, often a young team's first media contact, so prepare a one-paragraph story and a press page beforehand.

  • Brave1 defence-tech grants in Ukraine explicitly prohibit marketing costs.
  • Ukrainian Startup Fund grants of up to $25,000 at pre-seed and $50,000 at seed cover commercialisation, but PR is not named as an eligible cost.
A founder rehearsing a demo day pitch in front of mentors
Before demo dayOne link for the pressA reporter who liked your pitch on stage should find founder photos and the company description behind one link, without having to email you first.Build a press kitIllustration

Copy and send

How to choose a startup PR firm

Fit with your stage and sector matters more than any ranking.

A firm that cannot answer the first two questions with names is selling process.

Red flags are in our guide to the best PR agencies for startups.

Four questions for a startup PR firm

1. Which companies at our stage and in our sector have you placed in the last six months, and where.
2. Which reporters on our list do you already know by name.
3. How many pitches will go out each month, and who writes them.
4. How do we cancel, and what happens to the work if we do.

What a startup PR month looks like

  1. A story map by round

    We list every announcement you can make in the next two quarters and decide which tier of press each one can carry.

  2. Embargo runs for rounds

    A funding story goes to a short list of reporters under embargo. The investor quote and founder photos are ready before the first email.

  3. Founder bylines between rounds

    Quiet months get opinion pieces and data notes, so reporters know the founder before the next big news.

A pre-seed hardware team with no news yet

Situation
A four person energy hardware startup in Kyiv had a pilot but no round, no revenue figure it could share and no coverage.
What we do
Instead of a launch release, the team wrote a founder column for a Ukrainian tech outlet on why hospitals lose power data, and offered pilot numbers to two trade editors as an exclusive.
Outcome
The column gave journalists a named expert to call, and the pilot data became the hook for the seed announcement four months later.

Illustrative example, not a client result

Where startup funding news gets read

  • TechCrunch

    funding rounds, mostly US companies at Series A and later

    news story

  • Sifted

    European startups and venture

    news and analysis

  • DOU

    Ukrainian tech community, largest reach in the segment

    news and founder columns

  • Trade press in your vertical

    the buyers of your product

    case studies and data stories

Anastasiia Bratkova portrait

Anastasiia Bratkova

Chief Brand, Marketing & Communications Officer, RSE

Signs every pitch

About Anastasiia

Questions

What founders ask before hiring PR

When should a startup hire a PR agency?

When news arrives every month and outgrows the founder's week, which for most teams is around Series A. Before that, one-off help for a round is usually enough.

How to do PR for a startup?

Pick one story you can prove and send it to reporters who covered something close this quarter. Write each pitch by hand and follow up once.

What is PR in startups?

Earning stories about the company in media your investors and future hires already read, without paying for the space.

How much does a PR agency cost for a startup?

Early-stage boutiques in the US ask $3,500 to $5,000 a month. The full market map by country and model is on our PR cost page.

Is there a free PR agency for startups?

Agencies do not work for free, but a pre-seed founder can earn coverage without one through Featured and Qwoted requests and a column in trade media. Paid help makes sense once there is news every month.

Sources

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