For startups, press coverage is a test, not a way to win customers
Pitching an unsparing outsider forces founders to sharpen what they actually believe.
speedrun.substack.com · Don't Hit the NOS Too Soon: A Founder's Guide to PRLester Chen, an investor who counsels many first-time teams getting ready to introduce their companies, keeps hearing an identical forecast. They will debut, the debut will prompt stories, those stories will draw a crowd, and the crowd will turn into buyers. Coverage, in this view, is simply taken as a marker that a business is gaining traction. Chen spends much of his time helping teams take a more practical view of media relations.
His suggestion is to use interviews mainly to check the narrative, even though coverage also brings some validation and reach.
“PR for early-stage companies is the crucible through which founders discover if others will find value in telling their story for them,” he says.
Every team carries an explanation for why it started and why the timing is right. Offering that explanation to reporters shows, in Chen's view, whether outsiders who owe the team nothing think the story is worth passing on.
That is why Chen says coverage offers “outside validation and some form of reach.” The validation does particular work inside the company, as what he calls “a forcing function that aligns founders and locks in a point of view,” meaning something that makes founders settle their story and stick with it.
To earn a story, cofounders have to settle on what they actually believe and state it plainly enough for someone else to print. If they cannot do that, they have learned something useful before they spend more time and money trying to sell it.
Questions people ask
Does press coverage actually bring a young startup customers?
Rarely at first. Early coverage tends to reach other founders, job seekers, and investors rather than buyers, and a single article does not explain pricing, onboarding, or support. Founders get more customers from direct sales, partnerships, and products people already want to share.
When should a founder talk to reporters?
When there is something concrete for a reporter to cover, usually a fundraising announcement, a public launch, or clear evidence that people are using and sticking with the product. Without one of those events, most journalists pass, no matter how interesting the idea feels to the team.
How can a founder test a story before pitching it?
Write one sentence about why the company exists and why this moment makes it possible, then test it on people who do not know you. If friends of friends, former coworkers, and skeptical customers cannot repeat it back, reporters will likely struggle with it too.