How to get press for your product: a tactical guide for founders

Executive overview

Journalists don't care about your company — they care about their readers. Getting press means understanding what a publication is trying to do for its audience, and showing how your story serves that mission.

Jason Feifer, editor-in-chief of Entrepreneur Magazine, lays out a three-step framework: prep (clarify your goal and your story), find the right person to pitch (not the editor-in-chief), and send a short, human, targeted email.

Press is an unpredictable add-on to growth, not a strategy — use it when you know exactly what it's for.

Why most pitches fail

• Journalists receive 30–50 pitches per day; most are mass blasts and get deleted immediately.
• The common mistake: treating press as a service you can order. Editors serve their audience, not you.
• A story that makes sense for one publication can be useless at another. A local hot dog truck has no business pitching Entrepreneur — it won't drive a single sale.
• Understand each publication's mission by reading it, not guessing. Fast Company (under its previous leadership) was about where business is going; Entrepreneur is about how to think through business challenges.
• Stories in Entrepreneur are never really about the founder — they're about what the audience can learn from the founder.

Step 1: Prep — know your goal and your story

• Ask: what do I need press for? Awareness of a launch, investor credibility, repositioning, reaching a new customer segment — all valid. "I deserve it" is not.
• Don't chase press before you can use it. Like fundraising, only do it when you know what it's for.
• Identify the most interesting part of your story for each outlet — different publications want different angles on the same company.
• The interesting angle is often not what you think. A butter dish founder got into Entrepreneur not for the product, but for doing her own market research at airport gates to save $10,000.
• Press releases sent over wire services are largely useless — they land on auto-aggregation pages no one reads.

Step 2: Find the right person to pitch

• Don't email the editor-in-chief. They're not the story-selection layer; they're too busy and too easy to find.
• Go to the publication's website, search for your topic or competitors, and find who's actually writing those stories.
• Look at bylines and writer bios. Staff writers say "staff"; freelancers say "contributor," "writer," or list a city.
• Freelancers are often the better target. They have to hustle for stories; their inboxes are smaller; open and response rates are much higher.
• Use competitor coverage as a map: where have similar companies been featured, and who wrote those pieces?
• For consumer products, don't default to business press. If you're selling to millennial moms, Cosmo may matter more than Entrepreneur or Fast Company.

Step 3: The pitch — short, targeted, human

• Email is the standard channel. Phone calls are unwelcome. DMs are a grey area.
• Keep it to three paragraphs maximum. Lead with the story, not the company description.
• Show in the first sentence that you've read their work. Reference something specific — don't fake it.
• The subject line and preview text must signal "this is targeted to you," not a blast. That alone separates you from 80% of the inbox.
• Lead with the story element that will resonate with their audience, not your value proposition.
• Example of a pitch that worked: a Canadian landscape painter emailed Jason referencing his specific podcast format (problem → solution structure), listed her problems and solutions as bullet points, and got booked immediately.
• Once you get a call, be open about challenges. Success stories are boring; problem-solving stories are what editors want.
• Follow writers on social media before pitching — getting them to recognise your name before your email arrives meaningfully increases open rates.

What PR agencies are — and aren't

• A good PR person's most valuable asset is active relationships with journalists, not press release distribution.
• If an agency recommends spending money on wire press releases, leave.
• If an agency guarantees coverage, leave — no one can guarantee that.
• Good PR people push back when your story isn't right for a given outlet. That's a signal they're worth hiring.
• PR makes sense when you can't invest the time, but even then, understanding how journalists think will make your interviews better.

Alternative ways to get coverage

• Become a quoted expert: Hook onto breaking news in your space. You won't be the subject, but a quote earns you an "as seen in" credit.
• Write for publications yourself: Pitch authoritative bylined articles under your own name.
• Create a data story: Commission a survey or compile your own platform data into a report. Publications will write about the report; you're automatically in the story. Zapier does this annually with its fastest-growing apps list.
• Be part of a trend story: Pitch a journalist on a broader trend in your industry and offer yourself as one example. You don't need to be the hero — you just need to be in the piece.
• The "as seen in" play: Coverage in a major outlet may reach very few readers directly, but the social proof is permanently useful in pitch decks, advertiser outreach, and your website.

Exclusives, embargoes, and negative coverage

• Don't play publications against each other in ways that feel manipulative — they will notice.
• A clean structure: offer one outlet a short embargo window, then open up to everyone else.
• You can also offer an exclusive interview with a high-profile figure while releasing the news broadly.
• Negative coverage risk tracks with the outlet's mission. Entrepreneur and Fast Company don't run takedowns — they don't serve their audience. Investigate the writer's past work before agreeing to a profile.
• Being controlling or cagey in interviews signals you have something to hide. Be vulnerable and open — it produces better stories and better relationships.

Opportunity set B

• Opportunity set A: everything asked of you. Opportunity set B: what's available to you that nobody asked for.
• Growth happens almost exclusively in set B — speaking, writing, podcasting, new responsibilities nobody assigned.
• Press itself is an opportunity set B activity: nobody asks you to pursue it, but doing it well compounds over time.