Public Relations - Secrets From the Inside

"PR firms aren’t all bad, and PR is important. This brings me to my key recommendation. Hire an in-house PR specialist, manager, director, whatever you want to call this person." - Kevin Leu, VentureBeat

You founded a company, built a team, and convinced others to invest their hard earned money into your business; but, you cannot do your own PR or speak directly with journalists. Wait? What? Why not? I say, “bullshit!”

It is absolutely absurd how many founders, CEOs, CMOs and/or tech geniuses still accept this archaic principal. Just curious, did you go meet with your travel agent before your last trip, or did you jump on Kayak and do it yourself?

It’s time to bring your PR “In House.” Let’s set the stage with a few facts even a PR “Professionals” cannot dispute:

• Relationships with journalists, both traditional journalists and bloggers, are some of the most valuable assets a young growing company can have,

• Quality and consistent press comes from solid relationships with journalists,

• Journalists LOVE hearing directly from startups and their founders

• No one will ever be able to pitch (sell) your company as well as you can.

“Handle your own public relations in the beginning.  [Journalists] don’t want to talk to a public relations representative -- they want to talk to you!  They are much more interested in speaking with founders than a PR firm because they want to hear your story just as much as they want to hear about your actual startup.” - Jonathan Long, Entrepreneur

You would never outsource your traditional sales to a third party, so why would you ever want to outsource your PR?

If you are anything like me, you are probably wondering who I am and what qualifies me to advise you on your PR strategy. I have been a “startup guy” my entire life - I know this world well.  I founded my first company as a sophomore in college in the late 90’s. Goldman Sachs, while it would have made my mom much more comfortable, wasn’t for me.

A few years ago I was officially “fun-employed” for the very first time - that is what I call post-exit unemployment. I had money in the bank and no responsibilities. I had just returned from Patagonia and before I knew it I was offered the role of COO at a successful, growing international Tech PR Agency out of London. Their niche - tech startups and venture capital funds. It sounded awesome - and it was!    

We had clients all over the world…India, Israel, London, New York, San Francisco… The list read like the stamps on a globetrotters passport.  My initial training was flying around the world with the CEO, listening to her pitch startups, talk about all the amazing relationships she had at the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, FT, etc…And it was all true. She did. But what I quickly realized is she spent all her time pitching new clients and schmoozing with potential ones. Her job was business development, not PR.  

The real work was being done back in one of our multiple offices. There was never any talk of these folks, and for a very good reason. They were all recent college grads, zero to two years of experience, with no real relationships to speak of. So how did they deliver solid results on a consistent basis? Email, twitter and the good old phone. All tools you likely have in your pocket.  

They also had a simple process, and one rule.  

Process: 1) Introduce, 2) Pitch, 3) Repeat.  

Rule: Never pitch a journalist you had not introduced yourself to.  

I used to think to myself…Holy crap!  Is it really this simple?  Why don’t companies do this on their own?  

This question took a while to fully understand the answer to, and I could write an entire article on how the PR industry has survived - unchanged - for decades. But the simple answer is we haven’t had any other quality options. There have been multiple attempts, but no one has ever truly been disruptive, which is why we started goPRit.

We built goPRit (www.goPRit.com) specifically for startups and rapidly growing businesses. If you (or anyone on your team) can commit 2-3 hours per week to PR, and a few hundred bucks per month, we can teach you the process and hand over the tools you need to implement it. We also guarantee you press coverage - or your money back.

You can check out goPRit.com, or schedule a demo of the platform here. You can meet the goPrit team at DC TechDay on October 6th

“The relationships will have long-term value to you, and the money you save can be the difference between living or dying as a company.” - Mark Cuban, Billionaire, Dallas Mavericks Owner & Shark Tank Investor

You can meet the goPrit team at DC TechDay on October 6th.