11 Steps to Get Your Raise in The News Without a PR Firm

You worked hard — now let’s get that TechCrunch feature!

Photo by AbsolutVision on Unsplash

After closing our round, we immediately started looking to build our team. However, hiring when you’re an unknown startup is challenging for many reasons, mainly because people have never heard of you. A quick way to increase your credibility is to have well-known news outlets cover your startup.

Press coverage is also helpful for other reasons like:

• More people knowing about you can lead to new opportunities (team members, customers, investors, etc.)
• Backlinks help with SEO
• Increases your credibility with candidates already in your pipeline

We were fortunate to have a PR firm help us with the process, but other startups can easily follow the process we used. Here’s how we did it.

1. Write a press release

The first step is writing a press release. At first, it may feel intimidating but just look at a few press releases from startups that have recently raised to get a feel for the format. Here are some example seed-stage press releases:

• Gated Launches Donation-based Email Management Solution — Raises $3.5M Seed Round