Get Your First Press Coverage

Proof required

Submit: a press list with at least 30 entries, each including publication name, journalist name, beat, and a link to one of their recent relevant articles. Include a 50-word note explaining how you decided which publications to target and how you confirmed their readers match your target customer.

What gets checked

• 30+ entries with all four fields complete — a list of publication names without journalist contacts, beats, or recent articles does not pass; the journalist name and beat are what enable personalised pitching, and the recent article link confirms the journalist still actively covers the relevant topic
• Publications are appropriate for the target audience — a list dominated by national newspapers or major tech outlets for a niche B2B product signals the founder has not done audience research; the note must explain why these specific publications were chosen relative to the target customer profile
• Recent article links are actually recent — articles from more than 18 months ago may indicate a journalist who has changed beat or publication; check LinkedIn or the publication's masthead to confirm each journalist is still at the listed outlet

Common mistakes

• Targeting publications by prestige rather than audience fit — a TechCrunch feature is aspirational but unlikely to drive sales if your customers are HR managers at mid-size companies who do not read TechCrunch; the best press is coverage that a significant fraction of your target customers will see; identify where your customers already get their industry news and target those outlets first
• Building the list from Google searches rather than existing relationships — cold outreach from a zero-relationship start has a very low conversion rate; the fastest path to coverage is through warm introductions: who in your network knows a journalist in this space? The press list should include a 'connection' column noting any warm intro path
• Listing only major outlets and ignoring newsletters and podcasts — industry-specific newsletters and podcasts often have highly engaged audiences and editors who are more accessible than journalists at major publications; a press list that ignores newsletters is missing the highest-probability coverage channels for most niches

Resources

What a verifier looks for

• Open the press list and count entries with all four fields — publication, journalist, beat, and recent article link; a list with 30 names but missing beats or article links is not usable for personalised pitching and does not pass
• Check the audience fit of the top 5 publications — ask 'why are these the publications whose readers are most likely to be your target customers?' and expect a specific answer; 'they have a lot of readers' is not audience fit; 'their weekly newsletter is read by 40,000 product managers and we target product managers at 50-500 person companies' is
• Ask about warm intros — 'do you know anyone on this list, or anyone who knows someone on it?' Warm intros increase coverage probability substantially; a founder who has not explored warm intro paths is relying entirely on cold outreach, which is the hardest path to coverage

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Proof required

Submit: (1) a screenshot or export of 20+ sent pitch emails (showing recipient, subject line, and send date), and (2) the pitch log showing reply status for each. Include the full text of the pitch you used most frequently as a template example.

What gets checked

• 20+ distinct journalists contacted with evidence — the sent-email export or screenshot must show different recipient email addresses; 20 sends to the same journalist do not pass; the pitch log must be a separate document from the sent-email evidence
• The example pitch template is personalised in structure — it must reference a specific journalist or article (even if the shared version shows a placeholder like [JOURNALIST NAME] and [THEIR ARTICLE]); a generic press release or a pitch with no personalisation signal does not pass
• Reply rate is documented honestly — even if the reply rate is 0%, the pitch log must note what happened for each contact; founders who only document the positive replies have not done the honest attribution analysis needed to improve for milestone 3

Common mistakes

• Sending the same pitch to all 20+ journalists — mass-sending is detectable by journalists and associated with low-quality PR agencies; even a minimal personalisation (referencing their most recent article in the opening line) doubles or triples reply rates; write one genuinely personalised pitch per journalist and use a template only for the body after the personalised opening
• Pitching the company or the product rather than the story — journalists cover stories that are interesting to their readers, not products that their sources want to sell; a pitch that leads with 'we are a startup that does X' is company-focused; a pitch that leads with 'your readers are worried about Y — here is new data on how companies are solving it' is story-focused
• Not following up — a single email to a journalist has a very low open rate; one polite follow-up sent 5–7 days after the first pitch (not sooner) roughly doubles the reply rate; the pitch log should include a 'follow-up sent' column

Resources

What a verifier looks for

• Open the sent-email evidence and count distinct recipient addresses — if the view shows the subject line and recipient for each email, count the unique addresses; if only a sent-count is shown, ask for a view that displays recipients
• Read the example pitch template — check whether it references a specific journalist or publication; a template with no personalisation signal ('Dear [NAME], I am writing to share our company...') has not met the pitch quality standard; ask the founder to share one fully personalised example
• Check the pitch log for follow-up activity — 'sent 5–7 days after first pitch' follow-ups roughly double reply rates; if the log shows no follow-ups, ask whether any were sent; if none were sent, note it as a factor in the reply rate result

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Proof required

Submit: (1) the URL of the published feature, (2) a screenshot of the article (showing your company as the primary subject, the publication name, and the publication date), and (3) a 150+ word reflection covering how the feature was secured, what pitching approach worked compared to what did not, and what traffic or customer acquisition resulted from the coverage.

What gets checked

• Feature URL is live and accessible — verify the URL opens to a real published article; if the article has been taken down since publication, a screenshot with the date-stamped URL bar is acceptable; a social media post about coverage is not the feature itself
• Publication has a real editorial team — check the publication's 'About' or masthead; a one-person blog, a self-published newsletter with under 1,000 subscribers, or a pay-to-play 'contributor' slot where the founder wrote their own piece does not pass as earned press coverage
• Reflection addresses what did not work — a reflection that only describes the successful pitch without discussing the 15–19 pitches that did not result in coverage has not extracted the full learning from this outcome; what patterns distinguished the pitches that got replies from those that did not?

Common mistakes

• Paying for a sponsored content slot and counting it as press coverage — paid placements (labelled 'sponsored' or 'advertorial') are advertising, not earned media; the value of press coverage comes from its editorial independence, which is absent in paid slots; if the publication offered a paid option, that is not the outcome this milestone requires
• Counting a brief mention or a product roundup as a feature — a feature means the company or story is the primary subject of the article; two sentences in a 10-product roundup is a mention, not a feature; the article should be at least 300 words primarily about you
• Not tracking the attribution from the feature — the coverage spike is temporary and usually lasts 24–72 hours; track traffic from the referral source in analytics during that window and measure how many visitors became customers; this attribution data is the evidence that press coverage is worth pursuing as a channel

Resources

What a verifier looks for

• Open the feature URL — confirm: (a) the article is primarily about the founder's company, (b) the publication has an editorial masthead, (c) the publication date is visible; ask 'is this an earned feature or a paid/sponsored slot?' — founders sometimes conflate the two
• Check the publication's editorial independence — search the publication's name and 'contributor' or 'sponsored'; publications that sell contributor slots to anyone are not earned press; ask how the founder contacted this outlet if unclear from the reflection
• Ask about the attribution result — 'what did the analytics show in the 72 hours after the feature published?' and 'how many visitors from the publication became customers?' Vague answers ('it drove some traffic') without specific numbers indicate that attribution was not set up before the feature ran

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