{"id":1247,"date":"2025-08-27T00:01:45","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T00:01:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gogetmuscle.com\/?p=1247"},"modified":"2025-08-28T16:23:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T16:23:07","slug":"gtm-160-the-startup-pr-playbook-every-founder-needs-how-to-nail-your-launch-get-in-the-news-and-avoid-the-biggest-pr-mistakes-jenny-he","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/gogetmuscle.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/27\/gtm-160-the-startup-pr-playbook-every-founder-needs-how-to-nail-your-launch-get-in-the-news-and-avoid-the-biggest-pr-mistakes-jenny-he\/","title":{"rendered":"GTM 160: The Startup PR Playbook Every Founder Needs: How to Nail Your Launch, Get in the News, and Avoid the Biggest PR Mistakes | Jenny He"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"height:25px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n<p>The GTM Podcast is available on any major directory, including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/in\/podcast\/gtm-160-the-startup-pr-playbook-every-founder-needs\/id1369291464?i=1000723642675\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Apple Podcasts<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/episode\/4BacavuJLMeO8iLgFWuIJE?si=itc93wgtToyF1TJHX1Dzng\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Spotify<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/28MGffS6YYI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">YouTube<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/jennyhe\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Jenny He<\/a> is the Founder and General Partner at Position Ventures, an early-stage venture fund that backs startups with strategic communications from day one. Previously, Jenny led comms at Square and has since helped hundreds of founders land coverage in top outlets like TechCrunch and Forbes. With deep expertise in positioning, storytelling, and PR, she\u2019s on a mission to help startups craft differentiated narratives that drive credibility, legitimacy, and growth.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Discussed in This Episode<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>What PR actually is (and isn\u2019t) for startups<\/li>\n<li>The difference between positioning, storytelling, and PR \u2014 and how they stack together<\/li>\n<li>When PR makes sense and when to hold back on announcements<\/li>\n<li>Step-by-step process for landing coverage in top outlets like TechCrunch or Forbes<\/li>\n<li>How to build authentic relationships with reporters before you pitch<\/li>\n<li>What makes something truly newsworthy: timeliness, impact, relevance<\/li>\n<li>Tactical advice for pitching, interviews, and amplifying coverage post-launch<\/li>\n<li>How PR fits into the broader go-to-market motion<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>Episode Highlights<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>00:00 \u2014 Positioning, storytelling, and PR defined<br \/>Watch:<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=28MGffS6YYI&amp;t=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=28MGffS6YYI&amp;t=0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>02:23 \u2014 Jenny explains what PR <em>really<\/em> is and why startups misunderstand it<br \/>Watch:<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=28MGffS6YYI&amp;t=143\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=28MGffS6YYI&amp;t=143<\/a><\/p>\n<p>06:39 \u2014 The first step before any PR push: setting clear goals<br \/>Watch:<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=28MGffS6YYI&amp;t=399\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=28MGffS6YYI&amp;t=399<\/a><\/p>\n<p>11:37 \u2014 Example of a newsworthy founder story: building an AI radiologist from personal experience<br \/>Watch:<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=28MGffS6YYI&amp;t=697\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=28MGffS6YYI&amp;t=697<\/a><\/p>\n<p>15:17 \u2014 The three elements of newsworthiness: timeliness, impact, and relevance<br \/>Watch:<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=28MGffS6YYI&amp;t=917\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=28MGffS6YYI&amp;t=917<\/a><\/p>\n<p>17:42 \u2014 Why building warm relationships with reporters is crucial<br \/>Watch:<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=28MGffS6YYI&amp;t=1062\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=28MGffS6YYI&amp;t=1062<\/a><\/p>\n<p>20:36 \u2014 Preparing for the interview itself vs. outreach<br \/>Watch:<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=28MGffS6YYI&amp;t=1236\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=28MGffS6YYI&amp;t=1236<\/a><\/p>\n<p>22:47 \u2014 Amplifying coverage through your network post-publication<br \/>Watch:<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=28MGffS6YYI&amp;t=1367\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=28MGffS6YYI&amp;t=1367<\/a><\/p>\n<p>25:07 \u2014 What PR agencies cost (and why no one can guarantee coverage)<br \/>Watch:<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=28MGffS6YYI&amp;t=1507\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=28MGffS6YYI&amp;t=1507<\/a><\/p>\n<p>29:18 \u2014 Jenny\u2019s #1 book recommendation on positioning<br \/>Watch:<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=28MGffS6YYI&amp;t=1758\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=28MGffS6YYI&amp;t=1758<\/a><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Key Takeaways<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Positioning is the North Star<\/strong><strong><br \/><\/strong>Without a clear, differentiated positioning, founders end up chasing tactics that don\u2019t stick. Nail your defensible \u201cwhy us\u201d before even thinking about pitching press.<\/li>\n<li><strong>PR is about credibility, not eyeballs<\/strong><strong><br \/><\/strong>The goal is about the right story reaching the right people at the right time. One TechCrunch hit won\u2019t save you if the positioning is weak.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Fundraising and hiring are PR\u2019s sweet spot<\/strong><strong><br \/><\/strong>Coverage in high-authority outlets makes investors and talent more confident you\u2019re a company worth betting on. It\u2019s less about customer acquisition, more about legitimacy.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Exclusives drive placement<\/strong><strong><br \/><\/strong>Reporters want scoops. Offering exclusivity dramatically increases your odds of landing the story you want.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Reporter relationships compound<\/strong><strong><br \/><\/strong>Like sales, cold outreach can work, but warm relationships make everything easier. Adding value ahead of time (through data, insights, or connections) pays dividends.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Newsworthiness has three pillars<\/strong><strong><br \/><\/strong>Timeliness, impact, and audience relevance are the litmus tests for a PR-worthy story. If you\u2019re missing one, wait until the story is stronger.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Your founder story is a differentiator<\/strong><strong><br \/><\/strong>Reporters care about why you are uniquely suited to build this company. The most compelling stories weave founder motivation directly into product and market insight.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Define success before you start<\/strong><strong><br \/><\/strong>If you don\u2019t set goals up front, you\u2019ll never know if PR \u201cworked.\u201d Judge success by the story told and sentiment created, not just by logos or clicks.<\/li>\n<li><strong>PR is top of funnel, not direct revenue<\/strong><strong><br \/><\/strong>Think of it as long-term brand building, not pipeline acceleration. It works best when combined with content, GTM, and demand gen efforts.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Sometimes the best PR strategy is silence<\/strong>Not every moment is a PR moment. Waiting until you can make a bigger splash often has more impact than a series of minor announcements.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Thanks to Our Sponsor \u2013 Clarify:<\/h3>\n<p>Clarify is the autonomous CRM built for founders and early-stage teams who want to build more pipeline, close more deals, and spend way less time on busywork.<\/p>\n<p>Clarify automatically enriches your contacts, captures leads from anywhere (even one click from LinkedIn), and keeps your pipeline up to date on its own, so you can focus on winning deals, not updating fields.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re looking to simplify your stack and help your team move faster, check out <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clarify.ai\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Clarify<\/a>.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Recommended Books<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind by Al Ries &amp; Jack Trout \u2014 Jenny\u2019s #1 recommendation for founders learning positioning fundamentals.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Referenced<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Clarify (autonomous CRM): <a href=\"https:\/\/clarify.ai\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/clarify.ai<\/a><\/li>\n<li>TechCrunch: <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/techcrunch.com<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Forbes: <a href=\"https:\/\/forbes.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/forbes.com<\/a><\/li>\n<li>\u00a0New Lantern (portfolio company example): <a href=\"https:\/\/newlantern.ai\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/newlantern.ai<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Square: <a href=\"https:\/\/squareup.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/squareup.com<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Guest Links<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>LinkedIn:<a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/jennyhe\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/jennyhe<\/a><\/li>\n<li>X (Twitter): <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/jennydhe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/x.com\/jennydhe<\/a>\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Website: <a href=\"https:\/\/positionventures.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/positionventures.com<\/a>\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Host Links<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>LinkedIn:<a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/sophiebuonassisi\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/sophiebuonassisi\/<\/a><\/li>\n<li>X (Twitter):<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/sophiebuona\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> https:\/\/x.com\/sophiebuona<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Newsletter:<a href=\"https:\/\/thegtmnewsletter.substack.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> https:\/\/thegtmnewsletter.substack.com\/<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Website:<a href=\"https:\/\/gtmnow.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> https:\/\/gtmnow.com<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Where to Find GTMnow<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>LinkedIn: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/gtmnow\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/gtmnow\/<\/a><\/li>\n<li>X (Twitter):<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/GTMnow\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> https:\/\/x.com\/GTMnow<\/a>_<\/li>\n<li>YouTube:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@GTM_now\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@GTM_now<\/a><\/li>\n<li>The GTM Podcast:<a href=\"https:\/\/gtmnow.com\/tag\/podcast\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> https:\/\/gtmnow.com\/tag\/podcast\/<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h4><strong>The GTMnow Podcast<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>The GTMnow Podcast is a weekly podcast featuring interviews with the top 1% GTM executives, VCs, and founders. Conversations reveal the unshared details behind how they have grown companies, and the go-to-market strategies responsible for shaping that<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>GTM 160 Episode Transcript<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Jenny He:\u00a0<\/strong>0:00<\/p>\n<p>Positioning is really about what is your North Star, what is the why? Storytelling, how can we make that positioning really memorable and really sticky. The RP is really more about credibility, the most important thing about how can we get the right message to the right people at the right time, and this right time thing is really really critical.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sophie Buonassisi:\u00a0<\/strong>0:41<\/p>\n<p>Before we dive in, a quick shout out to a tool that recently announced their Series A and that we\u2019ve been hearing a ton about from the GTM Fund community. It\u2019s called Clarify, the autonomous CRM built for founders and early stage teams who want to build more pipeline, close more deals and spend way less time on busy work. If you\u2019ve ever spent more time logging calls than actually selling, you\u2019ll get why they built it. Clarify automatically enriches your contacts, captures leads from anywhere, even one click from LinkedIn, and keeps your pipeline up to date on its own, so you can focus on winning deals, not updating fields. The team at SIFT swapped Salesforce for Clarify and cut their CRM admin by 90%. Imagine what you could do with all that time back. If you\u2019re looking to simplify your stack and help your team move faster, check out Clarify at clarify.ai. That\u2019s C-L-A-R-I-F-Y dot AI.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sophie Buonassisi:\u00a0<\/strong>1:30<\/p>\n<p>This episode demystifies the black box of PR for startups, one of the most common areas we hear of startups ask about at GTM Fund. Jenny Hayes, the founder and general partner at Position Ventures, a VC firm that helps early stage startups craft strategic comms from day one. She has a rich background in PR, including leading comms at Square, and has helped hundreds of startups land press releases in their dream outlets. She breaks down step-by-step how to successfully get placed in top outlets like TechCrunch and Forbes. You\u2019ll learn when PR makes sense and when it doesn\u2019t, how to build relationships with reporters, how to craft newsworthy narratives and how to avoid the most common mistakes founders make around press releases. All right, let\u2019s get into it, jenny. Welcome to the podcast. Thank you, how fun, super happy to have you here. And before we dive in to strategy and tactics, I want to clear something up. What is PR really and why is it such a black box for startups?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jenny He:\u00a0<\/strong>2:23<\/p>\n<p>Oh, that\u2019s a really good question and I don\u2019t know if everyone can answer this correctly, but PR is actually about managing the spread of information between you or your company, and the public or your audience. So notice, I didn\u2019t say we\u2019re a publicist or a growth hacker, like the goal isn\u2019t to get as many eyeballs as possible, necessarily. It\u2019s about getting the right eyeballs on the right message at the right time.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sophie Buonassisi:\u00a0<\/strong>2:51<\/p>\n<p>Great definition, super helpful and, yeah, really interesting to note it\u2019s not actually about publicists and what should people do PR around? And I know these are simple questions, but they\u2019re helpful. Just to even take a step back what is it good for? What is it not good for?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jenny He:\u00a0<\/strong>3:04<\/p>\n<p>but they\u2019re helpful, just to even take a step back. What is it good for? What is it not good for? Pr is really good for someone who\u2019s looking to build a brand, build legitimacy, build like trust with the customer. I think it\u2019s really good for attracting great talent to want to come work here. It\u2019s good for business development, partnerships, company morale, changing public perception. These are all things that PR is really good for because you have this almost third-party validation of all the things that you\u2019re saying in your marketing. But in terms of what it\u2019s not really good for, I would say it\u2019s generally not a replacement for your sales team or anything like that and at the end of the day, we can bring all the eyeballs onto the product, but the product has to work for you to retain.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sophie Buonassisi:\u00a0<\/strong>3:45<\/p>\n<p>And how do you really differentiate between positioning, storytelling, pr, all the things that get tossed around at the same time, and how do they maybe stack up together if they do?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jenny He:\u00a0<\/strong>3:59<\/p>\n<p>Yeah, a lot of people kind of mush them together. Where people might mush positioning, communications, pr, branding, social media, content marketing altogether. But I would say that positioning is really about what is your North Star, what is the why? Who is this for? What is this problem and what problem does it solve? What is your unique and defensible position in the market?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jenny He:\u00a0<\/strong>4:26<\/p>\n<p>Whereas storytelling is more about how can we make that positioning really memorable and really sticky and almost figure out how can we tell these stories to evoke almost like an emotional or human element to it. What are the narrative arcs, how can we grab people\u2019s attention, how can we help people remember you and your company and your positioning? And then, finally, I think the PR piece is really more about credibility, because the difference between like PR and like content marketing is like you can write your own blog post, which is great. We can talk about how great we are and how great our company is. But this third party, validation of a trusted source, kind of talking about you and telling your story for you, that\u2019s PR. There\u2019s a joke where if you\u2019re at a party and someone else is saying, oh, this person is like the best person at this thing, that\u2019s kind of PR, someone else trying to tell the story.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jenny He:\u00a0<\/strong>5:23<\/p>\n<p>There are a lot of AI companies. A lot of them are working in very similar spaces. A lot of the messaging might look similar, their websites might look similar, your sales materials might look similar. People start thinking about how do we stand out? How can we come to this? Really? A trusted third party talk about how you guys are the market leader or the best solution for this product. So if you\u2019re selling an enterprise, for example, like maybe the enterprise wants to buy the product that they\u2019ve read about from various news sources versus a company that you Google it and can\u2019t really find anything outside of their own content, marketing and blog post.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sophie Buonassisi:\u00a0<\/strong>6:07<\/p>\n<p>For sure. Yeah, it gives it that authority and credibility to be able to make a conscious, confident decision. Okay, I want to get hypothetical here. Jenny, you advise a ton of startup companies on PR, naturally in your portfolio. Let\u2019s say, startup just raised a seed or series A and they want to announce it TechCrunch, forbes, whichever outlet they\u2019re prioritizing. What\u2019s step one? Where do you get started?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jenny He:\u00a0<\/strong>6:39<\/p>\n<p>Yeah. So step one is always what are your goals? If folks want to go out there with, like, a big announcement, we really want to figure out what is the goal of that announcement, because people have really different goals. Sometimes we\u2019ll work with the founder and their goal is we want to hire the very best ML engineers. Or maybe a founder already has a product with product market fit and their goal is to just get more people talking about their product because they\u2019re trying to sell more product. Or maybe, like, the company is trying to figure out hey, we\u2019re doing great, the product is selling itself, but like, we want to position ourselves in a place of, like strength and power and get people really excited about the company because we want to go out and do a really big fundraise. So all these things have different goals and there\u2019s different communication strategies to help optimize for those goals, right? So if you\u2019re trying to hire the very best engineering talent, maybe it\u2019s more helpful to dive deeper into what makes your technology really exciting, and there\u2019s certain publications that are better for that, whereas if your product is selling to, I don\u2019t know, let\u2019s say, dentists, maybe TechCrunch or Forbes, it\u2019s not quite where your customer is spending a lot of time.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jenny He:\u00a0<\/strong>7:56<\/p>\n<p>So there\u2019s a lot of different strategies that we can work with the founders on and prioritize depending on what their ultimate goals are.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jenny He:\u00a0<\/strong>8:06<\/p>\n<p>But I also think there\u2019s an interesting there\u2019s an interesting dichotomy where, like, a lot of people come to us and are really excited to do the PR, but you have to think about what do we need right now and what\u2019s strategic right now, like once in a while, depending on the product and the company and their goals, the best strategy is actually we should probably say nothing for a little while until we have all these other things and we can like come out from like a position of strength. So there\u2019s a lot of different ways to look at it. I think the most important thing about, like again, what we do, if with like strategic communications and PR, is how can we get the right message to the right people at the right time. And this right time thing is really really critical, where maybe we could sit on this news for a little while for to have it aligned with this other time. That makes more sense and could be a bigger splash align with this other time.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sophie Buonassisi:\u00a0<\/strong>9:05<\/p>\n<p>that makes more sense and could be a bigger splash Gotcha. So one of the most frequent things that we get asked and overall I\u2019d say our network gets asked is around wanting to get placed for recruiting purposes and for future investor and fundraising purposes. And it\u2019s your usual publications TechCrunch, forbes. I\u2019d say those are the two most dominant, and then there\u2019s some kind of secondary, more niche ones that are prioritized. But I\u2019m curious your perspective around those two use cases for large publications like TechCrunch or Forbes.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jenny He:\u00a0<\/strong>9:41<\/p>\n<p>Yeah, I think those are like excellent reasons for people to want to have a communication strategy. I think for fundraising and hiring, they\u2019re both use cases where it\u2019s really important to have that third party validation. I think it\u2019s one thing to claim that you\u2019re the best company to work at. It\u2019s quite another where people can read about their news, do their own homework, look into the actual company, do research, and I think people kind of underestimate how many people want to be able to read about a company, send it to their mom and feel really confident that this is a legitimate company with good runway that\u2019s going to be successful, and I think that\u2019s one way to stand out.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sophie Buonassisi:\u00a0<\/strong>10:22<\/p>\n<p>So let\u2019s say they\u2019ve raised, let\u2019s say, a seed round. They want to announce it, want to come out of stealth, but predominantly to help with the hiring front and help with future fundraising front. They\u2019ve set their goals. They know those are their goals. What\u2019s the next step?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jenny He:\u00a0<\/strong>10:40<\/p>\n<p>So for hiring and fundraising. A lot of tech and business media in general is really helpful. A lot of tech and business media in general is really helpful, unless there\u2019s in a specific field where it might make sense to go more niche into like specific trade publications that would be helpful for them. But in general, I think the very first step anyone should take before doing any sort of communications or like public relations is really figuring out their own North Star and their positioning. What makes you and your company really unique and defensible. So really understanding yourself, your product, your customer and the market to figure out where is there a white space for us to come in and really own this message is really helpful. A reporter and I\u2019ve already seen like a hundred companies doing the same thing Like you have to be so differentiated for us to be really excited to be writing about you. I mean, I can give you an example. So one of our portfolio companies the company is called New Lantern.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jenny He:\u00a0<\/strong>11:37<\/p>\n<p>They are building an AI radiologist and when I met this founder and I heard his story it was really hitting like a bullseye. He was his mother was actually one of the best radiologists in America, according to all these like industry awards. And then during COVID, he literally was stuck in their basement working like at a desk right next to his mom and watching her do work and watching that workflow and realizing, hey, she\u2019s like the number one radiologist in America and this is, these are the tools that you\u2019re using. This is crazy. You could be using your time in much more productive ways. And he actually built a brand new platform and his mom was like the very first customer and they brought in like all these other radiologists on the platform and they have like a very, very I would say like I\u2019m biased, but I think they have a very, very strong leading product now. But the story of why this founder is building this thing was very, very clear.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sophie Buonassisi:\u00a0<\/strong>12:34<\/p>\n<p>Yeah, cause that\u2019s so unique to that particular founder situation.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jenny He:\u00a0<\/strong>12:39<\/p>\n<p>A lot of it is really understanding your customer. So first we need to really figure out how confident are you that this is your ICP customer? Sometimes people already have some sort of product market fit and we can work with the customers they already have. Sometimes they\u2019re really early. They have a hypothesis. This is maybe the customer we\u2019re trying to reach. We think this is the messaging that resonates with them. But, like, once you have your ICP customer ideally a lot of them we want to be able to figure out how can we communicate the positioning of your product in the words through the lens of your customer, right? So your customer probably knows you really well if they\u2019re happy customers of exactly what pain points you\u2019re solving for them and how can we position your business to explain that to other potential potential customers. That fits within your icp group got it once you have your north star in your positioning and you\u2019re really confident. This is what makes us unique and differentiated like.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jenny He:\u00a0<\/strong>13:39<\/p>\n<p>The next step is figuring out what is the news, what is this news moment that we\u2019re excited to share right now, because there could be a lot of different things going on, but what is this particular story you want to tell? And that could be a fundraising announcement, it could be a new hire, it could be a big customer, it could be a new partnership. But whatever is newsworthy is going to anchor the story and announcement, and there\u2019s a couple things that makes things newsworthy, like the very. The most important thing is it has to be timely. What is happening right now? And why do we have to write about the story right now? Because sometimes we might have an announcement that isn\u2019t nice to have, like maybe you could write it now or in two weeks from now and it wouldn\u2019t really make a difference. But the more we could put behind the announcement, the better. So the timely minutes is really important.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jenny He:\u00a0<\/strong>14:30<\/p>\n<p>Impact is really important, right? So if it\u2019s like impacting a lot of people, a lot of customers, if it\u2019s impacting an entire space in a certain way because of this product, that\u2019s important. The relevance to the audience is also really important. So this comes back to like first, we need to decide what audience we want to talk to, based on the goals, but is this really relevant to that audience? And how do we tailor the story to be relevant to this audience so they\u2019re really excited about it? And then just thinking about what could make this prominent and newsworthy, right, whether it\u2019s a really big name that we\u2019re working with or like a big announcement, a big fundraise, like whatever we can to make this newsworthy, is going to help you be more successful in doing your PR.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sophie Buonassisi:\u00a0<\/strong>15:17<\/p>\n<p>So the core components of something being newsworthy primarily, it sounds like, would be timeliness, impact and relevance to audience. Yeah, yeah.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jenny He:\u00a0<\/strong>15:26<\/p>\n<p>Those are all really important.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sophie Buonassisi:\u00a0<\/strong>15:28<\/p>\n<p>Super tactical and helpful.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jenny He:\u00a0<\/strong>15:29<\/p>\n<p>I love it. You\u2019ve identified that audience that you\u2019re trying to reach and then it\u2019s really figuring out. Okay, this is the audience, this is the story, how do we reach them? And, depending on your audience, your audience hangs out or reads different things, right, so they hang out in different places. They might be at certain conferences or listen to certain podcasts or read certain news outlets. So, based on that, trying to figure out how can we meet our customer where they are and from there, just trying to figure out, these are the best outlets that would make sense to tell these stories because it\u2019s really relevant to their audience, it\u2019s impactful, it\u2019s timely, all the things line up. And then it\u2019s really about going out there pitching your story. So you have your press release or blog post already, you\u2019ve done your homework and just pitching the story and sharing, about sharing the news and why it\u2019s relevant to that audience and is really impactful and timely.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sophie Buonassisi:\u00a0<\/strong>16:24<\/p>\n<p>Got it Okay. So figure out where your audience lives, and that sounds like wherever they live is where I want to pitch right. So if they\u2019re really niche industrial, I want to pitch a unique industrial outlet.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jenny He:\u00a0<\/strong>16:37<\/p>\n<p>Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it depends on your goal. If you\u2019re trying to reach that customer, if you\u2019re trying to fundraise, then maybe, like general tech and business outlets, would work for this fundraising goal.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sophie Buonassisi:\u00a0<\/strong>16:46<\/p>\n<p>Would a startup have to pitch an exclusive to those?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jenny He:\u00a0<\/strong>16:49<\/p>\n<p>outlets. I think it depends on the story and the reporters you want to work with. There are a lot of reporters who, like only want to do exclusives, right. So really knowing your audience, just like probably any other, like sales cycle, right, really knowing your audience, understanding what they want and giving them what they want, making their life really easy. So if you\u2019ve done your research and they only want exclusive, that makes your life easy, whereas sometimes there\u2019s like very large round that everyone\u2019s excited about and they might want to be in several publications.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sophie Buonassisi:\u00a0<\/strong>17:17<\/p>\n<p>And then what does that actual outreach process?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jenny He:\u00a0<\/strong>17:20<\/p>\n<p>look like Kind of the reporters reporting in your space and hopefully have already been able to get to know them and offer value to them before. So a lot of people actually don\u2019t think of this ahead of time. So the first time they pitch them that might be the first time, which not to say it\u2019s not possible, but it\u2019s always better to have a warm relationship, right.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jenny He:\u00a0<\/strong>17:42<\/p>\n<p>So if you\u2019ve already followed their writing and you\u2019re like, hey, I\u2019m really excited and interested in what you\u2019re doing. I can add a lot of value to in these different places. We have data, we have customers, we have whatever you can do to be a resource I think is really helpful. So in the ideal world you could already have built that relationship and have been really helpful. So when you have some news that you think is really relevant to their audience and would be of interest to them, they already have that warm relationship with you. We understand everyone\u2019s busy building their company, so not everyone you know has done that, but if you can, that is better.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sophie Buonassisi:\u00a0<\/strong>18:18<\/p>\n<p>Yeah, always better to have a warm relationship for any kind of outreach. What kind of value could a startup provide to a reporter?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jenny He:\u00a0<\/strong>18:25<\/p>\n<p>So it depends. Some reporters are on X and social media and things like that and sometimes they\u2019ll actually ask for certain things. So if they\u2019re asking for a certain thing and you\u2019re able to help connect them with whatever they\u2019re looking for, that always helps. But I think it\u2019s really about understanding their audience and understanding what they would be interested in, because we only want to offer value. Like you never want to be in a situation where you\u2019re constantly offering not valuable things. Yeah, that\u2019s probably a good way to burn a relationship right. So really doing your homework, understanding what people want and then trying to be helpful that takes work right. Like I\u2019ll sit down with the founder and be like tell me everything from the day you were born until now and why you have to be building this particular company. We\u2019re trying to figure out what the story is.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sophie Buonassisi:\u00a0<\/strong>19:18<\/p>\n<p>I love how it all boils down to story at the end of the day. Okay, so whether it\u2019s warm or cold, we\u2019re at the outreach stage. Any tips around that outreach? Any kind of tactical nuggets that a startup should know?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jenny He:\u00a0<\/strong>19:34<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s really about figuring out how can we make this newsworthy? How can I get someone excited to read it? Just like I want to be excited to click on a headline and read the story, your pitch has to be something that makes me excited to open this email right. So this comes back to what is the story? What makes it different and unique? How is it impactful? How is it prominent? How is it timely?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sophie Buonassisi:\u00a0<\/strong>19:57<\/p>\n<p>Yeah, Okay. And say someone responds whether it\u2019s an exclusive, not an exclusive, what should a founder expect in that response?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jenny He:\u00a0<\/strong>20:07<\/p>\n<p>Yeah, I mean, if someone\u2019s like interested in learning more about the story, you might hop on a call and they might ask you some questions to learn more, and that\u2019s great because they want to learn more and write like a thorough, deep story about you and the company. So really figuring out what are the stories and talking points and things you want to hit when you have that conversation is also really important yes, very true, that\u2019s a good call out because it\u2019s super different than the actual outreach itself.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sophie Buonassisi:\u00a0<\/strong>20:36<\/p>\n<p>The outreach is one, it\u2019s more of a condensed, shorter part. And then the interview prep is another area of its own right, and just because you get an interview yeah, you want to be prepared.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jenny He:\u00a0<\/strong>20:47<\/p>\n<p>Sorry.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sophie Buonassisi:\u00a0<\/strong>20:48<\/p>\n<p>No, go for it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jenny He:\u00a0<\/strong>20:49<\/p>\n<p>To understand, like hear all the different anecdotes and stories and, um, maybe you could have like some third party experts kind of like weighing in to like make this like a really rich and compelling story.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sophie Buonassisi:\u00a0<\/strong>21:04<\/p>\n<p>No, that definitely makes sense. I\u2019ve heard a lot of folks advising around, offering testimonials, offering external third parties to weigh in on quotes, whether it\u2019s customers, investors so I know that for us, that\u2019s always a strategy that we employ.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jenny He:\u00a0<\/strong>21:20<\/p>\n<p>Yeah, no for sure. I think the more meat on the bone we can get to the story, the better. So we want to do all that work up front and be able to offer this all in like a nice, neat package and just be like really prepared and thoughtful about why this is genuinely interesting to that audience and just because you get an interview does not mean that they will publish a piece, correct? Yeah, that\u2019s right I, it\u2019s like the story has to be there.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sophie Buonassisi:\u00a0<\/strong>21:53<\/p>\n<p>Yeah, Usually you get a feel on the interview itself from the actual interviewer and they\u2019ll start using language that refers to when it\u2019s published and you kind of get a sense. But I have heard that it\u2019s not always the case and to be mentally prepared for that too. And so they\u2019ve had the interview, the startups had the interview. Let\u2019s say they nailed it. Hopefully they nail it. What\u2019s the next stage look like after the interview itself and how do you help prepare?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jenny He:\u00a0<\/strong>22:19<\/p>\n<p>founders. Well, hopefully, hopefully they nailed it and it\u2019s a story that the reporter is really excited about. Next is like trying to figure out if there\u2019s any anything you can do to help follow up. If there\u2019s any missing pieces that they might want and you\u2019ll probably talk about this during the interview, right, they might be like, oh, can we connect with this person or get this data or see this report so they might ask for a couple things. So, being really timely on that and getting them what they need as fast as possible is good, and then just trying to figure out what timing works.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jenny He:\u00a0<\/strong>22:47<\/p>\n<p>Ideally, if you\u2019re flexible, like you kind of work with the reporter and their timeline, be more flexible about when the story is going to go out. And I think another piece is like trying to figure out how can we amplify the story once it comes out, which is something like people maybe don\u2019t think about. Like maybe we\u2019ve agreed, this is the embargo date, the story is going to come out this day. How can we get as many people talking about it as possible? And that could be like you, the founder, reaching out to your network, your investors, the employees, like everyone being like, hey, this is something we\u2019re excited about. We\u2019d love if you could read it or share it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sophie Buonassisi:\u00a0<\/strong>23:20<\/p>\n<p>Definitely activating that network. I was just chatting with a company yesterday and we\u2019re planning a launch for them and they asked me about influencers and leveraging them for their launch. Do you have any thoughts and opinions around influencers specifically and folks that are less attuned with your product, especially if you\u2019re coming out of stealth but have a great reach to your potential customers or whatever goal that you land on?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jenny He:\u00a0<\/strong>23:44<\/p>\n<p>Something really important is they have to be very educated about your product because you don\u2019t want someone who\u2019s not really sure what you\u2019re doing talking about your product.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sophie Buonassisi:\u00a0<\/strong>23:53<\/p>\n<p>People see through it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jenny He:\u00a0<\/strong>23:55<\/p>\n<p>Right. So we definitely want that to be an authentic relationship, if that\u2019s what you decide to do. But yeah, we\u2019ve worked with companies where we\u2019ll do an announcement and maybe there\u2019s a lot of very relevant technical AI influencers in the space that genuinely love your product and want to kind of talk about it and share it. I think that\u2019s great, but it has to come from a genuine place.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sophie Buonassisi:\u00a0<\/strong>24:18<\/p>\n<p>Yeah, yeah, and that\u2019s, I think, part of the issue when you\u2019re coming into stealth is you\u2019ve got your design partners, you\u2019ve got your early companies and customers, but a lot of these influencers don\u2019t know you. It would be a monetary exchange, a very transactional one.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jenny He:\u00a0<\/strong>24:36<\/p>\n<p>If you have a truly interesting technology that people are excited about, we\u2019ve seen very notable influencers just proactively, from a pure interest perspective, just share it and that\u2019s been very influential because that\u2019s probably the most honest and genuine feedback. What about from a price?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sophie Buonassisi:\u00a0<\/strong>24:54<\/p>\n<p>point perspective, let\u2019s say they don\u2019t want to do it themselves. You know, company isn\u2019t lucky enough to be working with a partner like yourself that\u2019s super specialized in PR, so you might be looking to more of a contractor agency option.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jenny He:\u00a0<\/strong>25:07<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve seen it across the board. I\u2019ve worked with all sorts of consultants agencies and folks over the years. I\u2019ve seen it across the board. I\u2019ve worked with all sorts of consultants agencies and folks over the years. I would say it could be anywhere from depending on what you\u2019re looking for and how many hours they want to commit and where you\u2019re based. All these things factor into the price, but it could be anywhere from a couple thousand dollars to tens and thousands of dollars a month. To really clear right like you could pay tens of thousands of dollars a month for a retainer but no one can guarantee coverage, right. Everything like like a tech ranch or whatever is doing like it\u2019s editorial what\u2019s something that you wish?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sophie Buonassisi:\u00a0<\/strong>25:44<\/p>\n<p>more founders believed about going to press. Maybe they knew or believed about going to press.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jenny He:\u00a0<\/strong>25:53<\/p>\n<p>I think a lot of it is about storytelling. I think sometimes everyone\u2019s so, I don\u2019t know practical and focused on executing. But sometimes we have to take a step back and really figure out what is the story, what are the human elements to this and what makes this interesting.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sophie Buonassisi:\u00a0<\/strong>26:15<\/p>\n<p>And how should founders think about PR as part of their broader go-to-market motion?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jenny He:\u00a0<\/strong>26:22<\/p>\n<p>Oh, that\u2019s a great question. So this is where everyone kind of sometimes will bucket PR and marketing, go-to-market like all in the same bucket, social media, all in the same bucket, and they don\u2019t realize there\u2019s actually a different agency for each of those things If you actually wanted to outsource those functions. So they\u2019re so different and it depends on what you want to double down on in your business. So there are some founders who decide PR is like really important, we\u2019re going to double down that. Some people want to double down on their go-to-market motion. Some people want to do social media. Some people want to do content. Like figuring out what works for your business and is the best bang for your buck. I think is like really important Cause, like, as you understand your customer, as you understand what\u2019s working to reach them, you should probably invest more time and resources in that particular vertical.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sophie Buonassisi:\u00a0<\/strong>27:10<\/p>\n<p>You should probably invest more time and resources in that particular vertical. So let\u2019s say we went through the whole process that you showed us. We\u2019re now at the end, it\u2019s launched. It was a huge success, or I guess. How do we?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jenny He:\u00a0<\/strong>27:21<\/p>\n<p>define that success. So I think success should be defined before you start, right? This goes back to our goal setting. Like you don\u2019t want to be in a situation where you\u2019re like we this, but was this successful? You should know these were the goals and a lot of it is around. This is the story we want to tell to this audience and this is the messaging, the story and the sentiment. Right? I think a miss is sometimes people are so focused on the publication that they forget about hey, what matters is like what story they\u2019re telling. So I think if you have like very clear stories, soundbites, sentiments that you want come across in that story and you see those as the end result, then that\u2019s success, brilliant.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jenny He:\u00a0<\/strong>28:18<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s one widely held PR belief that you think is bullshit or not really serving us anymore? You know everything going on with social media and being able to create content and going direct. I think there\u2019s some merit to that. You\u2019re like I think it\u2019s great if you can create content and go direct and all these things, but there\u2019s like third party validation of trusted long standing outlets and sources and reporters. I think it still matters, but again, I think it depends on how you want to reach your customer and what you want to embrace. I\u2019ve seen startups very successfully decide they want to do everything on social media and it works for them. But it depends on your customer, who you\u2019re selling to and if you\u2019re able to reach your customer there.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sophie Buonassisi:\u00a0<\/strong>29:04<\/p>\n<p>Incredible. And, jenny, are there any books that you found particularly helpful throughout your career that you\u2019d recommend to any founder or overall operator or investor listening?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jenny He:\u00a0<\/strong>29:18<\/p>\n<p>Oh, the number one book everyone should read I tell all my founders to read it is Positioning the Battle for your Mind. So this is. It\u2019s an old book, it\u2019s almost 20 years old but it\u2019s like the you know, 101 in all things, positioning and probably your go-to book until I write my positioning book.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sophie Buonassisi:\u00a0<\/strong>29:35<\/p>\n<p>You heard it here first, everyone, and I think we\u2019ll be one of the first to support it when you do go live. So let us know. If ever you are writing the book, oh, absolutely, I\u2019ll send you a case, please do, please do. We\u2019ll get it on the bookshelf. And overall, where can people find you, jenny?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jenny He:\u00a0<\/strong>29:51<\/p>\n<p>Please do, please do Get it on the bookshelf. And, overall, where can people find you, jenny? Yeah, so we\u2019re at positionventurescom so you could learn more about us and the firm and what we\u2019re investing in these days. And if we can be helpful, feel free to reach out, thank you.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sophie Buonassisi:\u00a0<\/strong>30:00<\/p>\n<p>Thank you, that\u2019s great. We\u2019ll drop it in the show notes and I know we did a little bit of a recap at the beginning, but would you mind just sharing for everyone a quick kind of note on Position Ventures. What are you focused on? What\u2019s helpful?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jenny He:\u00a0<\/strong>30:15<\/p>\n<p>What kind of founders should be keeping an eye on position and how are you helping? Yeah, so Position Ventures is an early stage venture fund. We invest at pre-seed seed and our goal is to be really helpful collaborative partners. So we write small checks from $100,000 to $500,000. And our goal is to really be almost like a super angel on your cap table to help with all things positioning and communications.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sophie Buonassisi:\u00a0<\/strong>30:35<\/p>\n<p>Well, it\u2019s something that we see all the time on our side at GPDM Fund is the importance of positioning, the importance of PR, so I can imagine that that is incredibly valuable strategic capital on the cap table. Love what you\u2019re working on and thank you for sharing it here with the audience. To Capital on the cap table. Love what you\u2019re working on and thank you for sharing it here with the audience.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jenny He:\u00a0<\/strong>30:50<\/p>\n<p>Thank you, sophie, this was fun you bet.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sophie Buonassisi:\u00a0<\/strong>30:51<\/p>\n<p>Thank you to all our listeners and we will catch you next week.<\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/gtmnow.com\/gtm-160-startup-pr-playbook-launch-news-avoid-mistakes-jenny-he\/\">GTM 160: The Startup PR Playbook Every Founder Needs: How to Nail Your Launch, Get in the News, and Avoid the Biggest PR Mistakes | Jenny He<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/gtmnow.com\">GTMnow<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The GTM Podcast is available on any major directory, including: Apple Podcasts Spotify YouTube Jenny He is the Founder and General Partner at Position Ventures, an early-stage venture fund that backs startups with strategic communications from day one. Previously, Jenny led comms at Square and has since helped hundreds of founders land coverage in top [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":287,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/gogetmuscle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1247"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/gogetmuscle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/gogetmuscle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gogetmuscle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gogetmuscle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1247"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/gogetmuscle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1247\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1248,"href":"http:\/\/gogetmuscle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1247\/revisions\/1248"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gogetmuscle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gogetmuscle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gogetmuscle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gogetmuscle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}