Emilie Gerber on Startup PR, Getting Press, and the Pitch Playbook

Emilie Gerber on Startup PR, Getting Press, and the Pitch Playbook

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Emilie Gerber on Startup PR, Getting Press, and the Pitch Playbook

Source: Lenny’s Podcast Speaker: Emilie Gerber Date: ~2023–24 Link: Episode

Emilie Gerber is the founder and CEO of Six Eastern, a PR agency working with over 100 tech companies from stealth to public. Previously she led PR at Uber (business development, B2B) and Box (product comms). This episode is a dense tactical walkthrough of startup PR: which publications to target, how to pitch reporters, when press actually matters for growth, and why most companies do it wrong.

Key ideas

  1. PR value is mostly second-order for B2B. Press rarely drives direct signups for B2B companies. Its real value is third-party validation: logos on your website and in sales emails, content in article form that buyers read more willingly than your own copy, and credibility signals for recruiting. A CNBC or Fast Company logo is worth more as a signal in an AE’s outbound email than the article ever drove traffic. For B2C with low-friction products (Perplexity is the benchmark), press can drive first-order growth directly — but only when the product is immediately graspable and easy to try.

  2. Publication-by-publication targeting. TechCrunch: funding stories, some product news, no paywall, actually drives traffic; avoid for health tech and MarTech. Axios: deals-focused only — funding, monetary partnerships, acquisitions; never pitch product stories; strong FinTech/healthcare beat reporters; growing local editions. Business Insider: pitch-deck stories for funding, entrepreneur-journey metrics pieces, list submissions (very open). VentureBeat: AI news, consistently strong. Fast Company: future of work, design, media; loves op-eds with leadership advice. Forbes: awards (FinTech 50, AI 50, Under 30), contributor network is lower-bar. WSJ/NYT: require on-the-record valuations and revenue; only realistic once you’re at scale.

  3. Cold outreach beats warm intros. Reporters do not cover based on relationships — editorial decisions are not made as favours. What a relationship gets you is an open and a reply; not coverage. Cold outreach done well is equally effective. The highest-performing pitches are three sentences maximum: one on what you want (“offering this to you as an exclusive”), one on the news (amount raised + investors, or the core hook), one on the angle. Reference an incumbent the reporter knows: “taking on Zapier/Salesforce/Bill.com” works far better than category-creation language (“first-of-its-kind all-in-one workflow automation”). Follow up with new information or a reference to their recent work; space follow-ups three to four days apart. Offer exclusives — never double-pitch the same story simultaneously.

  4. Don’t create new categories in PR pitches. Category-creation language (“first-of-its-kind,” “revolutionary new category of software”) does not land with reporters — it signals marketing-speak and tells them nothing. Pattern matching on a known incumbent works every time: RAMP’s bill-pay launch became a CNBC story by framing it as “taking on Bill.com.” Reporters need a reference point; giving them one is the fastest route to a yes.

  5. Blogs beat press releases for startups. Press releases require formulaic marketing-speak, are not read by reporters proactively (they don’t scan news wires), and don’t live usefully on your website. A blog post written in first-person by a founder or product lead contains all the same information, can be shared on social, lives on your domain, and signals a more modern company. Press releases are only justified for public companies’ earnings calls and regulatory-required announcements. One-off press engagement (a funding story) can be scoped as a project for $10–20k; ongoing agency retainers start at $10k/month for boutique, $15–30k is a typical range for series A–C.

Context

The Clockwise/Shopify example (op-ed critiquing Shopify’s meeting-cost calculator) is a direct illustration of the contrarian pitch principle: finding the critical angle on a well-covered story and turning it into a Fast Company piece. The RAMP/Bill.com framing is the clearest worked example of the incumbent-reference principle in action.

Emilie’s dismissal of category creation in the PR context is an interesting counterpoint to Christopher Lochhead on Category Design, the Better Trap, and Languaging — Lochhead advocates strongly for category creation as a strategic frame, while Emilie argues it is actively harmful in PR pitches.