Why Startups Get PR Completely Wrong: A Strategic Guide for Marketing Directors

Recently, a startup founder approached me with this question: “When should we start doing PR? We’re almost ready to launch.” I asked: “What have you been doing for the past six months?” 

The answer was predictably familiar: “Building the product.”

This is where most startups make their first critical mistake. They think PR is something you switch on after the product is “ready.” It’s like trying to learn to swim after someone’s already thrown you in the deep end.

Why Startups Get PR Completely Wrong

Firstly, many founders slavishly copy Silicon Valley case studies. They read about how Airbnb told their story and think: “We need to do exactly that!” But they forget that the media landscape, investor mindset, and consumer behaviour in the UK and broader European markets are entirely different.

Idea #1: The Narrative Inversion Principle. Most startups tell their story backwards. They start with the solution and work backwards to the problem. But human psychology works in reverse — we connect with struggle first, then celebrate the breakthrough. The most compelling startup stories begin with the founder’s moment of frustration, not their moment of genius.

Secondly, they lead with stories about “groundbreaking technology” and “revolutionary solutions.” The people who could become their customers couldn’t care less about this. They care about whether your product solves their specific problem.

Idea #2: The Empathy Gap in Technical Storytelling. Technical founders often suffer from what I call “solution myopia” — they’re so proud of how they solved the problem that they forget to articulate why the problem mattered in the first place. The best startup PR bridges this gap by translating technical achievement into emotional relief.

Thirdly, they think PR means hiring a PR manager who’ll send out press releases about their brilliant product (and its features, naturally). Real startup PR begins with the product itself and how the founder talks about it — how they conceived it, birthed it, struggled with it, and solved problems.

Stage 0: Laying Foundations (Pre-Launch)

The biggest mistake is waiting until you have “something to talk about.” You already have something to talk about! You have a problem you’re solving and a vision of how the world should look with your product in it.

Idea #3: The Vulnerability Advantage. Counterintuitively, showing your struggles and uncertainties early on creates more authentic connection than polished success stories. Audiences trust founders who admit they don’t have all the answers yet. This vulnerability becomes a competitive moat — corporate competitors can’t replicate genuine founder authenticity.

What to do: Start telling your story from day one. Not about what you’re building, but about what pain you’re solving. Write blogs, create videos about your development journey, document the problems you encounter.

Pitfall: Wanting immediate coverage in The Times or TechCrunch. This is like showing up to your first gym session and expecting to compete in the Olympics. Start with industry-specific publications, relevant LinkedIn groups, and niche communities. Look at how authentic, slightly rough content often performs better than polished corporate messaging — there’s something compelling about genuine human connection.

Another crucial point: identify who will hate your idea. If everyone thinks your concept is wonderful, it’s probably too boring. Successful startups always irritate someone.

Stage 1: First Publications

By now you should have an MVP and initial users. Time to tell the world what you’ve built — but not how everyone else does it.

What NOT to do: Write press releases like “Startup X launches revolutionary platform Y to solve problems Z” and pitch them to every publication. You’ll get your 50 views and zero engagement.

What to do: Tell case studies. “How our client saved £15,000 monthly with our solution” or “Why we spent six months solving a problem everyone ignores.”

In English-speaking markets, “how we built this” or “what we learned” content performs exceptionally well. Publications like:

• UK: TechRound, BusinessCloud, The Drum (marketing focus)
• US: Built In, Inc., Fast Company, industry trade publications

Pitfall: Trying to say everything at once. Better to deeply explore one problem than superficially touch on ten.

Stage 2: Building Presence

You have customers, a story, and results. Time to move beyond trade publications and consider mainstream business media.

But don’t rush. Better to build quality relationships with 5–7 key journalists than blast press releases to 50 newsrooms.

Idea #4: The Editorial Calendar Synchronicity. Most startups approach media reactively, pitching whenever they have news. Smart startups work proactively — they map journalists’ editorial calendars, upcoming themes, and seasonal content needs. When your story aligns with a journalist’s planned coverage area, your pitch success rate increases by 300–400%.

What to do:

• Regularly share industry insights
• Comment on news in your sector
• Participate in expert panels and roundtables
• Appear on relevant podcasts
• Speak at industry conferences (often free if your topic is compelling)

Pitfall: Forgetting your core audience for vanity coverage. Yes, a Financial Times feature flatters the ego, but will it bring customers?

Another important consideration: many startups seek investment at this stage. PR can help or hinder here. Overly aggressive PR campaigns might put off serious investors who’ll think you spend more time on publicity than product development.

Stage 3: Scaling

If you’ve reached this stage — congratulations. Most startups don’t survive this long. You have a stable product, growing customer base, and market understanding.

Now you can consider national media, international expansion, and positioning yourself as an industry expert.

What to do:

• Shift from startup stories to industry expertise
• Participate in sector-wide discussions
• Influence agenda-setting in your niche
• Consider thought leadership opportunities

Pitfall: Believing your own PR and neglecting the product. I’ve seen startups become so enamoured with beautiful coverage they stopped listening to customers.

Budgets and Resources

PR for startups in English-speaking markets can begin with £3,000-£8,000 monthly (or $5,000-$12,000 in the US). This assumes you have someone internally dedicating at least half their time to PR efforts.

Agency vs In-house: Early stage, choose an agency — they have media relationships and market understanding. Once you understand your PR strategy, bring someone in-house.

Critical: Don’t delegate key decisions entirely to PR managers. No one cares about your business and startup like you do. PR and attention must originate from the CEO; PR professionals handle distribution and execution. You don’t have the budget to hire a top-tier PR manager and “set and forget” — trust me on this.

Measuring Effectiveness

Forget publication counts. Focus on traffic quality and business impact.

Idea #5: The Attribution Paradox. The best PR impact is often invisible in your analytics. When someone reads about your startup in TechCrunch, they don’t immediately click through — they Google your company name three weeks later when they actually need your solution. Most founders drastically undervalue PR because they’re measuring it like direct marketing.

What to track:

• Brand awareness among target audience (organic branded traffic, referral traffic in analytics)
• Brand mentions in industry conversations
• Quality of PR-driven traffic
• Impact on sales funnel through assisted conversions, not just last-click attribution
• Context mentions alongside industry trends
• Share of voice in industry discussions vs competitors

Idea #6: The Context Amplification Effect. The most valuable PR metric isn’t how often you’re mentioned — it’s how often you’re mentioned in the right context. Being quoted alongside industry leaders in problem-solving discussions is worth 100x more than standalone feature articles. This “contextual authority” compounds over time and becomes your most defensible marketing asset.

What NOT to track:

• Total reach (meaningless metric)
• Publication quantity (you could have 100 articles nobody reads)
• Pretty charts from media monitoring tools

Common Startup PR Mistakes

1. Starting PR only after raising investment. By then it’s too late — first impressions can’t be corrected.
2. Explaining what they do, not why. People don’t care about your features. They care about their problems and solutions.
3. Ignoring negative feedback. Comments sections often contain more insights than the articles themselves.
4. Treating PR as a one-off activity. PR is a marathon, not a sprint. You need to tell your story consistently.
5. Trying to please everyone. If everyone likes your product, it’s probably not particularly needed by anyone.

Idea #7: The Premature Scaling Trap. Many successful startups make a critical error once they gain traction — they try to professionalise their PR too quickly. They lose the authentic founder voice that got them attention in the first place, replacing it with corporate messaging that sounds like everyone else. The founder’s personal brand should remain the primary vehicle for startup PR far longer than most realise.

One More: The Competitor Mention Strategy

Never mention competitors directly in PR — it’s a rookie mistake that legitimises them and confuses your narrative. Instead, position yourself against the status quo or outdated solutions. When journalists ask about competition, redirect to why existing approaches fall short rather than naming specific rivals. This frames you as an industry innovator rather than just another player in an existing game.

Conclusion

PR for startups isn’t about glossy magazine features or press releases. It’s about honestly explaining why people need your product.

Start telling your story from day one. Don’t wait until you have “something to talk about.” You already do — you have a problem you’re solving.

Remember: better to be absolutely essential to someone than slightly useful to everyone. Find your people and speak their language.

The most successful startup PR comes from authentic problem-solving narratives, not polished corporate messaging. Focus on the human story behind the technology, and the rest will follow.

Good luck, and remember to listen to your customers — they’ll tell you what’s worth talking about today and tomorrow.