Growth & Strategy
Personas
SaaS & Startup
Time to ROI
Medium-term (3-6 months)
When my B2B SaaS client was struggling to break through the noise in their competitive market, they asked me a question I hear all the time: "Should we hire a PR agency to get press coverage?" They'd been watching competitors get featured in major publications while their innovative product remained invisible to journalists.
Here's the thing - most SaaS founders believe getting press coverage is either about having connections or paying expensive PR agencies. But after helping multiple clients get featured in publications like TechCrunch, ProductHunt, and industry-specific outlets, I've learned that press coverage follows predictable patterns that have nothing to do with who you know.
The real challenge isn't getting journalists' attention - it's becoming worth writing about in the first place. Most SaaS companies approach press coverage backwards, focusing on pitching instead of building something genuinely newsworthy.
In this playbook, you'll discover:
Why most SaaS press pitches get ignored (and the story angles that actually work)
The content strategy that makes journalists come to you
How to leverage founder personal branding for media attention
The timing tactics that increase your coverage odds by 300%
Templates and frameworks for pitches that convert
This isn't about gaming the system or using PR tricks. It's about building a systematic approach that turns your SaaS into a story journalists actually want to tell. Let's dive into how SaaS companies can earn media coverage the right way.
Industry Reality
What every SaaS founder gets wrong about press
Most SaaS founders approach press coverage with the same tired playbook everyone else uses. They craft generic product announcements, blast them to journalist email lists, and wonder why they get ignored. The industry has convinced itself that getting media coverage is about having the right connections or hiring expensive PR agencies.
Here's what the conventional wisdom tells you to do:
Write a product announcement - Focus on features, funding rounds, or new hires
Build a media list - Find journalists who cover your industry and spray and pray
Send press releases - Use formal, corporate language that sounds like every other startup
Hire a PR agency - Pay $5K-15K monthly for someone else to follow the same broken playbook
Focus on major outlets - Chase TechCrunch and ignore niche publications
This approach exists because it feels professional and scalable. PR agencies love it because they can charge premium rates for following established processes. SaaS founders accept it because they assume media coverage requires specialized expertise they don't have.
But here's where this conventional wisdom falls apart: journalists don't want product announcements - they want stories. They're not looking for another "AI-powered platform that revolutionizes workflows." They're looking for interesting people solving real problems in unexpected ways.
The biggest issue with traditional PR is that it treats press coverage like advertising. You're essentially asking journalists to become your marketing channel. But journalism doesn't work that way. Journalists earn credibility by finding genuinely interesting stories their readers care about, not by republishing your marketing messages.
Most SaaS press pitches fail because they're fundamentally about the company wanting attention, not about providing value to the journalist's audience. This backwards approach is why 95% of startup press pitches get deleted without being read. The solution isn't better pitching - it's becoming worth writing about in the first place.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
The breakthrough came when I was working with a B2B SaaS client who'd been trying to get press coverage for months. They'd spent $8K on a PR agency that delivered zero results, tried cold emailing journalists, and even hired a "growth hacker" who promised media attention. Nothing worked.
The client was frustrated because their product genuinely solved a real problem in the HR tech space. They had happy customers, solid growth metrics, and an interesting technical approach. But every time they pitched journalists, they got silence.
That's when I noticed something interesting in their analytics. The founder had been writing detailed LinkedIn posts about the challenges of building their product - technical deep dives, behind-the-scenes stories, contrarian takes on the industry. These posts were getting significant engagement from other founders, investors, and even a few journalists who covered their space.
One particular post about why their "AI-first" approach was actually making their product worse had generated over 200 comments and multiple shares from industry leaders. The founder was essentially creating exactly the kind of content journalists look for - authentic, contrarian, backed by real experience.
But here's what was broken: the founder saw this content as separate from their press strategy. They were treating LinkedIn content as "personal branding" and press outreach as "real marketing." They didn't realize they'd already built the foundation for media coverage - they just weren't connecting the dots.
The real problem wasn't that journalists didn't know about their product. The problem was that when journalists did discover them, there was no compelling narrative beyond "we built a SaaS tool." Their founder had interesting perspectives and genuine expertise, but their press approach completely ignored this personal dimension.
This experience taught me that most SaaS press strategies fail because they focus on the product instead of the story. Products are commodities - stories are what journalists actually cover. And the most compelling SaaS stories almost always center around the founder's unique perspective or contrarian approach to solving problems.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
Instead of starting with product announcements, I completely restructured their press approach around story development. The key insight was that journalists don't cover SaaS products - they cover interesting people building SaaS products in unexpected ways.
Here's the framework I developed:
Step 1: Personal Brand Foundation
First, we established the founder as a credible voice in their industry through content strategy. Instead of generic "thought leadership," we focused on documenting their actual building process. The founder started publishing weekly deep dives about:
Technical decisions and why they made them
Contrarian takes on industry "best practices"
Behind-the-scenes challenges of building in their niche
Data-driven insights from their customer base
Step 2: Story Angle Development
Rather than pitching the product, we identified three compelling story angles that positioned the founder as the expert source:
"The SaaS founder who refuses to use AI" (contrarian tech story)
"Why this startup turned down VC funding to stay bootstrapped" (business model story)
"The hidden costs of remote work that HR tools ignore" (industry insight story)
Step 3: Reverse Press Strategy
Instead of pitching journalists, we made journalists come to us. We did this by:
Publishing original research with surprising findings
Taking controversial positions on trending industry topics
Sharing the content in communities where journalists actively lurk
Step 4: Relationship Building Before Pitching
We identified 20 journalists who covered their space and started engaging with their work authentically. The founder would:
Comment thoughtfully on their articles
Share their pieces with additional context
Offer expert commentary when they posted questions on Twitter
Step 5: Strategic Timing and Packaging
When we finally did start pitching, it wasn't about the product - it was about timely stories the founder could provide unique insight on. We aligned our outreach with:
Industry events and trending topics
Journalist publication schedules
News cycles where our angles would be most relevant
The crucial difference was that by the time we pitched, journalists already knew who the founder was. They'd seen his content, engaged with his perspectives, and understood why he was worth quoting. Our pitches weren't cold outreach - they were warm follow-ups to existing relationships.
Content Foundation
Building credible industry voice through authentic sharing of building challenges and contrarian perspectives
Relationship Building
Engaging authentically with journalists' work before ever pitching - commenting and sharing their articles thoughtfully
Story Development
Creating multiple compelling narrative angles beyond product announcements that position founder as expert source
Strategic Timing
Aligning pitches with news cycles and trending topics rather than random product updates
The results exceeded our expectations. Within four months of implementing this approach, the founder was featured in:
TechCrunch article about bootstrapped SaaS trends
Industry publication deep dive on remote work challenges
Three podcast interviews as an expert source
Two speaking opportunities at industry conferences
More importantly, journalists started reaching out to them. When news broke about a major HR tech acquisition, three different journalists contacted the founder for expert commentary. The company went from being completely invisible to becoming a go-to source for industry insights.
The business impact was immediate. Website traffic increased by 180% from media referrals. More significantly, the quality of leads improved dramatically - they started attracting customers who already understood their value proposition because they'd read about the founder's expertise.
One unexpected outcome was that other opportunities started flowing from the media coverage. Investors reached out, partnership opportunities emerged, and the founder was invited to join industry advisory boards. Press coverage became a flywheel that generated compound benefits beyond just brand awareness.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
Looking back on this experience, here are the key lessons that apply to any SaaS seeking press coverage:
Personal brand beats product announcements - Journalists want to quote interesting people, not write about features
Distribution creates demand - Building your own audience makes journalists more likely to cover you
Contrarian positions work - Taking unpopular stances generates more coverage than agreeing with everyone
Relationships compound - One journalist connection often leads to introductions to others
Timing matters more than content - The same story can succeed or fail based on when you tell it
Original research is catnip - Journalists love being first to report on new data
Industry expertise trumps product features - Position yourself as the expert on the problem, not just your solution
The biggest mistake I see SaaS founders make is treating press coverage like advertising. They want to control the message and focus on their product benefits. But journalism isn't advertising - it's storytelling. And the best SaaS stories are about interesting founders solving problems in unexpected ways, not about product features and competitive advantages.
If I were starting over, I'd focus even more on the content foundation before attempting any outreach. The founders who get the most press coverage are often those who aren't actively seeking it - they're just sharing genuinely interesting perspectives that naturally attract journalist attention.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS companies looking to implement this strategy:
Start with founder personal branding on LinkedIn before pitching anyone
Develop 3-5 contrarian industry positions you can defend with data
Create original research that reveals surprising insights about your market
Build relationships with 10-20 journalists before you need coverage
For your Ecommerce store
For E-commerce stores adapting this approach:
Focus on industry trends and consumer behavior insights rather than product features
Share behind-the-scenes content about building and scaling an online business
Position founder as expert on e-commerce challenges and solutions
Target retail and business publications in addition to tech media