Growth & Strategy
Personas
SaaS & Startup
Time to ROI
Medium-term (3-6 months)
Last year, a potential client approached me with what seemed like a dream project: build a complex marketplace platform with a substantial budget. But after one conversation about their go-to-market strategy, I did something that shocked them—I said no.
Here's why: they had zero audience, no validated customer base, and no proof of demand. Yet they wanted to spend months building a platform, then figure out PR and marketing afterward. That's backward thinking that kills SaaS startups.
After working with dozens of B2B SaaS clients, I've learned that most founders completely misunderstand what PR actually means for startups. They think it's about getting TechCrunch coverage or hiring expensive agencies. In reality, effective SaaS PR is about building distribution and credibility before you need it.
The most successful SaaS founders I've worked with didn't wait for their product to be perfect. They started building their personal brand and industry presence while still coding their MVP. That's the real PR strategy that works.
In this playbook, you'll learn:
Why traditional PR agencies fail SaaS startups
The founder-led content strategy that actually drives signups
How to validate demand before building (real examples)
The LinkedIn content formula that converted cold traffic
When to invest in PR (and when it's too early)
This isn't theory—it's what actually worked for my clients who went from zero to sustainable acquisition without burning cash on premature PR campaigns.
Industry Reality
What every SaaS startup founder believes about PR
Walk into any startup accelerator or browse /r/entrepreneur, and you'll hear the same PR advice repeated like gospel:
"Hire a PR agency to get media coverage." The thinking goes: get featured in TechCrunch, Product Hunt, or industry publications, and customers will flood in. Agencies promise founder interviews, press releases, and "guaranteed" placements for $5K-15K monthly retainers.
"Launch on Product Hunt for instant visibility." Founders obsess over PH launches, thinking a #1 ranking will solve their customer acquisition problems. They spend weeks preparing assets, rallying their network, and gaming the system.
"Build it and they will come." The most dangerous belief: focus 90% on product development, then figure out marketing and PR afterward. "Once our product is perfect, PR will be easy."
"PR is about getting your name out there." Vague "brand awareness" campaigns that measure impressions instead of signups. The idea that any coverage is good coverage.
"You need to be everywhere." Spreading thin across every possible channel—Twitter, LinkedIn, podcasts, conferences, press—without focusing on what actually drives results.
This conventional wisdom exists because it feels like real marketing. Press coverage looks impressive. Podcast appearances sound professional. Product Hunt badges make great social proof.
But here's the problem: none of this directly addresses the fundamental challenge every SaaS startup faces—proving people actually want what you're building. Traditional PR focuses on amplification before validation. It's putting the cart before the horse, and it's why most SaaS PR campaigns fail to move the needle on actual business metrics.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
The conversation that changed my perspective happened during a discovery call with a founder who had a "brilliant" marketplace idea. They'd raised pre-seed funding and wanted me to build their platform.
"We just need to build this, then we'll figure out marketing and PR to get users on both sides," they said. When I asked about their current audience, they admitted they had none. No email list, no social following, no industry connections. Just an idea and enthusiasm.
This was a classic case of what I call "build-first thinking"—the assumption that a great product sells itself. They planned to spend 6 months building, then start PR efforts to find customers. That's exactly backward.
I've seen this pattern repeatedly. Another client came to me after spending $10K on a PR agency that got them coverage in three industry publications. The result? 47 website visitors and zero trial signups. Beautiful coverage, zero business impact.
The breakthrough came when I started working with a B2B SaaS founder who took a completely different approach. Instead of building in secret, he started sharing his insights about the problem he was solving before writing a single line of code.
He documented his customer research process on LinkedIn. Shared frameworks he was developing. Posted about common pain points in his industry. He built an audience around the problem, not the solution.
By the time he launched his MVP, he already had 2,000 LinkedIn followers who understood the problem intimately. His "product launch" was really just announcing that he'd solved a problem his audience already knew he was working on.
That's when I realized: effective SaaS PR isn't about getting coverage—it's about building distribution and credibility in parallel with your product. The best "PR" for startups is founder-led content that demonstrates expertise while validating demand.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
After that eye-opening conversation, I completely restructured how I approach SaaS marketing and PR. Instead of building first and promoting later, I developed what I call the "Distribution-First PR Strategy."
Step 1: Start With the Problem, Not the Solution
I told that marketplace founder: "Before you build anything, prove people care about this problem." Instead of a platform, I suggested they start by manually connecting buyers and sellers via email and phone calls.
This isn't about building an MVP—it's about testing demand with zero tech. If you can't manually facilitate 10 transactions, why would automating it succeed? Your first "PR" is proving the problem exists.
Step 2: Document Everything Publicly
The most successful founder I worked with didn't just research his market—he shared his research process. Every customer interview became a LinkedIn post about industry insights. Every failed experiment became a lesson shared publicly.
His content calendar looked like this:
Monday: Share a customer pain point discovered in interviews
Wednesday: Break down a competitor's approach (what works/doesn't)
Friday: Document a specific experiment and its results
This wasn't "content marketing"—it was building expertise and audience while validating his market. By month three, industry veterans were commenting on his posts and sharing their own insights.
Step 3: The LinkedIn Content Formula That Actually Works
Through analyzing my most successful clients, I discovered a pattern in content that converts cold traffic into warm leads:
The Experience + Process + Lesson Structure:
The experience: "Last month, I talked to 50 [target customers] about [specific problem]"
The process: "Here's exactly what I learned and how I learned it"
The lesson: "This changes how [industry] should think about [problem]"
This works because it's not promotional—it's educational. You're not selling your product; you're sharing insights that establish expertise. The best PR for B2B SaaS is becoming known for understanding the problem better than anyone else.
Step 4: Build Before You Need
Most founders think: "I'll start marketing when my product is ready." But building an audience takes 6-12 months. If you start after launch, you're already behind.
I now recommend clients dedicate 20% of their pre-launch time to audience building. Not product demos or feature announcements—value-driven content that solves problems your future customers have right now.
The founder who followed this approach had 1,200 qualified leads before his product existed. His "launch" was just announcing to an already-engaged audience that their solution was ready.
Problem Validation,"Prove demand exists before building anything. Manual processes reveal real pain points."
Audience Building
Start content creation 6-12 months before launch. Build expertise around the problem."""
Content Strategy
Document your research process publicly. Share insights
not products."""
Distribution First
Focus on reaching your audience before perfecting your message. Audience building takes time."""
The results from this distribution-first approach consistently outperformed traditional PR campaigns:
Audience Growth: Clients typically built 500-2,000 engaged LinkedIn followers within 6 months of consistent posting. More importantly, these weren't random followers—they were potential customers and industry influencers.
Lead Quality: Instead of cold outbound or expensive ads, founders started receiving inbound inquiries from people who already understood their expertise. One client went from 0 to 15 qualified leads per month through LinkedIn content alone.
Product Validation: By sharing their research process, founders discovered critical insights before building. One client completely pivoted their feature set based on feedback from their growing audience—saving months of development time.
Launch Momentum: When these founders finally announced their products, they weren't launching to an empty room. They had an engaged audience waiting for the solution to problems they'd been discussing for months.
Compare this to traditional PR: expensive agency retainers, hit-or-miss media coverage, and traffic that doesn't convert because it's not qualified. The founder-led approach costs nothing but time and builds lasting assets.
The most telling metric: founders using this approach typically achieved their first 100 customers 3-6 months faster than those who focused solely on product development, then scrambled to find an audience.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
After implementing this distribution-first PR strategy across multiple client projects, here are the most important lessons learned:
1. Authenticity beats polish. The most engaging content comes from real experiences, not perfectly crafted brand messages. Your struggles and failures often resonate more than your successes.
2. Consistency trumps perfection. Publishing mediocre content weekly beats publishing amazing content monthly. Your audience needs to see you regularly to build trust.
3. Comments matter more than likes. A post with 50 likes and 15 meaningful comments builds more relationships than one with 500 likes and no engagement. Focus on conversation, not vanity metrics.
4. Industry knowledge is your unfair advantage. As a founder, you understand your market's nuances better than any PR agency. Use that insider knowledge to create content that resonates deeply.
5. Documentation scales expertise. Every customer conversation, market insight, or experiment you run can become content that demonstrates your expertise to future customers.
6. Timing matters. Start building your audience 6-12 months before you need customers. You can't accelerate relationship building with money.
7. Distribution beats perfection. A good strategy that reaches your audience consistently will always outperform a perfect strategy that no one sees.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS startups specifically:
Share your customer research process and insights publicly
Build your founder's personal brand around industry expertise
Start audience building 6-12 months before product launch
Focus on LinkedIn for B2B SaaS audience development
For your Ecommerce store
For ecommerce applications:
Document your product development and sourcing journey
Share customer stories and use cases across social platforms
Build community around your product category, not just your brand
Use visual content to showcase behind-the-scenes processes