LLenny's Podcast
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Emilie Gerber (founder of Six Eastern)21 March 2024

The ultimate guide to PR

8Frameworks
15Insights

Frameworks in this episode

Strategy3 steps

Choosing a Startup PR Agency

Vet PR agencies on month-one behavior, writing samples, and lead time — not on big-brand logos.

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Marketing3 steps

Find-the-Nugget Angle Selection

Ignore the company's own messaging; find the single thread reporters care about and double down.

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Marketing3 steps

Incumbent Anchoring

Position your product as taking on a household-name incumbent, never as a new category.

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Marketing3 steps

Publication-to-Story Fit Map

Match each story type to the one publication most likely to cover it, before pitching anyone.

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Communication3 steps

The Contrarian Coverage-Gap Angle

Give reporters the bold opposing view on a trending topic they're already covering positively.

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Communication3 steps

The Direct Funding Pitch

Pitch funding news by pattern-matching a beat reporter and stating the deal in three sentences.

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Communication3 steps

The Jargon-Strip Clarity Test

Say what your product does out loud in plain answers; if the writing can't match, strip the jargon.

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Communication3 steps

The Lightweight-First Outreach Opener

Open cold with a one-line 'are you open to ideas?' instead of a full pitch, to earn a reply.

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Insights & moments

The myth-busts, hot takes, explainers, and tools worth keeping.

Myth Buster· 3

Myth Buster13:30

You Can Almost Always Get a Funding Round Covered

Contrary to belief, Emily says a funding round can nearly always land coverage if pitched correctly. The catch is that TechCrunch covers far fewer rounds than founders assume, so a straightforward, pattern-matched pitch to the right beat reporter is what wins.

  • Emily's agency scopes funding-only projects and has never failed to finish one
  • TechCrunch wrote ~9 funding stories in a week while ~50 rounds actually happened
  • Founders wrongly assume TechCrunch covers every raise
  • Keep it simple: amount raised, the space, and the investors, offered as an exclusive

“I do think funding rounds you can always get a reporter to cover if you go about it the right way”

Emily Gerber · 13:30

“they counted how many funding stories Tech crunch did in a in a week and it was nine so they had written nine funding stories…”

Emily Gerber · 14:00
#funding#techcrunch#pitching#pr
Myth Buster31:30

Warm Reporter Relationships Matter Far Less Than You Think

Emily pushes back on the idea that a PR person's Rolodex drives coverage. Media changes too fast for relationships to be durable, and good reporters make editorial calls on merit, not friendship. Well-crafted cold outreach is just as effective; a relationship only buys you an open and a reply.

  • Reporters change beats and publications constantly, so relationships don't compound
  • Editorial decisions shouldn't and mostly don't hinge on who a reporter's friends are
  • Cold outreach done well is as effective as a warm intro
  • A relationship mainly gets you an open, an answer, or an intro coffee, not coverage

“I and I'm of the belief that it does not matter as much as many people think it does”

Emily Gerber · 31:30

“I I think cold Outreach done well is just as effective”

Emily Gerber · 32:00
#reporters#relationships#cold-outreach#pr
Myth Buster57:30

Why Half of Press Releases Say Nothing At All

Emily reads a real jargon-stuffed launch line, AI assistance, human-in-the-loop, robust multiplayer experience, that describes nothing recognizable. She contrasts it with TechCrunch's own plain framing (a Zapier competitor) and argues most releases are written this way out of marketing habit. Her fix: read it out loud and see if anyone understands it.

  • Buzzword phrases like robust multiplayer experience obscure what a product does
  • TechCrunch reframed the same company simply as taking on Zapier
  • At least half of releases suffer from this marketing-speak
  • The fix is to say it out loud, or answer plainly what it does, who it's for, who the customers are

“today X announced their workflow automation product which combines AI assistance human in the loop collaboration and a robust multiplayer experience to help team save…”

Emily Gerber · 57:30

“just like read it out loud like read it out loud and see if someone understands it”

Emily Gerber · 59:30
#messaging#jargon#press-release#clarity

Hot Take· 3

Hot Take05:00

The Real Value of Press for B2B Isn't Signups, It's Validation

Emily argues press rarely drives direct growth for B2B companies; the payoff is second-order. A logo from a credible publication on your site and in sales/recruiting outreach provides third-party validation that de-risks you in the eyes of skeptical buyers and candidates.

  • Press seldom drives measurable signups for B2B
  • Publication logos signal legitimacy to cautious buyers worried a startup might disappear
  • Sales AEs and recruiters can link to a story to strengthen cold outreach
  • The story angle is often the founder journey, not the product, so it convinces readers not customers

“not everyone might know Lenny's podcast but they could send around to CNBC article and see that this is something very legit something that people…”

Emily Gerber · 06:00

“yeah the logo is a piece of it and then also like the the storytelling part”

Emily Gerber · 10:00
#pr#b2b#credibility#press
Hot Take41:00

Stop Pitching Yourself as a Category Creator

Emily says positioning as a category creator lands poorly with press and usually isn't true anyway. The far more effective frame is to name a household-name incumbent you're doing better than, which instantly gives the reporter a reference point.

  • Category-creation framing doesn't land with reporters
  • Positioning as doing what a known incumbent does, but better, works far better
  • Naming an incumbent gives the reporter an instant frame of reference
  • Category creation may work in sales, but Emily would never put it in a PR pitch

“a lot of companies want to position themselves as category creators and I actually hate that”

Emily Gerber · 41:00

“it's actually really great when you can talk about how you are doing what x household name does but better for X reasons”

Emily Gerber · 41:30
#positioning#category-creation#incumbents#pitching
Hot Take1:02:30

Skip the Press Release, Write a Blog Post Instead

Emily argues traditional press releases are largely obsolete: reporters no longer check the wire, distribution costs $300 to $2,000 for little real reach, and the format forces marketing-speak. A first-person blog post carries the same news, is more shareable on social, and lives on your own site.

  • Reporters no longer check news wires, so wire distribution reaches almost no one
  • Distribution services cost roughly $300 to $2,000 per release
  • A blog post carries all the same news details but is first-person and shareable
  • Google no longer prioritizes press releases for SEO; most early-to-mid-stage startups don't need them

“press releases came about because reporters would be checking news wires for ideas of what stories they want to write no reporters do that anymore”

Emily Gerber · 1:02:30

“you can do the exact same thing in a blog post”

Emily Gerber · 1:03:30
#press-release#blog#seo#media-strategy

Explainer· 3

Explainer11:30

How Affiliate Deals Quietly Power Product-Review Journalism

Emily explains the affiliate model behind consumer product reviews: publications take a cut of any sales driven by their article. It's extremely common across product-review outlets, with entire agencies dedicated to it.

  • Publications get a percentage of sales tracked from links in their articles
  • Best-of lists (e.g. best personal finance tools) disclose commission at the top
  • Most consumer companies use affiliate placements
  • Entire agencies specialize in affiliate PR

“affiliate is essentially when you work with a publication to give them a percentage of any sales that come from the piece of the article”

Emily Gerber · 12:00
#affiliate#consumer#pr#product-reviews
Explainer17:00

Which Publications to Pitch, and What Each One Actually Covers

Emily gives a tactical rundown of go-to outlets by story type: TechCrunch for funding and product, Axios for deals and healthcare (never product), Business Insider for pitch-deck and metrics stories plus its many top-startup lists, VentureBeat for AI, Fast Company for future-of-work and op-eds, and Forbes for awards and its contributor network.

  • TechCrunch: funding and some product; no paywall so it drives day-of traffic; weak on health/martech beats
  • Axios: deals-focused, healthcare-strong; never pitch product; its Local Edition suits regional stories
  • Business Insider: pitch-deck stories, metrics-driven journeys, and frequent top-startup list calls
  • VentureBeat for AI, Fast Company for future-of-work and op-eds, Forbes for awards and its lower-bar contributor network

“media changes so much and so fast like for instance just a couple weeks ago Tech crunch decided they no longer accept op-eds”

Emily Gerber · 17:30

“you should never pitch them on a product announcement”

Emily Gerber · 19:30
#publications#pitching#techcrunch#media-strategy
Explainer34:00

How to Actually Reach Reporters: Short, Direct, All-Platform

Emily's outreach approach is platform-agnostic and ruthlessly concise. She uses clear subject lines stating intent, keeps pitches to about three sentences, follows up respectfully with new information, and stands out by pointing to coverage gaps or offering a genuinely bold, contrarian angle.

  • Use whatever platform fits: email, DMs, or replying to a reporter's tweet about a story
  • Make the subject line state exactly what you want (Q&A, funding story, column guest)
  • Her most successful pitches are three sentences; longer usually means weaker
  • Point out gaps in a reporter's coverage, and offer a controversial/opposing view they need for balance

“my most successful pitches are three sentences”

Emily Gerber · 35:00

“another thing that actually can work really well is pointing out gaps in their their coverage too”

Emily Gerber · 35:30
#pitching#outreach#reporters#tactics

Story· 3

Story37:00

Turning a Trend Everyone Praised Into a Contrarian Op-Ed

When Shopify won praise for cancelling recurring meetings, Emily's client Clockwise couldn't get traction by agreeing. Instead they took a critical angle, arguing deleting meetings alone won't fix meeting culture, and turned it into a Fast Company op-ed by the CEO.

  • Agreeing with a popular take gets no coverage; reporters want a fresh angle
  • Clockwise argued blanket meeting-deletion doesn't sustainably change culture
  • The op-ed was framed as a critique, not an attack
  • Fast Company ran the piece under CEO Matt Martin's byline

“we knew that if we just wrote another piece saying oh this is great no one would want to publish that”

Emily Gerber · 37:30

“the title was shopify's Medan cost calculator does not dress address the issue of wasted time”

Emily Gerber · 38:00
#op-ed#contrarian#clockwise#fast-company
Story44:30

How Framing Ramp as Bill.com's Underdog Landed a CNBC Story

A B2B bill-pay launch rarely gets feature coverage. By framing Ramp's bill pay as an underdog taking on Bill.com, one of the best-performing fintech IPOs that had captured only ~2% of its market, Emily's team landed a CNBC story on a product announcement CNBC normally wouldn't touch.

  • Product news, especially B2B bill pay, rarely earns feature coverage
  • The story was framed as Ramp taking share from incumbent Bill.com
  • CNBC liked the underdog-vs-incumbent angle and ran it
  • The next day's Bill.com stock story even mentioned Ramp's news

“the way that we framed the story was was how ramp was now able to take on bill.com”

Emily Gerber · 45:00

“generally they won't even consider product stories but they really like the angle of this Underdog”

Emily Gerber · 45:30
#ramp#framing#cnbc#fintech
Story48:00

Gamma Pitched Its Launch as a Gamma Presentation, Not a Press Release

For seed-stage Gamma's launch, Emily's team skipped the standard blog post and built the announcement inside a Gamma presentation, packed with visuals, a punchy mission, customer love instead of metrics, bulleted investors, and a video from the lead investor. It landed a TechCrunch story.

  • They used the product itself (a Gamma deck) as the pitch format
  • Direct language and fun visuals replaced marketing-speak
  • Customer testimonials stood in for the growth metrics they lacked at seed stage
  • A lead-investor video replaced the standard investor quote; TechCrunch ran the story

“instead of doing your standard kind of company blog post we actually made a gamma presentation”

Emily Gerber · 48:30

“the title of the tech crunch article that we got it as a result was gamma brings PowerPoint into the 21st century”

Emily Gerber · 50:00
#gamma#creative-pitch#techcrunch#format

Tool· 1

Tool1:17:30

An Easy Morning Brew Feature via the Co-Working Series

Emily shares a favorite low-effort media opportunity: Morning Brew's Co-Working series, run across its verticals (Emerging Tech Brew, HR Brew, CFO, marketing). You submit a ~10-question Google form, and if answers are interesting and not too self-promotional, execs get featured.

  • Morning Brew runs a Co-Working series across each of its vertical newsletters
  • Submission is a Google form of about 10 questions
  • Keep answers interesting, fun, and not too self-promotional
  • Emily reports roughly a 50% success rate; it works best for execs, not usually the CEO

“it's a way to get a morning morning Brew feature pretty somewhat easily”

Emily Gerber · 1:17:30

“we've had I would say 50% success rate with like getting execs featured that way”

Emily Gerber · 1:18:00
#morning-brew#tactic#newsletters#earned-media

Takeaway· 2

Takeaway23:30

What It Actually Takes to Get Into NYT or WSJ

For early-stage companies, big outlets like NYT and WSJ usually only cover you around a crisis. For a genuine feature at later stages, reporters demand your valuation and hard business metrics on the record, which is a non-starter for many founders.

  • Early-stage coverage in top outlets typically follows a crisis (layoffs, fired CEO, regulation)
  • Features require sharing valuation on the record
  • They also want hard metrics, usually revenue
  • Most founders won't share that, ending the conversation; you may only get a sentence in a larger story

“oh if you want those just have like a crisis and they they'll write about it like fire your CEO or do like really intense…”

Emily Gerber · 23:30

“one is your valuation so that needs to be something that you're sharing on the record”

Emily Gerber · 24:00
#nyt#wsj#valuation#metrics
Takeaway1:19:00

How to Choose a PR Agency, and What It Costs

Emily advises against assuming big-logo agencies are best, since their reactive, message-controlling style is the opposite of scrappy startup PR. Vet what month one looks like, read their recent writing samples, meet the actual day-to-day team, and skip extensive RFPs. Budget roughly 10K to 15K a month for a boutique retainer, kicking off about six weeks before an announcement.

  • Big household-brand agencies tend to be reactive; startup PR needs speed and experimentation
  • Check that month one is real outreach, not a three-month ramp of intake calls
  • Ask for recent writing samples; if it reads like jargon, it's the wrong agency
  • Boutique retainers start around 10K to 15K/month; kick off ~6 weeks ahead, and optimize the date for the reporter, not a fixed day

“find out what month one looks like with them if month one is them just doing intake calls and learning about the company”

Emily Gerber · 1:20:00

“our rates are uh start at 15K a month for our retainers”

Emily Gerber · 1:24:00
#agency#budget#hiring#lead-time