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Emilie Gerber (founder of Six Eastern)21 March 2024

The ultimate guide to PR

8Frameworks
15Insights

Episode overview

Emilie Gerber, founder and CEO of Six Eastern, gives a tactical guide to earning press for startups. She explains how to choose publications, craft concise pitches, offer exclusives, follow up respectfully, and frame companies against recognizable incumbents rather than relying on category-creation language. The conversation also covers podcasts, newsletters, executive social media, press releases, agency selection, timelines, and budgets, supported by examples from Ramp, Perplexity, Clockwise, Column Tax, and Gamma.

Key ideas

  • Press often creates second-order value for B2B companies by supplying third-party credibility for sales, recruiting, partnerships, and guest outreach.
  • Match each story to the publication’s actual coverage: TechCrunch favors startup funding and launches, Axios favors deals, VentureBeat favors AI, and Fast Company favors work and design.
  • Strong pitches are concise, direct about the requested outcome, tailored to a reporter’s beat, and followed up with relevant new information.
  • For funding news, offer an exclusive, stagger outreach, remain flexible on the announcement date, and clearly state the amount, investors, market, and why it matters.
  • Positioning a startup against a familiar incumbent gives reporters an immediate frame of reference and generally works better in PR than category-creation language.
  • Research podcasts and newsletters by audience fit, active production, guest history, quality, and customers’ media habits; a short opener can outperform a long initial pitch.
  • Use plain language to explain what the product does, who it serves, why anyone should care, and what makes the story timely; avoid jargon and misleading early-stage growth percentages.
  • When hiring a PR agency, examine the actual team, recent writing, first-month activity, startup experience, lead time, and budget; roughly six weeks before an announcement is ideal.

Transcript available · source text is retained privately and is not published

Frameworks in this episode

People & resources mentioned

Attributed to the moment in the episode. Timestamps are approximate.

People · 9

  • Emilie GerberMentionsEmily is the founder and CEO of six Eastern a PR agency that has worked with over 100 tech companies

    Emily is the founder and CEO of six Eastern a PR agency that has worked with over 100 tech companies

  • Lenny RachitskyMentionstoday we've got another very special compilation episode something I've been pulling on more and more with the podcast and the newsletter

    today my guest is Emily Gerber

  • Matt MartinCoinedCEO of Clockwise.

    Fast Company was interested in the idea and they they posted the piece by uh the CEO Matt Martin

  • Elon MuskMentionsWhether you like him or not, Elon, this is similar to his um if you watch him, he has sets these really ambitious goals

    Elon is amazing at this you know maybe that's why he bought Twitter

  • Aaron LevieMentionsI talked to Aaron Levy your former boss at your dear friend.

    this is Aaron CEO of box by the way

  • Mark ZuckerbergMentionsit was sort of a random decision for Mark Zuckerberg to move from a uh monthly active to a daily active

    they have an interview with Zuck today that they published on morning Brew

  • Michael PollanCoinedmichael pollan has this point that he makes that like cliches and platitudes are cliches and platitudes because we've heard them so many times

    it's how to change your mind by Michael pollen

  • Jeff BezosMentionsthe Jeff Bezos thing that like the success of today was set in motion three years ago

    then I Googled it and apparently what was it like Jeff Bezos also said it at one point

  • TinxMentionsInfluencer cited by Emilie Gerber as where she first heard the motto “strong opinions, loosely held.”

    I first heard it from an influencer tinks

Resources · 45

  • Six EasternCoinedcompany · Emilie Gerber

    Emily is the founder and CEO of six Eastern a PR agency that has worked with over 100 tech companies

  • BoxMentionscompany

    prior to that she worked at box on product Communications with a focus on product launches and partnership announcements

  • UberMentionscompany · Uber

    before starting her own firm she worked at Uber where she let PR for the business development team and B2B programs

  • SprigMentionssoftware · Sprig

    sprig is an AI powered platform that enables you to collect relevant product experience insights from the right users

  • EppoMentionssoftware · Eppo

    EPO is a Next Generation AB testing and feature management platform

  • Lenny's PodcastCoinedpodcast · Lenny Rachitsky

    not everyone might know Lenny's podcast

  • PerplexityUsessoftware · Perplexity AI

    by the way I love perplexity I I once tweeted a result I had when I was using perplexity

  • TechCrunchRecommendswebsite · Michael Arrington

    they are the the publication that's going to be most likely to write your funding story

  • FoundRecommendspodcast · TechCrunch

    they have the found podcast which interviews Founders

  • TechCrunch DisruptMentionsevent · TechCrunch

    they have Tech crunch disrupt you can apply for speaking at that conference

  • EquityMentionspodcast · TechCrunch

    they have the equity pod which is like investment advice

  • AxiosRecommendscompany

    axios is really strong on the the fch side on the healthcare side

  • Business InsiderRecommendswebsite

    if you struggle to pitch your funding story um but really want it out in the world they are big on the pitch deck stories

  • Fast CompanyRecommendscompany

    Fast Company is perfect for anything related to future of work how people work

  • VentureBeatRecommendswebsite

    Venture beat is huge for AI news we pitch them all the time

  • ForbesRecommendscompany

    last but not least on the list of ones that we work with most often I would say is Forbes

  • The VergeMentionswebsite

    there are ones like The Verge and they're a little more they're a little more like Gadget focused

  • The Wall Street JournalMentionswebsite · Dow Jones & Company

    there's obviously New York Times And The Wall Street Journal thoughts on going after those

  • The New York TimesMentionscompany · The New York Times Company

    there's obviously New York Times And The Wall Street Journal thoughts on going after those

  • ClockwiseMentionssoftware

    we work with a company called clockwise which essentially um you know manages your calendar and allows time for Focus time

  • ShopifyMentionscompany · Shopify

    a couple months ago Shopify got tons of positive press for essentially like cancelling all their recurring meetings

  • VantaMentionssoftware · Christina Cacioppo

    vanta when it comes to ensuring your company has top-notch security practices things get complicated fast

  • RampMentionscompany · Eric Glyman and Karim Atiyeh

    we worked with ramp in their very early days

  • CNBCMentionswebsite

    we actually were able to get a cmbc story um on the launch of this product

  • PropelMentionscompany

    they partnered um with a company called Propel that offers SNAP benefits

  • Column TaxMentionscompany

    we work with a company called column tax which is embedded tax filing software

  • TurboTaxMentionssoftware · Intuit

    Turbo Tax um had to pay all these fines for like practices that money considered unsavory

  • GammaMentionssoftware · Gamma

    we worked with a company called gamma um which is essentially like bringing uh PowerPoint into something that's much more modern

  • Google SlidesMentionssoftware · Google

    every year half a billion people create pre presentations in Google slides and PowerPoint

  • Microsoft PowerPointMentionssoftware · Microsoft

    gamma brings PowerPoint into the 21st century

  • ZapierMentionssoftware · Zapier, Inc.

    a new automation startup is setting out to eat zapier's lunch

  • EntropyMentionscompany

    another really great company that we work with um is entropy

  • Money20/20Mentionsevent

    we got her um she spoke at money 2020

  • Not BoringMentionsnewsletter · Packy McCormick

    ramp got a lot of benefit from not boring that newsletter with py who wrote about them like constantly

  • DuolingoMentionssoftware · Luis von Ahn and Severin Hacker

    when I think of a brand doing this really well it's do lingo

  • Morning BrewRecommendsnewsletter

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

  • Morning Brew Co-Working SeriesRecommendsnewsletter · Morning Brew

    they have this series called morning Brew co-working series

  • How to Change Your MindRecommendsbook · Michael Pollan

    it's how to change your mind by Michael pollen

  • The Walking DeadRecommendstv show

    Walking Dead is like my comfort TV show

  • YellowjacketsRecommendstv show

    my most recent uh favorite um was yellow jackets

  • The Last of UsMentionstv show · Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann

    I thought you were going for last of us

  • Apple Vision ProRecommendsproduct · Apple

    the first time I tried it I like completely changed my tune I so into it I'm like ordering one

  • PerplexityUsessoftware · Perplexity AI

    my other one which is very self-serving because they are a client but I do use them every day um is perplexity

  • On BackgroundCoinednewsletter · Emilie Gerber

    I have a newsletter called on background it's on substack

  • SubstackUseswebsite · Substack Inc.

    I have a newsletter called on background it's on substack

Spot an error or want something removed? Request a correction or removal.

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