The Press-as-Fundraising Filter
Only pursue press when you can name a specific business job it will do — same discipline as raising money.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~days to results
- Steps
- 3
- Confidence
- 90%
Most founders chase press as an end in itself, driven by ego or a vague desire for attention. Feifer's filter forces you to treat coverage exactly like a fundraise: you only go out when you know precisely what the outcome is for. If you can't name a tactical purpose (drive downloads, signal legitimacy to investors, reach buyers in a specific market), you should not spend the effort.
Origin
Jason Feifer's operating rule as editor-in-chief of Entrepreneur magazine, developed from decades of fielding thousands of misdirected pitches.
Core principles
- 01Press is an unpredictable add-on, never a primary growth strategy
- 02A good tactical reason beats 'I deserve this' or 'I worked hard' every time
- 03Fit is often about the publication, not the moment — a national title cannot sell a local product
- 04Match the audience's geography and mindset to your actual goal
How to run it
- 1
Ask what press is for
Before doing anything, answer: what specific, tactical outcome do I need this coverage to produce? Awareness of a new product, investor legitimacy, reaching a new customer base, or positioning are valid; 'attention' is not.
Pro tip Write the goal as a sentence a colleague could evaluate — 'drive app downloads' or 'articles to show the market takes me seriously when I raise.'
Watch out 'I've worked really hard and I deserve this' is an emotional decision, not a tactical one — it does nothing for the business.
- 2
Check reach against the goal
Map your goal onto the publication's audience. If your goal is local sales but the outlet is national, 99%+ of readers can't act, so the effort is wasted regardless of prestige.
Pro tip Redirect energy to outlets whose audience can actually convert on your goal — the local eater or city food section over a national brand.
Watch out Prestige of the outlet is irrelevant if its readers can't take the action you need.
- 3
Decide go / no-go before investing
Only commit real time (or PR budget) once the goal and audience-fit both check out. If neither holds, don't chase it.
Pro tip For hard-to-cover B2B or niche businesses, consider expert-positioning or manufactured-news routes instead of feature coverage.
In the wild
A founder with a couple of hot dog trucks in DC wanted a feature in Entrepreneur. Feifer explained that Entrepreneur reaches a national-to-international audience, so ~99.5% of readers could never buy his hot dogs. His real goal — more hot dog sales — pointed to the local eater or the Washingtonian's food section.
→ The founder was redirected away from wasted national-outlet effort toward local outlets that could actually drive hot dog sales.
Common mistakes
Chasing prestige outlets that can't serve the goal
Founders equate a big-name feature with success, but a national feature for a local business reaches an audience that cannot buy — the effort produces nothing tactical.
Treating press as a reliable growth channel
Coverage is too unpredictable to bank on; it might drive more sales than all paid marketing that month, or it might do literally nothing, so building a growth plan on it is a mistake.
Is it for you?
Best for
Founders and marketers deciding whether a given press push is worth the time or PR spend
Not ideal for
Situations where you already have a clear conversion path and just need execution help, not a go/no-go decision
From the transcript
“think about press the same way that you think about raising money which is to say you do it when you know what the money…”
“if you think that press by itself is going to solve your problems you're you're wrong because it it might but it it's way too…”
“entrepreneur reaches a national to International audience so that means that 99.5% of the people who would read a story about this guy have no…”
From the episode
How to get press for your product
Jason Feifer (editor in chief of Entrepreneur magazine)