With over 5 years at Earlybird VC providing strategic support to startups in Communications and PR, I’ve had the great opportunity to work with a wide range of founders across Europe. 

Some are serial entrepreneurs, while others are first-time founders. Yet when it comes to formulating and pitching their often funding-focused story to journalists, there are some common denominators of advice to share and pitfalls to avoid.

Investors talk about the ‘ingredients’ needed in Europe to cook: ambition, tech talent, ideas spun out of universities, backers who can partner with founders, and more. That’s all true.

But what I focus on is the story ingredients for successful startups making headlines.

Let’s get into the 10 elements to get you cooking.

1. Context: Connect your startup’s focus to something bigger, a key industry need or relevant trend. This shows awareness of your surroundings and a problem-solving purpose. Ironically, the less you focus on yourself, the more likely you are to earn that focus back. Even if an article is not solely about your company, you might earn recognition in a round-up piece, even if the article compares you to the competition. And avoid the answer that you don’t have competition. Most likely, you do; it’s best to see it.
   
   

2. Enablement: Rather than focus on your product or features, focus on this: What do you enable customers or users to achieve? This shifts the protagonist away from you to the reader. And journalists care about their readership, so you should too! Give concrete examples to paint a more interesting picture for the audience. A great example of this is AI-native companies that focus on what users or their community are creating. But it can also serve deep tech companies just as well.
   
   

3. Humanity: Part of what makes your team uniquely able to solve the problem at hand is who you are, what you’ve studied, built, or developed. Talk about your team and people. Especially with an increased emphasis on AI, the people and their discernment, or dare I say taste, behind that technology are increasingly important. Your team is unique to your company; no one has the same constellation, composition, or interaction. So show who that is and how you came to work together to solve a greater problem. 
   
   

4. Transparency: You need to be able to share hard facts: funding amounts (equity vs debt), ideally some (approved) customer names, etc. Be a source of data, and journalists will recognize that value. Since you are an expert in your field, this is your opportunity to provide unique information that journalists may otherwise not have access to. Decide what is safe and interesting to share. Then lean into tools you have to do so.
   
   

5. Credibility: Provide a quote from an investor, a customer, and a founder to add more angles to your story. Having others speak well of you and your solution has an impact. Additionally, consistently building a digital footprint on LinkedIn or Substack, for example, allows journalists to become more familiar with your voice and perspective. Another good example is video: How can you talk with your customers and share their stories?
   
   

6. Accessibility: Include contact info and details about your company in your pitch. It sounds basic, but it’s important. This could include a summary with the founding date, mission, leadership names, and a link to your website or other channels. Make it easier for journalists to understand, reach, and reference you. Don’t forget that company names sound similar, so you need to identify yourself clearly and make yourself available for follow-up queries. Get ready with professional or at least decent-quality team pictures.
   
   

7. Brevity: Keep your outreach to journalists who cover your topic succinct. They often get 100s of emails daily and are navigating a tighter headcount. Read their work and reference it. Make your email a joy to open and read with clear formatting. Include the storyline, contact info, images, and go-live timing. Be aware that they may not be able to meet that timeline. It is respectful to give journalists sufficient time to fit into their schedule, so allow at least a week or two as a heads-up. Basically, the earlier the better. 
   
   

8. Terminology: Get familiar with common media terms like Exclusive: (one outlet breaks the news); Under Embargo: (news is sent confidentially before the go-live date); and Embargo: (the go-live date, time, and timezone before which the news is not public.) Usually, it’s best to set an embargo far enough in advance that you can prep and pitch accordingly. On the record: your quotes or comments may rightfully appear in an article. Off the record: the comment should not be attributed to you, but it might be generalized or anonymized. You are still giving helpful context to the reporter.
   
   

9. Dimensionality: Consider the message that you, your team, and backers can share once the news is out. Keep it tightly timed and coordinated. Have you planned professional photos or a video that compellingly explains the news? Your storytelling ability shines in this process, and PR is a long road. So consider which milestones you can continue to convey afterward via ‘owned, earned, and paid media’. And remember to engage your employees in news rollouts. Give people an incentive and pride in being part of the story.
   
   

10. Respect: Remember this: Journalists owe you nothing. If you keep that in mind, you are already doing a super job! And a one-time follow-up is legitimate if there is no response. You want to build a long-term, professional relationship with the writers and reporters who cover your industry. Stay curious to learn from them, and this will serve you well.
    
    
    

Elisheva with Earlybird colleagues across Berlin, London, and Munich, from L-R: Anna Annderson, Head of Community & Events, Jay Anna Harris-Theis, VP Portfolio Excellence, and Jan Riethmeyer, VP of Engineering

I hope that helps you with your communications and public relations path. Remember that public relations is not a one-off effort; it is a relationship to the public, as the name implies.  Yes, you do get the chance to make a memorable first impression when emerging from stealth, but also when pivoting or unlocking a new milestone. Build your content plan for the long term.

Find a messaging cadence that is both consistent and unique, while testing new formats.

Let me know what else is working well to tell your story. You can find me on LinkedIn a LOT.

— Elisheva Marcus, VP Communications

(Photos by Ana Adriana)