Building on BVP's Foundation
Bessemer Venture Partners recently published an excellent comprehensive guide on PR fundamentals for early-stage founders, featuring insights from TechCrunch's Alex Wilhelm, SBS Comms founder John O'Brien, and Claroty's Kelly Ferguson. The guide covers everything from founder-led communications to crafting the perfect pitch.
But here's the thing: knowing what to do is only half the battle. The other half is how to actually do it when you're a solo founder with limited time and resources. That's where modern PR tools can bridge the gap between strategy and execution.
In this guide, we'll take BVP's excellent framework and show you how to put each principle into practice—with specific tools and tactics that make PR achievable for early-stage founders.
✅ Executing BVP's Core Principles
1. The "Willingness to Share" Principle
Alex Wilhelm makes an excellent point: founders need to be willing to share. But the challenge for early-stage founders is knowing what to share when you don't have impressive metrics yet. When you're pre-revenue or have 50 users instead of 50,000, traditional PR metrics don't apply.
The solution? Share your process, not just your results. Share how you're thinking about the problem differently. Share the customer conversations that changed your direction. Share the metrics that matter to you—even if they're small.
How HeyJared Helps:
Our AskJared AI assistant can help you identify what's actually newsworthy about your story—even when you don't have big numbers to share. Just describe your journey, and AskJared will help you find the angles that resonate with journalists and identify reporters who value founder journeys over vanity metrics.
2. Founder-Led Communications
BVP's guide does an excellent job explaining when founder-led communications work (like Aaron Levie's Twitter presence) and when they don't. The key insight: founder-led PR works best when you have a unique perspective, you're comfortable with public communication, and you have time to invest.
But here's the practical challenge: even if you want to do founder-led PR, you still need to find the right journalists and craft messages that resonate. That's where tools can amplify your efforts.
How HeyJared Helps:
Our AI pitch generator can help you craft personalized messages that match each reporter's style and interests. Instead of spending hours researching each journalist, you can generate a tailored pitch in minutes—giving you more time to focus on the authentic communication that makes founder-led PR effective.
3. The "Rolling Thunder" Approach
Kelly Ferguson's emphasis on "rolling thunder"—consistent PR presence over time rather than one-off launches—is excellent strategic advice. The challenge for early-stage founders is that maintaining constant media presence requires resources most startups don't have: PR budgets, dedicated comms people, and founder time.
The practical solution? Focus on strategic moments—funding rounds, major customer wins, product launches—but use tools to maximize each opportunity and maintain relationships between big announcements.
How HeyJared Helps:
HeyJared's Explore page monitors 3,000+ news sources every 2 hours, surfacing commentary opportunities that let you maintain media presence between major announcements. When breaking news relates to your industry, you get notified immediately—giving you the chance to provide expert commentary and stay top-of-mind with journalists, making it feasible to maintain the "rolling thunder" approach even as a solo founder.
🎯 Practical Execution: Making BVP's Advice Actionable
1. Understanding "On the Record" vs. "Off the Record"
BVP's guide explains the difference between on-the-record, off-the-record, and on-background conversations. This is crucial knowledge, but many founders make a common mistake: assuming everything is off-the-record when it's not.
The key rule: Unless you explicitly say "this is off the record" before sharing information, it's on the record. Journalists aren't mind readers. If you don't want something published, don't say it—or establish the ground rules first.
How HeyJared Helps:
Before any media interview, use AskJared to prepare your talking points and identify what you're comfortable sharing publicly. AskJared can help you anticipate questions, practice responses, and create a clear framework for what's on vs. off the record—so you're never caught off guard.
2. Crafting Pitches That Actually Get Responses
John O'Brien's advice about focusing on the problem, not just the product, is spot-on. But here's the reality: even the best pitches get ignored. TechCrunch receives hundreds of pitches daily. Most journalists are drowning in emails.
The solution isn't just better pitch writing—it's better targeting, better timing, and better relationships. You need to find the right reporter, understand what they care about, and reach them at the right moment.
How HeyJared Helps:
Our AI pitch generator doesn't just write generic pitches—it personalizes each one based on the reporter's recent coverage, writing style, and interests. The result? Pitches that feel like they were written by someone who actually reads the reporter's work (because, in a way, they were—our AI does the reading for you).
3. Building Relationships Before You Need Coverage
BVP's guide emphasizes building relationships with journalists, but it doesn't go deep into how to do this systematically when you're juggling product development, fundraising, and everything else. The key is making relationship-building efficient and scalable.
The best approach? Identify 5-10 journalists who cover your space, follow their work, engage authentically (without pitching), and use tools to track and nurture these relationships over time.
How HeyJared Helps:
Our relationship tracking features help you remember when you last contacted each journalist, what you discussed, and when to re-engage. Set reminders to check in periodically, share relevant updates, or congratulate them on recent coverage. These small touches turn cold contacts into warm relationships, so when you're ready to pitch, you're not starting from scratch—you're reaching out to someone who already knows your name and appreciates your engagement with their work.
4. Knowing When to Hire PR Help
BVP's guide mentions that Kelly Ferguson joined Claroty between Series C and D, which is helpful context. But for early-stage founders, the question is: Should I hire PR help now, or can I do it myself?
The answer depends on your stage and resources. Early-stage founders can often handle PR themselves with the right tools, while later-stage companies benefit from dedicated PR support. The key is knowing when you're spending too much time on PR activities that could be automated or delegated.
How HeyJared Helps:
HeyJared is designed specifically for founders who want to do PR themselves but don't have PR experience. Our tools automate the time-consuming parts—finding reporters, researching their coverage, crafting personalized pitches—so you can focus on the strategic work that only you can do.
Pre-seed/Seed: Use HeyJared to build relationships and pitch strategically. At $99/month, it's far more affordable than a PR agency ($3K-10K/month) and gives you the same access to reporter databases and pitch tools.
Series A: Continue using HeyJared for day-to-day PR, but consider bringing in a part-time PR consultant for strategic guidance on major announcements. HeyJared handles the execution; the consultant provides the strategy.
Series B+: Even with a PR team, HeyJared remains valuable for relationship tracking, opportunity monitoring, and coverage tracking. Your PR team can use HeyJared to scale their efforts, and you can use it to stay connected to your media relationships.
🎯 A Practical Framework: Putting It All Together
Based on BVP's framework and practical execution strategies, here's how to approach PR at each stage of your startup journey:
Phase 1: Pre-Product/Market Fit (0-50 customers)
Focus: Build relationships, not coverage
- •Use HeyJared's search to identify 5-10 journalists who cover your space
- •Follow them on Twitter/LinkedIn and engage authentically (no pitching yet)
- •Monitor their coverage and find natural engagement opportunities
- •Share your journey publicly (if comfortable) to build awareness
- •Don't pitch yet—you don't have a story worth telling, but you can start building the relationships that will matter later
Phase 2: Early Traction (50-500 customers)
Focus: Strategic moments, not constant presence
- •Pitch when you have real news: funding, major customer win, product launch
- •Use HeyJared's pitch generator to craft personalized pitches for your relationship journalists
- •Offer exclusives to journalists you've been building relationships with
- •Share real metrics (even if small) to help identify what's newsworthy
- •Find commentary opportunities between major announcements
- •Don't hire PR yet—you can't afford it, and with HeyJared, you don't need it
Phase 3: Scaling (500+ customers, Series A+)
Focus: Systematic PR program
- •Consider hiring agency or part-time consultant for strategic guidance
- •Use HeyJared's database for reporter research, pitch generation, and relationship tracking
- •Develop key messages and positioning with your PR team
- •Maintain consistent media presence through commentary opportunities
- •Create content (thought leadership, data-driven insights) and pitch it strategically
- •Consider in-house hire if PR is becoming a significant time sink, but continue using HeyJared to scale their efforts
💡 The Long Game: PR as a Strategic Investment
PR is a long game, not a quick win.
BVP's guide mentions this, and it's worth emphasizing: most founders approach PR like a marketing campaign—"We'll do PR for 3 months and get coverage." That's not how it works.
The reality:
- •Building media relationships takes 6-12 months
- •Getting meaningful coverage takes 3-6 months of consistent effort
- •Building a reputation as a thought leader takes 12-24 months
If you're looking for quick wins, PR isn't the answer. But if you're building a company for the long term, PR is essential—and tools like HeyJared make it sustainable. Instead of spending hours on manual research and relationship tracking, you can focus on the strategic work while HeyJared handles the execution.
🔍 The Tools That Make PR Execution Possible
BVP's guide focuses on strategy, which is essential. But strategy without execution tools is just theory. Here are the tools that make PR actually achievable for early-stage founders:
Media Databases
Finding the right reporters is the foundation of PR, but manually researching 100,000+ journalists is impossible. HeyJared's database includes 100,000+ verified reporters with AI-powered matching that finds journalists whose beats align with your story—in seconds, not hours.
Traditional tools like Muck Rack and Cision cost $8K-10K/year. HeyJared gives you the same access for $99/month, making it accessible to early-stage founders.
Real-Time News Monitoring
BVP emphasizes the "rolling thunder" approach, but maintaining constant media presence requires monitoring thousands of news sources. HeyJared's Explore page monitors 3,000+ RSS feeds every 2 hours, surfacing commentary opportunities in your industry as they happen.
Instead of manually checking news sites or setting up dozens of Google Alerts, you get a curated feed of opportunities where your expertise can add value—helping you maintain media presence between major announcements.
AI-Powered Pitch Generation
Crafting personalized pitches for each journalist takes hours. HeyJared's AI pitch generator analyzes each reporter's past coverage, writing style, and interests to create personalized pitches in minutes—not hours.
This makes it feasible to maintain the "rolling thunder" approach even as a solo founder. Instead of spending 2 hours crafting one perfect pitch, you can generate 10 personalized pitches in the same time.
Relationship Management
BVP emphasizes building relationships, but tracking dozens of journalist relationships manually is unsustainable. HeyJared's media list helps you track when you last contacted each journalist, what you discussed, and when to re-engage—turning relationship-building from a memory game into a systematic process.
Set reminders to check in periodically, share relevant updates, or congratulate journalists on recent coverage. These small touches, done consistently, turn cold contacts into warm relationships.
Email Tracking and Automation
Knowing when reporters open your emails helps you time follow-ups perfectly. HeyJared's email tracking shows you open rates and click-through rates, so you know when to follow up and when to move on.
Our email automation also handles follow-ups, so you don't have to manually track which emails need responses. Set it once, and HeyJared handles the rest.
🎬 Putting It All Together: Your PR Action Plan
BVP's guide provides an excellent strategic foundation. Here's how to turn that strategy into action:
The PR fundamentals for early-stage founders:
- Know your story (BVP got this right—use AskJared to help refine it)
- Build relationships before you need them (use HeyJared's database to find journalists and engage authentically)
- Share what you can, when you can (find commentary opportunities to maintain media presence)
- Be patient (PR takes 6-12 months, but tools like HeyJared make it sustainable)
- Use tools to scale your efforts (don't hire PR until you can't do it yourself—and with HeyJared, that threshold is much higher)
If you're an early-stage founder, take BVP's strategy advice and adapt it to your reality. You don't need a PR agency at seed stage. You don't need to be on social media if it's not your thing. You don't need to pitch constantly.
What you do need: Clarity on your story, patience to build relationships, and the right tools to execute efficiently. With HeyJared, you can implement BVP's PR fundamentals without the overhead of a PR agency or the time commitment of manual research.
Reference: This guide builds on Bessemer Venture Partners' PR fundamentals guide. If you haven't read it yet, start there—it's an excellent foundation, especially the sections on founder-led communications and preparing your CEO for media opportunities.
Ready to Put BVP's PR Fundamentals Into Practice?
HeyJared gives you the tools to execute BVP's PR strategies efficiently—find the right reporters, craft personalized pitches, monitor commentary opportunities, and track coverage—all in one platform designed for founders who want to do PR themselves.
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