Why founders are ditching $30K retainers for AI-powered PR that works
"Reporters want to talk to CEOs and co-founders–not PR people. As an early stage startup founder you should be building reporter relationships and making pitches. Your success rate will go up and you will actually spend less time and money on PR. Take it from me–we spent over $100,000 on PR agencies and PR people as an early stage startup before we figured this out."
— Michael Seibel, former President of Y Combinator
Journalists want authentic stories from the source, not filtered messages through PR intermediaries
Let's be honest about where the top 1% of agencies can help—and why you should still do it yourself
You wouldn't pay someone $30K/year to do your business development for you—you'd leverage your network, build relationships personally, and use tools to scale efficiently. PR should work the same way. Even the best agencies can only offer warm intros to a tiny fraction of relevant journalists. For the other 99% of media opportunities, you need direct outreach—which you can do better than any agency.
Compare authentic founder outreach with diluted agency communications
AI helps you tell your story in your words, not agency-speak
From idea to 100 personalized pitches in minutes
See every pitch, response, and metric in real-time
Build connections with reporters under your own name
24/7 AI assistance without waiting for account manager calls
Junior account managers rewrite your story in generic PR language
Weeks of back-and-forth for simple pitch approvals
Monthly reports with vague metrics and no real insights
Reporters know the agency, not you or your company
Scheduled calls, delayed responses, vacation blackouts
See why founders are choosing direct AI assistance over agency middlemen
Billionaire Entrepreneur
The first problem with hiring a PR firm is cost. Cash is always in short supply in startups. Given all the potential places that you need cash in a startup, is the company better served having that cash available to potentially keep the company alive another day, week or month? Or hiring a PR person? I would rather have the cash. On the other hand, the same amount of time could be spent communicating directly with the media outlets you want to cover you and using that time to develop a direct relationship.
Source: BlogMaverick
That $30K retainer buys you a layer of separation between you and journalists—exactly what reporters don't want. You're paying to make your story less authentic and less compelling. HeyJared puts you in direct contact with reporters while giving you AI tools to scale efficiently.
Start pitching today, not after weeks of onboarding
No more playing telephone through account managers
AI doesn't juggle 20 other clients or have competing priorities
Reality check: You could run HeyJared for 51 years for the cost of one year with a PR agency.
"Our PR agency kept saying journalists were 'too busy' to talk to founders directly. Then we started using HeyJared to reach out ourselves. Turns out reporters LOVE talking to founders—we got 3x better response rates, more in-depth coverage, and built lasting relationships. The agency was the barrier, not the solution."
— Every founder who's made the switch
See the dramatic difference in speed from decision to coverage
Sign up & input story (5 minutes)
AI finds 100+ reporters (instant)
Review & send personalized pitches
Day 1: Already pitching reporters
Week 1: First coverage secured
Week 1: Sales calls & contracts
Week 2-3: Onboarding & briefings
Week 4-6: Strategy development
Week 8-10: First draft materials
Week 12+: Maybe first pitches sent
Month 4: Still waiting for results...
Skip the middleman that reporters don't want to talk to anyway. Build authentic relationships, tell your story in your own voice, and save $28,812/year in the process.