The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 22 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Gerber: Well-executed cold outreach is as effective as PR relationships
“And so I think cold outreach done well is just as effective.”
Gerber: Contrarian stances win media coverage when startups lack hard news
“Especially if you don't have hard news that you're pitching, having something like pretty controversial to say. So like we work with a lot of AI companies, if nine of them, you know, have one stance on, you know, something happening in the field and one has th…”
Gerber: Tier-one media features require on-the-record valuation and revenue metrics
“There's a couple criteria that they're always going to want if it's to write a feature on your company. One is your valuation. So that needs to be something that you're sharing on the record. Two is your like hard business metrics, like usually revenue, someti…”
Gerber: Perplexity spends zero on paid marketing and drives growth via PR
“So for instance, perplexity, they have invested essentially zero in any paid marketing. They don't have a marketing person even, but they do do PR. And so essentially after their most recent announcement, they saw, you know, a massive spike in growth, a massiv…”
Gerber: PR podcast pitches do not require listening to multiple episodes
“I don't even think you necessarily need to listen to a whole bunch of episodes most of the time. Maybe occasionally you want to gut check something before you reach out, but yeah, you can tell a lot just by doing like a little bit of research.”
Gerber: Startups Can Always Win Funding Press If Pitched Correctly
“I also think not all PR people are going to agree with this, but I do think funding rounds, you can always get a reporter to cover if you go about it the right way.”
Gerber: RFPs weed out the best PR agencies by demanding free work
“One thing I would say don't do is like an extensive RFP process. Like we actually, as an agency don't participate in RFPs. A lot of the two times I've done it, I kind of had regret it just because of the amount of work going in versus the value that's there. A…”
Gerber: Reporters do not include early-stage vanity percentage growth stats in stories
“Every company wants to do these percentage, like, growth stats when they just launched, and I've never seen reporters include that in their stories, and so there are ways to give signals of how fast you're growing without being that, kind of, like, disingenuou…”
Gerber: Pitching multi-company panels to conferences is far more successful than solo pitches
“If you have an idea for, you know, a conference session, put it reaching out to, you know, colleagues that you've worked with at other companies, peers, people that are building other things that maybe don't compete, but are in a similar space and packaging th…”
Gerber: Ask podcast hosts if they accept ideas before sending pitches
“Like I'm a big fan of just reaching out on LinkedIn and saying, Hey, love the show. Are you open to guest ideas? I don't even. Mention what, like the client or anything, just like kind of opening the door. I just feel like that's so much more approachable and …”
Gerber: Stagger pitches when offering exclusives to avoid retracting media offers
“I try to really stagger it because we're offering exclusives and I highly recommend offering exclusives. So the worst thing that can happen is two reporters reply and are both interested and you have to go back to one and say, nevermind.”
Gerber: The most effective PR pitches are only three sentences long
“I would say my most successful pitches are three sentences and anytime it needs, sometimes it needs to be longer than that than that. And generally I feel like my pitch is weaker for that reason. You know, attention spans are short. And so the more concise you…”
Gerber: Everything emailed to a journalist is automatically on the record
“And I guess one important note is everything you say to a reporter in an email is on the record. And so that's why I make the point on not sharing the entire story right off the bat.”
Gerber: Startups should engage PR agencies six weeks before major announcements
“Before an announcement happens, you probably want to kick off six weeks in advance. So when we start with the company, it's like we're working on the blog, we're doing a media training, we're doing the media outreach, we're getting quotes from investors, we're…”
Gerber: PR should anchor to broader issues rather than company metrics
“It's like identifying the piece of the story that's most interesting and then like doubling down on that. So we were able to get like a great fast company piece instead of pitching this like macro, like. Here are column taxes, latest growth metrics, and they'r…”
Gerber: Most Consumer Companies Pay Media Publications Affiliate Sales Commissions
“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... And it's very common. I would say most consumer companies are doing this, but yes, there's like entire agencies that are…”
Gerber: Pitch role-matched executives rather than CEOs to vertical podcasts
“So let's say you have let's say you sell it into CFOs. Don't pitch your CEO for that podcast, pitch your, you know, get a CFO and then pitch your CFO for that podcast. I'm very for companies hiring. Folks are hiring for the roles that they sell into. It helps …”
Gerber: PR can fix factual errors post-publication, but not editorial framing
“What we can do is correct any factual inaccuracies, and so, and we do that all the time. If something's, if something is factually wrong, we can get it replaced, but if they don't like that they were called, you know, put in a category of software that they do…”
Gerber: Six Eastern's startup PR retainers start at $15,000 per month
“Our rates are start at 15 K a month for our retainers. And actually that's like For like a series A company is generally what they're at.”
Gerber: Six Eastern has a 50% success rate pitching Morning Brew
“We've had, I would say, 50% success rate with, like, getting execs featured that way, and so all, yeah, and all, all you have to do is submit through a Google form and it's just, like, one of the, one of my favorite media opportunities right now.”