Sep 12, 2024 · 46m · product-market-fit
How to Get Free PR for Your Startup—Tips from the Editor-in-Chief of Canada’s TechCrunch. | Dougl... · PMF Show
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
In this episode of The Product Market Fit Show, BetaKit Editor-in-Chief Douglas Soltys provides early-stage startup founders with actionable PR strategies, debunking media myths and showing how to align press outreach with targeted marketing goals.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Pablo holds 22% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Pablo as informed peer 4.3 Guest teaching 6.3 Guest disagreement 2.9 Pablo pushing back 2.3
speaking balance: gold is Pablo, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 8:22 Media focus can kill dying companies
Doug forcefully dismantles founder obsession with PR, warning that chasing vanity coverage while suffering operational issues actively expedites the startup's demise.
Hardest push from Pablo ▶ 35:27 Challenging mainstream media response ratesPablo challenges Doug's recommendation by questioning whether general outlets like the CBC will ever respond to cold startup pitches without massive spray-and-pray volume.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 14:05 The Farmer TikTok insightDoug educates the host on unconventional channels by illustrating how AgTech startups win through specialized agricultural TikTok communities rather than mainstream press.
Pablo holds their own ▶ 28:58 Putting Doug on the spot with a live portfolio casePablo takes control of the conversation by presenting a detailed operational case study of his portfolio company Roam.Auto to test Doug's PR theories in practice.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Pablo as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Pablo pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Misconceptions About Media Coverage and Traction | 4 | 7 | 4 | 2 | Doug dismantles common founder myths about media coverage equating to business traction, noting it can actually expedite business failure if fundamentals are broken. Pablo openly admits to falling into this trap early in his founder journey when celebrating an OBJ feature. | |
| Real Benefits of PR and Treating Media Like Marketing | 3 | 7 | 3 | 2 | Doug reframes PR as an inbound marketing discipline that requires audience profiling rather than vanity hype-seeking. Pablo acknowledges his past naive mindset of chasing hype from top-tier publications. | |
| Story Types and Applying Customer Profiling to Media | 4 | 6 | 3 | 2 | Pablo inquires about specific stories early-stage startups can pitch beyond funding announcements. Doug explains that pitching journalists is just inbound marketing and advises founders not to waste junior marketers' time chasing prestigious op-eds over landing page conversion. | |
| Tailoring Narratives for Tech Press vs. General Media | 4 | 6 | 2 | 2 | Doug contrasts how mainstream outlets like CBC frame stories around everyday consumer problems versus how tech press focuses on rounds and business mechanics. Pablo asks whether founders must proactively adapt pitches to fit each specific framing. | |
| Case Study: Pitching a Startup (Roam.Auto) | 6 | 5 | 2 | 3 | Pablo brings a practical portfolio case study (Roam.Auto) to test Doug's framework across B2C and enterprise angles. Doug immediately maps different story hooks to consumer press, trade verticals, and business media. | |
| How to Pitch Journalists: Gatekeepers and Outreach Rules | 4 | 7 | 4 | 3 | Doug compares outreach to journalists directly with raising capital from VCs, emphasizing research, targeted beats, and polite low-friction asks over spamming. Pablo presses on cold conversion expectations at massive outlets. | |
| Repurposing Content and Strategic Key Takeaways | 5 | 6 | 2 | 2 | Pablo highlights the value of repurposing winning evergreen stories across mediums. Doug reinforces this by encouraging founders to fully saturate their strongest narratives across multiple formats. |
Statements from this episode (10)
Soltys: Startup traction comes from sales and product, not press attention
“Traction comes from a great product, comes from sales, It comes from customers that love your product. It does not necessarily come from media attention, and it certainly won't if you just assume that it will naturally come from that.”
Soltys: Seeking press coverage during startup distress accelerates business failure
“The problem with this is if you have real problems with your business, if you actually have problems with traction, if you are burning too hot, if your runway is short, If your board hates you, if your technical co-founder just left, not only will pursuing tha…”
Soltys: Startups can gain early media traction by piggybacking on larger narratives
“There are Larger narratives that are happening in the media environment that your company might be able to take advantage of before you're necessarily ready.”
Soltys: Niche community channels can drive business goals better than mainstream press
“Whereas depending upon your objectives for your company at stage, you're at a discord server, a slack channel, a newsletter, An in-person meetup could be way more impactful to actually, like, converting on your goals as a business.”
Soltys: Pitching journalists is fundamentally a form of inbound marketing
“You should not approach your marketing initiatives any differently from your PR initiatives, because the real truth of it is like pitching to journalists is a form of inbound marketing. You are trying to create interesting content that draws back people to you…”
Soltys: Conversations with journalists are always interviews, never casual chats
“Conversations with journalists aren't conversations, they're interviews. You're kind of entering into the arena, and you have to be prepared for that”
Soltys: Business reporters prioritize enterprise metrics over consumer human-interest stories
“Business reporter at Bloomberg, Globe and Mail, BetaKit, TechCrunch, like what enterprise deals are you signing with specific industries? How many units are you moving? How much money you're making? Logistically, can you handle this stuff? Like that, that is t…”
Soltys: Journalists will help founders who show targeted pitching effort
“They're so inundated with people that are just like shotgun sending them pitches that aren't targeted to them at all. They are more than likely willing to take the time to help you triangulate or find the right place if you show any amount of effort.”
Soltys: BetaKit hosts weekly open office hours for startup founders
“It's the reason why beta kit has office hours. We just give time away every week as an open door policy for like founders to come in and just hype check on stories.”
Soltys: Early startups should focus on a single story and channel
“At this stage, all you really need to do is take your best, most impactful story, your juiciest, lowest hanging fruit target audience, and the most, like, accessible channel to you, saturate the hell out of that, learn, and then iterate.”