Roughly 1,000 startups have launched since the start of the year. Inkhouse was fortunate enough to help seven of them step out of stealth and into the spotlight.
Few moments match the thrill of a startup emerging from stealth. After years of building and refining your vision, the spotlight is finally yours—time to share your product, mission, and story with the world. But here’s the truth: you only get one shot at a first impression. In a crowded field of new ventures, your messaging has to be crystal clear, strategically targeted, and impossible to ignore.
How do you stand out?
When crafting an announcement strategy, terms like “exclusive,” “embargo,” and “day-of” are all up for debate. Choosing the right approach is crucial for any news moment, but especially for a startup coming out into the world for the first time. Simply stating that your company is present is not enough to make a meaningful impact. You need to have all the assets to tell a compelling story, like the funding details, founder availability for interviews, investor validation, customer stories, visuals, and a killer ‘why now’ answer.
Before creating your media strategy, begin by addressing three key questions:
1. Why does launching this company matter now?
2. Who are the three key audiences you want to reach?
3. How is this company uniquely positioned to solve this problem?
Where do you want to appear?
Once you’ve thoroughly answered these questions, you can start developing a media approach. Reporters are inclined to want to hear about emerging companies, but in a crowded marketplace, it’s especially important to consider the types of stories you want to tell and how you wish to be represented in the media.
The exclusive approach grants one reporter in-depth access to your story. They will have the chance to interview a company spokesperson before other outlets and may connect with third-party validators such as investors and customers. The pro of an exclusive is that you can reach a specific vertical (e.g., business or tech)or audience while providing an in-depth look into the company’s mission, vision, and unique differentiators. The downside? You may not secure a lot of additional stories in tech and business publications. Some are paywalled, which limits access for sharing across networks.
Important: We’ve heard from top-tier business producers that they’ll only take a story if they get the digital and broadcast exclusive. As newsrooms become increasingly competitive, they need to break stories first. Additionally, some won’t even consider a funding round if it’s under $100M.
An embargo approach invites multiple reporters from various verticals to know about the news in advance. It serves as a way to gauge media interest before the announcement goes live, requiring reporters to agree to review the press release before you share any assets. It’s perfect for ensuring coverage across all sectors (tech, business, trade). Reporters always appreciate as much time as possible to get to know the news and conduct interviews. And on top of that, you can still pitch broadcast stations for day-of interviews while landing digital coverage elsewhere. One negative is that there’s no guarantee that every reporter will write about the news.
Pitching only on the day of is less common and typically used when a company cannot share confidential or sensitive information in advance or needs to get their story out ASAP. In these instances, the PR team will pitch all media outlets simultaneously once the assets (press release, blog, etc.) are available to the public. Most avoid this route given that reporters have limited time to interview and write their story, and their bandwidth might be so tight that they don’t cover at all.
TL;DR?
To determine the best approach for your brand, take the time to think about what you want to communicate with your news and who you aim to reach. This will guide the rest of your strategy. The exclusive is ideal when you’re looking to tell an in-depth story and are able to offer a variety of spokespeople. An embargo is great when you want to reach a wide audience, and day-of is meant for keeping news under wraps or getting it out ASAP.
Launching from stealth is a significant milestone that you only have the opportunity to do once. If you’re a founder or working at a company that is looking for support for your launch news, reach out at [email protected].
