Getting Featured in Forbes, YourStory & Podcasts Without a PR Retainer

Traditional PR agencies charge $8-15K a month and deliver two placements a quarter, if you're lucky. We've landed clients in Forbes, YourStory, Entrepreneur, The Ken, and 40+ podcasts using a founder-led outreach system that costs nothing but time. Here's exactly how it works.

Step one: stop pitching yourself. Journalists don't care about your funding round, your product launch, or your 'exciting update.' They care about stories their readers will share. Reframe every pitch around a trend the reporter is already covering, and offer yourself as the proof point. Read their last five articles before you email. Reference them specifically.

Step two: build a media list, not a spray list. Twenty reporters who cover your exact beat is worth 500 generic contacts. For each one, note their last three stories, their angle, their preferred contact method (Twitter DM vs email vs Signal), and one non-obvious hook only you can offer. This spreadsheet is your entire PR strategy.

Step three: the four-line pitch. Subject line is the headline of the story you're proposing. Line one names the trend. Line two is your specific, contrarian data point. Line three is one sentence of credibility. Line four offers a 15-minute call this week. That's it. No attachments. No 'per my last email.'

Podcasts are even easier. Most shows are actively hunting guests. Send the host three podcast-ready hooks (not topics — hooks), a 90-second Loom on why their audience specifically needs this conversation, and one clip from a previous interview. Response rates run 30-40% when you do this right. Our clients average one podcast a week doing nothing else.