How to get your startup featured in the media
What makes a startup story newsworthy?
Most startup founders pitch the media the same way: they announce something and hope a journalist cares. That rarely works. Journalists get hundreds of pitches a week, and the ones that actually lead to coverage share a few things in common.
Your story needs at least one of these triggers to be worth a journalist's time:
- Timeliness. Your story connects to something happening right now. A new regulation, a market shift, a trend readers are already watching.
- Conflict or tension. You're challenging an industry norm or solving a problem nobody else will touch.
- Human interest. There's a founder story worth telling. Not "we raised money" but "we quit stable jobs because we saw something broken."
- Data or proof. You have numbers that back up a trend. Original data gets picked up fast.
- Local relevance. For Singapore and Southeast Asian media, your story matters to readers in this market specifically.
The gap between a press release and a good pitch is simple: press releases talk about your company. Good pitches talk about the reader's world and position your company as the proof point.
How do you find the right journalists for your startup?
Spray-and-pray pitching (blasting 200 journalists with the same email) is the fastest way to get blacklisted. I've placed thousands of stories over eight years through my PR agency Alpha Story, and a targeted list of 30 to 60 journalists will outperform a mass blast every time.
Start by mapping your sector to the outlets that actually cover it. If you're a startup in Singapore or Southeast Asia, here's where to focus
- Tech startups: Tech in Asia, e27, The Ken (Asia edition)
- Fintech: Fintech News Singapore, The Business Times (banking and finance desk)
- Consumer brands: Vulcan Post, CNA Lifestyle, Marketing Interactive
- General business: The Business Times, The Straits Times, DealStreetAsia
- Regional reach: Nikkei Asia, Bloomberg (APAC desk), Reuters (ASEAN bureau)
For each outlet, find two or three journalists who have recently written about your space. Read their last five to ten articles. Look at the angles they favour and the companies they've covered. This homework takes time. It's also the reason your pitch gets read instead of deleted.
Where to find journalist contact details: LinkedIn is your best starting point. Most journalists in Southeast Asia are active there. You can also use tools like Google News alerts, Hunter.io for email addresses, and X (formerly Twitter) where many journalists share what they're working on.
How do you write a pitch email that journalists actually read?
The pitch email is where most startups lose. They write long emails about their product features that read like marketing copy. Journalists don't care about your product. They care about stories their readers will click on.
Here's a pitch structure I've used across thousands of placements. It works because it puts the journalist's interests first:
Line 1: Timely hook and context. Tie your pitch to something happening right now.
Lines 2-3: What you're seeing in the market. Share a trend, a data point, or an observation that makes the journalist lean in.
Lines 4-5: Who you are and what you can offer. Your company as the proof point, plus what assets you have (data, customer interviews, expert commentary).
Line 6: Clear ask. Do you want an interview? A feature? An expert quote in their next piece? Say it directly.
Here's what that looks like in practice for a Singapore-based startup:
"Singapore SMEs are struggling with rising compliance costs after the new data protection amendments. Our company, founded by a former MAS compliance officer, is helping 200+ small businesses automate their compliance workflows, cutting costs by 40%. Would you be open to a 15-minute call to discuss how SMEs are adapting?"
Notice what that pitch does: it leads with the reader's problem, not your product. It includes a specific number. And the ask is clear and low commitment.
What to avoid: don't open with "I hope this email finds you well." Don't attach a PDF press release as your first contact. Avoid pitching five journalists at the same outlet at once, because they talk to each other. And get the journalist's name right. You'd be surprised how often people don't.
If you want to see what professional pitch emails look like, we share examples on our sample pitches page.
When should you pitch journalists, and when should you wait?
Timing kills more good pitches than bad writing does. You can have the right story and the right email, but if you send it on the wrong day, it disappears.
General rules that hold true across most markets:
- Best days to pitch: Tuesday through Thursday morning. Mondays are inbox triage. Fridays are wind-down.
- Avoid: major political events, national holidays, and any week where a big global story is dominating the news cycle. Your seed round announcement cannot compete with an election.
- Singapore-specific timing: Budget season (usually February), Singapore FinTech Festival (November), and SWITCH (October) are high-noise periods. But they can also work in your favour if your story ties directly to those events.
For bigger announcements, consider an embargo: give one or two top-tier journalists early access to the story in exchange for publishing on your chosen date. This works well for funding rounds and product launches. But only use embargoes with journalists you already have a relationship with. Cold-pitching an embargo rarely works.
How do you follow up without being annoying?
Most founders either never follow up (leaving coverage on the table) or follow up so aggressively that they burn the relationship. You want something in between.
- Wait 3 to 5 business days after your initial pitch before following up.
- Keep the follow-up short. Two to three sentences. Add one new piece of information, like a relevant news hook or a customer quote.
- If no response after two follow-ups, move on. You can re-pitch the same journalist with a different angle in four to six weeks. Don't keep pushing the same story.
- Track everything. A simple spreadsheet works: journalist name, outlet, date pitched, angle, response, follow-up dates. Over time, this becomes your media relationship database.
If a journalist says "not right now" or "not for us," that's useful information, not rejection. Ask what they are looking for. That single question has opened more doors for us than any pitch template.
What should you do after you get media coverage?
Getting the article published is half the job. What you do with that coverage afterwards determines whether it leads to more opportunities or just sits on your website.
- Share it on social media and tag the journalist. They appreciate the visibility, and a pulled quote from the piece performs better than just posting the link.
- Add it to your website. An "As Featured In" section with publication logos builds trust with visitors who've never heard of you.
- Put it in your investor deck and sales materials. A quote from a recognized publication carries more weight than anything you say about yourself.
- Use it to pitch the next outlet. "We were recently featured in [Publication] for [angle]" immediately tells the next journalist that your story has legs.
One piece of coverage, handled well, leads to the next. That's how startups go from unknown to a name journalists actually recognize. If you're building this for the first time, our guide on doing your own startup PR in Singapore walks through the full strategy.
Can you do this yourself, or do you need a PR agency?
Founders can handle their own media outreach in the early stages. If you have one clear story, ten to fifteen target journalists, and the time to build those relationships, DIY PR works. Many of the startups we've worked with started that way before bringing in outside help.
Where a PR agency becomes worth it: when you need coverage across multiple markets, when you're managing a crisis, or when the founder's time is honestly better spent elsewhere. That's a judgment call, and it depends on your stage and budget.
If you're weighing the options, you can see what working with us looks like on our pricing page or book a quick call to talk it through.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to get media coverage for a startup?
With targeted outreach, expect two to six weeks from your first pitch to a published article. Getting to a point where journalists start coming to you takes three to six months of consistent effort. No shortcuts there, but each placement makes the next one easier.
How many journalists should I pitch at once?
Fewer, better pitches win. A list of 10 to 15 relevant journalists, each getting a personalised pitch that references their beat and recent articles, will outperform mass-emailing 200 contacts. If you're sending the same email to everyone, you're doing it wrong.
Do startups need a PR agency to get press coverage?
Not necessarily. Founders can handle early-stage media outreach on their own, especially with a strong story and a targeted journalist list. A PR agency becomes useful when you need campaigns across multiple markets, ongoing journalist relationships you can't maintain yourself, or crisis management. When to bring in help depends on your stage, your story, and how much time you can realistically spend on it.
