Startup PR: What to Spend at Each Stage
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Commit to 12 months of PR or don't start.
That's the rule I give every founder. If budget or runway can't support 12 months, skip PR and spend on paid acquisition or product. PR compounds. It punishes short attention spans.
What startup PR works for
Hiring velocity
Fundraising signal
DTC / prosumer / high-trust B2B acquisition
Category creation and defensive positioning
What it doesn't work for
Raw demand gen in non-trust categories
Product-led SaaS flywheels
Enterprise sales driven by RFPs
Stage-by-stage budget
Pre-seed / early seed. $0-$3K/month. Founder-led podcasts, bylines, community.
Late seed / Series A. $3K-$7K/month. Trade publications, customer stories, analyst briefings.
Series B+. $7K-$20K+/month. Tier 1 placements, Wikipedia, category creation.
The mistakes at each stage
Pre-seed: manufacturing a funding story before funding exists. Press wires and fake awards = credibility debt.
Late seed: over-investing in Tier 1 before trade publications. Three trade features > one Forbes piece for most B2B.
Series A: treating PR as attribution-driven growth channel. PR compounds brand equity, doesn't produce linear MQLs.
Series B: hiring in-house comms before the function is defined.
The minimum viable pre-seed program
Founder narrative (one page)
Content foundation (long-form + Schema + Wikidata)
Podcast tour (20 targets, 3-6 yeses)
Contributor bylines (Startup Grind, Hackernoon, The Muse)
Community participation (2-3 communities, weekly)
8-12 hours/week founder + 10-15 hours/week contractor.
90-day outcome: 3-6 podcast appearances, 2-3 bylines, 500-1500 qualified followers.
The compounding principle
First placement builds credential for second. By tenth, gravity inverts. Journalists start coming to you.
Most startups quit at placement three.
The pull-quote
Founders who commit to 12 months of PR build brand equity that cannot be replicated later by throwing money at it.
The window closes when competitors start.
Want the full playbook? Read the full startup PR guide.
Instant Press Co., Startup PR that compounds.