Most startups waste money on PR too early. PR works when you have a story to tell.
PR is powerful when the timing is right. The problem is that most founders hire an agency or start pitching journalists before they have anything genuinely newsworthy to say. The result is wasted budget and burned relationships with journalists who won’t take your call next time.
You’ve just closed a funding round. You’ve signed a major customer. You’re launching a product that does something genuinely new. You have data or research that journalists would find interesting. These are stories. “We exist and we’re excited about it” is not a story.
Before you spend money on PR, build your own platform. LinkedIn is the most underused channel for B2B founders in the UK. Write about the problem you’re solving, the decisions you’re making, the lessons you’re learning. This builds an audience that PR amplifies later. If nobody reads your own content, paying someone to pitch journalists won’t fix that.
In 2026, the most effective startup PR isn’t press releases. It’s founders speaking on podcasts, writing sharp LinkedIn posts, and building a reputation as the person who understands a specific problem better than anyone. This is slower than a press hit but compounds over time.
When you have consistent stories to tell (at least one per month), a budget of £3k to £15k per month, and a clear goal beyond “get coverage.” Look for agencies that specialise in tech startups, not generalists. They know which journalists cover your space and how to pitch them.
What good looks like: A founder who built a LinkedIn following of 5,000 by posting twice a week for six months, then hired a PR agency when they closed their Series A. The agency amplified a story that already had an audience. Coverage landed in the right places because the foundation was already there.
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