Why Every Startup Founder Needs to Understand Startup PR – Mauro on the CTO Show Podcast

Advice

Most startups treat PR like that gym membership they’ll definitely use next month. Sure, it sounds important, but right now there’s code to ship and customers to chase. Our very own Mauro Battellini, co-founder of Black Unicorn PR, recently sat down with Mehmet on The CTO Show podcast to explain why this thinking will eventually bite you in the ass.

And that applies to technical co-founders too! Whether you are a CTO or a CEO co-founder, focusing on product or on fundraising and leading the team, you are still a co-founder, and that means that eventually you will need to make decisions related to PR. Whether its through hiring a PR (or marketing) lead and delegating, or hiring an agency, it simply pays off to understand the mechanics and workings of startup PR. Guess what – you don’t need to spend too much time. With a bit of education at the right time, you can already get there.

Speaking of education, here are some lessons Mauro dropped on the pod:

Startup PR Isn’t Day One Stuff, But It Will Be a Day 2 or 3 Thing!

Let’s get one thing straight: if you’re obsessing over press coverage while your product barely works, you’ve got your priorities backwards. Mauro’s first piece of advice? Don’t worry about PR on day one. Focus on building something people actually want, test your assumptions, and get scrappy with Product Hunt launches and Hacker News posts. But, and it’s a big “but” (no puns intended at all), do educate yourself on the basics of PR. Especially, startup PR. After all, PR is not the same for corporates, SMEs or hyperlocal businesses.

Here’s the plot twist most founders face eventually: growth marketing and cold outreach will only get you so far without building a reputation, a track record of credibility. Eventually, you’ll need institutional investors who google you or AI search you before taking meetings. You’ll pitch enterprise clients who want to know you’re not going to vanish overnight. You’ll try to hire senior talent who research your reputation and leadership style, your vision, before joining. Suddenly, trust isn’t just nice to have – it’s your competitive advantage.

This is when PR stops being optional and starts being a strategic concern.

Startup PR It’s Not About Getting Your Face in [Insert Vanity Target]

Too many founders think PR means chasing vanity metrics and press hits. Wrong game entirely. PR is about stakeholder influence, and startups have more stakeholders than a small country: investors, enterprise buyers, regulators, talent, partners, and more.

Each group has different priorities, but they all want the same thing: validation that you’re worth their time and trust. A fintech applying for licenses needs regulatory credibility. A B2B startup pitching Fortune 500 companies needs to look established. A founder raising Series A needs VCs to find impressive things when they inevitably stalk your digital footprint.

Earned media does this heavy lifting better than any marketing budget ever could. When journalists write about you, they’re essentially lending you their credibility. When trade publications feature your insights, you’re borrowing their authority. And that’s where a lot of your stakeholders will be.

Don’t get us wrong, your dream top tier placement will surely be a positive step forward, but it’s not always the most strategic move, and if you are not quite there yet to entice them it won’t be the most productive use of time. If we would have counted the number of startups that contact us obsessed with getting into TechCrunch, we assure you it wouldn’t be a low number at all. The issue with the vast majority of those is that their traction (revenue, users, etc) or funding news, or prominence of backers, is not significant enough to be considered by the publication. Therefore, the smart approach is to begin building reputation in more attainable targets.

Thought Leadership That Doesn’t Make People Cringe

A huge component of the PR game for startups is thought leadership. But here’s the issue. Personal branding makes a lot of founders uncomfortable, probably because LinkedIn is full of people posting about their morning coffee routines as if they’re Steve Jobs. And now here’s reality: your startup’s brand equity is tied to you, especially early on. Investors and clients want to understand who’s driving the ship.

By the way, you don’t need to become a LinkedIn influencer (in fact, that’s almost never our goal), but you do need to show up when it counts. Deep, meaningful opinions on the industry. Commenting on new regulation. Charting a way forward for the industry. These are all valuable thoughts that industry media and others are keen to publish, relevant audiences keen to read. Your bylined pieces, in other words, articles in your name you contribute to third party publications, will make an impression on your stakeholders. They can also be shared on social media and other channels. It may also spark interesting industry conversations.

Real thought leadership isn’t about buzzword bingo or humble-bragging about your productivity hacks. It’s about being genuinely useful. Share insights about industry trends. Offer perspective when news breaks in your space. Show depth about the problem you’re solving. Write for trade publications. Join niche podcasts. Contribute to conversations that matter.

The World Is Not Flat, Geography Matters (Sorry Thomas Friedman)

Mauro works with startups from all over. That includes Central and Eastern Europe, MENA, and other regions that don’t get automatic Silicon Valley or London spotlight treatment. Great products can come from anywhere, but media attention doesn’t follow automatically.

Most international outlets are based in the US and UK. Founders from emerging ecosystems often don’t know how to access them or what makes stories newsworthy to Western journalists. Also, less mature startup markets are at a disadvantage for funding stories. The amounts are much lower, but journalists don’t necessarily look at the utility of money in a given geography, they will compare the absolute numbers.

The strategy? Start local and level up. Build credibility with trade publications and regional media first, then use that foundation to pitch international coverage. Journalists read each other’s work religiously. One solid feature can snowball into bigger opportunities if you play it smart. This is not to say you that you shouldn’t try international media when given the right circumstances and ingredients!

Fundraising PR That Actually Works

When Mauro talks about PR’s role in fundraising, he’s not talking about vanity announcements. He shared the story of a defense tech client whose pre-seed news made waves on LinkedIn and landed them on new investor radars. The funding announcement was just the hook – the real value was in the strategic messaging.

Smart fundraising PR doesn’t just announce numbers. It tells a story: here’s what we’re building, here’s why it matters, here’s why smart money believes in us. This creates social proof that spreads through investor networks, newsletters, and community groups. It opens doors that cold emails never will.

But here’s the catch: PR creates opportunities, it doesn’t close deals. You still need to follow up and convert attention into actual conversations.

AI is Making PR More Important, Not Less

While everyone’s debating whether AI will kill marketing, it’s actually making PR more valuable. Traditional SEO is losing ground to AI-powered discovery. Investors, journalists, and operators increasingly use ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude to research companies. What do these tools prioritise? Authoritative, third-party content. Earned media, in other words.

AI doesn’t just read your website, it scans what others say about you. It ranks credibility, cross-references sources, and gives users summarised judgments about who you are. Even VC deal memos are increasingly AI-assisted. If your PR footprint is thin or overly promotional, you’ll show up poorly in these searches.

However, it is also true that a lot of sites are now preventing AI from crawling them and protecting their content. AI is at its super early stages, and lots can change very quickly. We have to stay nimble, attentive and adaptable.

Pro tip: regularly prompt AI tools with your name and company to see what comes up. If you don’t like the results, fix your comms strategy.

Startup PR is About Showing Up Consistently

Forget the Hollywood version of PR with red carpets and crisis management. Yes, that exists, but if you’re a new startup founder, it’ll take a while to get there. Startup PR is simpler: be discoverable, build trust, and articulate your vision clearly. It’s not a campaign you run once. It’s a habit you develop.

Start by understanding your key audiences. Figure out what they read, listen to, and watch. Reach out to journalists like you would to investors: personally, with context, without spamming. Remember that good PR rewards the same things as good fundraising: relationships, preparation, and clarity.

There’s no shortcut, but there’s definitely a path for founders willing to walk it.

Want more insights on startup storytelling and strategy? Check out The CTO Show with Mehmet or visit our blog for practical advice that won’t waste your time.