How to Get Press for Your Startup

boost.inc gets press for your startup by packaging your story and placing it across 21 organic publications in 48 to 72 hours, from $2,800, with do-follow links and no sponsored tags, handled through our editorial relationships without ever needing your password or account access.

Most founders know press matters but have no idea where the door actually is. You can spend months emailing reporters who never reply, or you can hand the story to a desk that already knows the editors. This guide walks the real mechanics of earning coverage, what the do-it-yourself path actually looks like, and how we place it for you.

Key facts

Larger guaranteed networks, including higher-authority outlets, are available for founders who want broader reach.

What is startup press, and why does it matter?

Earned media is coverage a publication runs because the story is worth running, not because it was bought as an advertisement. It is the press that shows up when someone searches your name and decides whether to trust you. According to Wikipedia's overview of earned media, this kind of coverage carries more credibility than paid placements precisely because the outlet, not the brand, chose to publish it.

A media placement is a single published article about you or your company that lives on a real publication's domain, written in editorial voice, and ideally links back to your site. Placements compound: three or four credible articles change what an investor, partner, or customer sees in the first page of results.

For founders, press does three concrete things. It builds authority, so a stranger who looks you up finds proof you exist and that others took you seriously. It creates a searchable track record that holds up during due diligence. And when the links are do-follow, the coverage also supports how search engines and AI assistants describe you. Google's own documentation on crawlable links explains why a standard, followable link passes signals that a nofollow or script-only link does not.

How do you actually get a startup featured in publications?

You get featured by pairing a clear, newsworthy angle with an editor who covers that beat and has a reason to care. The work splits into three parts: the story, the relationships, and the follow-through. Founders usually have the first and lack the second two.

The story has to answer "why now" and "why this matters to your readers." A funding round, a launch, a surprising data point, a contrarian take on your industry, a founder with an unusual background: these are angles. "We exist and we are great" is not. Editors get hundreds of the second kind a week.

The relationships are where most founders stall. A pitch from a name an editor recognizes gets read. A cold pitch from an unknown address competes with the rest of the inbox. This is the part we carry for you.

Step 1: Package your story so it reads as news

Before anything reaches an editor, the angle has to be sharp. We take what you built, who you are, and why it matters right now, and shape it into a piece an outlet would publish on its own merit. You bring the raw material; we find the hook. If there is a number worth leading with, a milestone, or a genuinely fresh point of view, that becomes the spine of the article.

What to prepare on your side: a few sentences on what the company does, what changed recently, and what makes the founders worth writing about. That is the whole lift.

Step 2: Match the story to the right outlets

Not every publication fits every founder. A consumer app, a B2B infrastructure play, and a local service business each belong in different rooms. We route your story to outlets where it lands as relevant coverage, then place it through editors we already work with. Because the relationships exist, the story does not sit in a slush pile waiting to be noticed.

For the standard package, that means 21 organic publications. For founders who want named, higher-authority outlets, we run larger guaranteed networks built around the same process.

Step 3: Draft, place, and deliver the coverage

We handle the drafting and the placement so the article reads like real press, because it is. The pieces run as organic editorial, carry no sponsored or paid tags, and include do-follow links back to your site. The standard package turns around in 48 to 72 hours. You review, we place, and you get back live links to coverage you can put in front of investors, on your site, and in your own pitch.

You can start a placement through our press desk or open a request with your story and links.

What does the do-it-yourself route really look like?

The do-it-yourself path can work, but it is slow and uncertain, and most founders underestimate both. Here is the honest version.

You build a media list, write a pitch, and email reporters one at a time. Major outlets document how they take submissions. Forbes, for example, runs a contributor and editorial model where coverage flows through individual writers and editors rather than a single public intake form, which means you first have to find the right person, then give them a reason to respond. That research alone can eat days per outlet.

Here is the line worth drawing clearly. What the outlets document is the front door: they accept pitches, they have editors, they publish stories that fit their beat. What is genuinely uncertain is everything after you hit send. In practice, reply rates to cold founder pitches are low, response times stretch from days to weeks, and a "maybe" can sit unanswered indefinitely. The documented part is that a door exists. The unpredictable part is whether anyone opens it for you, and when.

Realistically, a founder going it alone should expect:

• Weeks to months of list-building, pitching, and following up, with most emails unanswered.
• No guarantee of placement, and no control over whether a link is included or whether it is do-follow.
• High opportunity cost, since the hours spent chasing reporters are hours not spent building.

The do-it-yourself route is real and sometimes lands. It is just slow, low-yield, and impossible to schedule around. Our media package turns the same outcome around in 48 to 72 hours because the relationships and the process already exist. That is the difference between hoping for a reply and booking a result.

How does boost.inc place press without my passwords?

We place press entirely through our internal editorial relationships, which means we never ask for your password or login credentials and never need access to your accounts. This is a hard line, not a courtesy.

Everything we need is information you hand us on purpose: your story, your founders, and your links. We do not log into your email, your site, or your social accounts. The placement happens through reps and editors we already work with, using the material you provide. Access plus process, not a trick. We do not promise outlets we cannot reach or coverage we cannot deliver; we deliver the organic, do-follow placements in the package and the larger networks when you want more reach.

That is also why this is faster and cleaner than the do-it-yourself grind. You are not handing over keys to anything. You are handing over a story to a desk that knows where it belongs.

Who is this for?

This is built for founders and operators who need credibility on a clock. Specifically:

• AI and tech startup founders raising, launching, or hiring, who need press that holds up when investors and candidates search them.
• Wall Street and executive professionals building a searchable authority trail that reinforces their track record.
• Creators, influencers, and public figures who want real editorial coverage to back their following.
• Agencies placing press for their own clients through one reliable desk.
• Small and local business owners who want legitimate coverage to stand out and earn trust in their market.

If you have a story and no idea where the editors are, this is the room. You can see the full menu on our services page or jump straight to the press desk.

What should you expect, and what are the trade-offs?

Expect a light lift on your side and a fast turnaround on ours. You provide three things, we shape the angle, and within 48 to 72 hours you have live placements across 21 organic publications with do-follow links and no sponsored tags. Larger guaranteed networks scale that reach when you want named or higher-authority outlets.

The honest trade-offs: the standard package is a network of solid organic publications, not a single front-page feature in a top-tier title; that is what the larger guaranteed networks are for. And while we control the placement and the links, the angle is only as strong as the story you bring, so the better your raw material, the better the coverage reads. Press also compounds over time rather than overnight, so treat the first package as the foundation of a track record, not a one-time spike.

What you should not expect is a password request, account access, or anything sketchy. The work runs on relationships and a clear process, full stop.

Start your placement

If you want press that shows up when someone vets you, bring us your story, your founders, and your links, and we handle the rest. No forums to dig through, no cold-pitch grind, no access to your accounts. Open a boost.inc account to start a request, and your story, drafts, and live placements stay in one place from the first message to the published links: create your account.