The Colab Brief - 133: Seed Round Strategies đź’°

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Ash + Lizzy
August 31, 2024

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We might age ourselves here, but we remember the old days when nearly EVERY funding announcement garnered a TechCrunch mention. 

Back then, the funding itself was news. 

These days? Not so much.  

Today, we’re diving into our latest insights from funding pitching and how you can get the most bang for your buck when announcing a smaller round. 

Read Time: 3 Minutes

Getting a lot of media coverage for big funding rounds is easy. It’s much more challenging to drive awareness for a small round, especially when it’s your first attempt at pitching the media. 

When you’re a relatively unknown entity, getting people to pay attention in the WAVE of constant funding news takes more than just a standard pitch…and we have the press feedback to back that statement up. 

Embargo Vs. Exclusive

One tactic often used to drive attention to a smaller round is an exclusive. It typically includes offering one publication an early jump on the news and giving them extra access, often through interviews or proprietary information. 

This worked fairly well in the past. However, we’ve seen a significant shift in exclusive interest, especially with the top tech press. 

Here are some tidbits we’ve heard lately from our press connections:

  • Editor from Forbes: We usually don’t cover seed funding rounds, but I’d love to stay in touch as the company grows and potentially cover down the lane.

  • Reporter from Axios: You can send me the release and I’ll take a look but in general we tend not to cover a lot of seed rounds.

  • Reporter from TechCrunch: I’m less interested in seed rounds these days. 

The exclusive route requires the reporter to fully commit to writing the story. If the news is only moderately interesting—or it’s a busy news week—they may hesitate to lock in on your piece. However, this doesn’t mean they won’t revisit it during a slower news cycle and cover the story without making an initial commitment. They could be holding back, anticipating something more significant coming down the line, and not willing to promise coverage.

Hitting the Streets

While an exclusive on a seed round used to be a strategic way to ensure at least one feature-length piece, we’re seeing better results with a broad pitching approach regarding the first funding announcement. 

A few tips to make this successful:

  • Pitch with plenty of time. Reporters are booked and busy—in fact, one reporter recently told us that he needs at least six weeks to plan an announcement because he books his stories a month in advance. Two weeks of dedicated pitching is our absolute minimum to try to place a piece these days, and even with a 14-day window, we’re still getting pushback.

  • Develop the story. “You have an AI company! And you have an AI company! EVERYONE has an AI company!” Of course, they’re all getting funding, so you’ll have to mix it up if you want coverage. Your STORY needs to be just as finalized as your legal paperwork. Talking about rounds, lead investors, and new technology is no longer enough. There’s too much competition and too few reporters to write on every new company that receives an investment. 

  • Bundle where you can. Having ongoing news to announce is nice, but creating the most exciting initial story should be the priority. Even if that means scooping a product announcement into your funding release, naming a big partner in addition to the money, or pulling some strings to get an early customer to comment. A well-executed funding announcement can set the company up for ongoing press success, which can be worth issuing fewer overall releases.

The funding landscape has been a rollercoaster in recent years, so it’s essential to keep an ear out for reporter feedback and stay in the loop on what’s likely to get coverage—and what’s not. This helps manage expectations with executives, clients, and your team.

Until next week - 

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