As a tech startup or a growing tech company, you might be considering hiring a tech PR agency to help amplify your voice and reach your target audience. You might have heard of PR and seen other companies in your space get cool articles. And you might wonder, “heck, why shouldn’t we go for it?”
However, it’s crucial to determine whether your company, in its own particular case, actually needs a PR agency beyond vanity. Nothing wrong with a bit of vanity. But we do need the investment in PR, which is not insignificant, to contribute in a meaningful way to the business.
Without further ado, in this blog post we will guide you through the considerations you might want to make before starting to look for a tech PR agency.
Real world impact
Every agency in the world has experienced this before. Whether it’s in the first email sent out of the blue, or in the first call with a prospect. “We have an amazing idea, no one has thought of this before, and it has the potential to change the world.” When it comes to business building, a wise man once told us ‘ideas are worthless, execution is everything’. Long story short, if you are not making any kind of impact in the real world, you likely won’t benefit from PR.
Questions that should be asked here, besides the technology and innovation side, include: do you already have a product in the market that people can purchase? How many users or clients do you have, in what geographies, and how much revenue do they bring? How big is your team? What proven difference is your product or service making for clients? Can you prove it with numbers and case studies? Can your product drastically change the life of an individual?
If after going through all those questions, the answer is that there’s not much going on now, but that you’re sure it will come soon in the future, then it’s likely not good enough for PR. Not because PR won’t like you, but rather because there will likely not be enough newsworthiness to work with to warrant the attention of journalists or justify the piece of real estate in publications. Cheat code: raise lots of money (see a couple of sections below).
The size or stage of your company
The size and stage of your company play a significant role in deciding whether to hire a PR agency. As an early-stage startup, you may not yet have the steady flow of news or the budget required to sustain an ongoing PR campaign. However, if your startup has achieved significant milestones, secured funding, or launched innovative products, it might be the right time to seek PR support.
For more established tech companies, a PR agency can help maintain momentum and manage public perception as you scale. Should a larger company be looking to quickly scale its PR efforts, it is usually easier, faster and more flexible to hire an agency than multiple employees. Agencies can also be given specific roles and integrated into bigger teams, or work with a company that has a single person working full time as Head of PR or as CMO, providing that person with support from strategy all the way down to execution. Generally speaking, the bigger the company, the more sense it makes to have in-house capabilities, and the more specific the assignments will be for the agency. In this case, there could be very particular needs that warrant the use of an agency.
When it comes to VC-backed startups, what is usually observed in the market is that startups don’t hire tech PR agencies until they have at least secured a seed round of £1 million or more. This is because marketing or PR budgets are simply too small for agencies, or perhaps even non-existent. For most startups, it doesn’t even make sense to consider PR until there are newsworthy things happening anyways, and these tend to start happening more after seed, and perhaps even later, when scalability leads to more real world impact, more news and other potential touchpoints with the media.
Are you bootstrapped or VC-funded?
For any type of company, VC-backed, bootstrapped or established, the same rule of thumb will hold as we mentioned above: what real world impact are you making, how significant is it and how much PR activity could it translate into?
Well, there is a bit more than real-life impact. Life isn’t fair. We all know that. Well, guess what. Media is even more unfair. Generally speaking, VC-backed startups will tend to get more coverage. That ‘Midas touch’ by the venture capitalist, that bet with the rubber stamp of a VC will make the startup more likely to be of interest for journalists, who are keen to ‘analyse these bets’. And within the world of VC-backed startups, not every startup is created equal. The following make startups more newsworthy, regardless of real world impact: the VCs backing them are famous (think Sequoia, a16z), the founders are experienced repeat founders or celebrities, or their latest round was enormous.
Bootstrapped startups, on the other hand, will need to show double the impact to garner attention, at least initially. It’s true that there are dedicated spaces for bootstrapped companies, and from time to time even VC-focused publications like to report on what’s happening in the bootstrapped world. But there are simply, mathematically, less shots to take. This is why so many bootstrapped founders become great at ‘building in public’, Twitter / X and growth marketing.
Is trust the bottleneck?
Now we’re getting to the good part. The previous sections basically established whether a PR agency would even have anything to work with. Now, we want to understand whether, even if you got PR results, these would ultimately benefit your company, instead of just giving you epic bragging rights.
Ideally, to warrant PR spend, it should feel like you have an itch, a pain to solve, rather than it being a plus. For instance, if you are a B2B fintech company looking to establish trust and influence with regulators, partner up with big financial institutions, and get speaking slots at larger finance conferences, it is likely PR will benefit you from early on. Big whales of a client with a very complex sales journey in which trust can play a huge role. On the flipside, if you’re building an app for individuals to track their fitness and nutrition, you might want to prioritise performance marketing, SEO and affiliate first. After all, the app may cost a few pounds or dollars per year, and if it has the right features, those who find it might just purchase.
So take a step back and think about your stakeholders. What do you need from them in order to achieve your business goals? How crucial is PR (or the results that PR can bring you) in the journey of those stakeholders? There are cases in which third-party validation and participation in thought leadership will yield more results, such as the B2B fintech case we mentioned. Are you one of those cases?
For VC-backed startups, funding is crucial. Securing the next funding round is always on the minds of founders. PR can help to get in front of more VCs, and communicate the right messages to be considered in the right ways. It also helps to stand out from other startups. PR can also create breadcrumbs that lead VCs scanning for opportunities within the right verticals and markets.
Or consider partnerships. Partnerships are vital for many companies, not just tech. They can become sales or marketing channels, enhance brand equity, or even lower costs. Who doesn’t love a collab between an up-and-coming new cool brand and an established powerhouse? But the bigger and more prestigious partner will still want to make sure they are collaborating with a trustworthy brand.
Another consideration is how your company is perceived by potential employees. Technology companies tend to want to attract the biggest talent, and some companies may appear more attractive than others. It’s not just about salaries and perks. For many, the vision of the company, the culture within the company, and what is inside the head of the founder or CEO (literally) matters. Again, PR can be a great medium to showcase all of these.
If in doubt about whether PR will bring you positive outcomes, think about your marketing priorities and your available resources. Are there other, more pressing bottlenecks? If PR is not the number one priority, would we still have budget left for a tech PR agency? Decisions, decisions.
Will you have enough activity?
We’re getting closer to understanding whether you should hire a PR agency. Let’s get really practical now. Say you would hire one, what tangible activity would you predict there to be in the next six to twelve months?
PR relies on having compelling stories to tell. What news or milestones are coming up? Think product launches, strategic partnerships. Is there someone within the organisation that is capable and willing to participate in thought leadership? Do you have proprietary data or are keen to commission research? News and announcements are not the only activity track of course, but if newsworthy events are sparse, and leaders are not committed, a tech PR agency might struggle to keep your brand in the spotlight.
Can you devote resources?
Even companies with lots going on, geniuses capable of becoming well-known industry thought leaders could end up with disappointment if they are not ready to put in some time or provide enough input for the agency. After working together with your agency for some time, the idea would be to provide 5,10 or 20% input and for the agency to do the rest and execute to get results. At the beginning, it might require even more input. Given how busy some startups can be, and the own personal situation of the founders – would they be ready to commit time to PR? The same applies for CMOs, marketing managers, heads of PR and similar.
So do consider whether you can devote internal resources to support PR activities. Even with an external agency, you will need someone within your company to coordinate efforts, provide information, and approve content. If your team is already stretched thin, it may be challenging to get the most out of a tech PR agency. On the flipside, if you plan it well, you can expand your team’s capacity through the agency and let it absorb a lot of the workload. Just keep in mind that with no input, likely there will be no output. Rabbits can be pulled out of a hat only so often.
Budget considerations
This one is fairly obvious. No money, no honey. It doesn’t matter how much money you have. Whether you are a startup that raised a lot, bootstrapped and profitable, or a large organisation that makes millions in profits every year. If you have not budgeted for certain expenses, it might be that hiring an agency is out of reach. At larger companies, budgets are pre-planned and often allocated to certain areas. At startups, there might be a general budget that is shared by all business areas and quite malleable depending on priorities. Consider that agencies are not the cheapest option. Prices begin in the low thousands and can go pretty high (in the US, it is common to start at $10k monthly). However, finding the right agency can make a big difference and reduce a lot of headaches. As an alternative, consider freelancers and in-house team members.
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