How to earn media (and why you want to)

I’ve worked with Colin Crook of FractalPR for the past five years. Among many highlights, Colin and I collaborated on landing coverage in Matt Levine’s Money Stuff, the front page of The New York Times Business section, and a data partnership with TechCrunch. He’s also helped with many funding announcements (including my own) and crisis communications.

In our discussion, Colin shares his insights about working with the media and the trade-off between control and exposure. 

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Helen: You’ve worked with a lot of founders over the years. How has the conversation around PR shifted since you started?

Colin: When I got started, there were only a handful of PR agencies in tech that mattered. The CEOs/founders at that time moved relatively slowly compared to today. In the past 20 years, the conversation around doing PR is more like starting a company. You can get up and running really fast. I think that founders pay much more attention to PR today, regardless of whether they talk about it publicly. It matters what their company’s narrative is. Most of the conversations I have with founders about “why PR” is to achieve some sort of validation and trust. That’s probably one thing that hasn’t changed all that much. 

Helen: How does a founder’s mentality play into it?

Colin: The founders I speak with tend to view PR as transactional. Like there are inputs and then natural outputs. That is not always the case in PR. So there’s a learning curve there because, overwhelmingly, it’s a discipline that deals with other people who need to be shown that you’re building what you say you are.

2024 is a year of show, don’t tell. And that podcast a founder goes on, or that interview they might have with a journalist is the same. They need to show, not tell. 

Helen: A lot of the conversation around earned media seems to be about control. Founders want to be in control.

Colin: Yeah I agree with that. Founders need to understand that most of PR's work is with a free press. And so that comes with tradeoffs. I’ve noticed over the years that B2B and embedded fintech founders seem to be really good at understanding PR. They have a knack for how to play the game and I think that’s because they’re used to giving control over to partners. That could be a big bank, or the Federal Reserve, or anyone that furthers the business. PR is a lot like that. You have to accept that going in. Losing control is the price you pay to play the game. But the rewards can be great over time.

Helen: I’m hearing the term “growth PR” a lot these days. What is growth PR?

Colin: Growth PR is about turning PR into a growth lever of your company’s business. It hasn’t always been held accountable to do that. I’d say two different types of PR programs have existed in tech the past decade: brand PR and growth-led PR. Until very recently, PR practitioners have been able to sort of hide behind “brand PR.” The main job here is storytelling and there is an inherent lack of measurement and accountability there. It’s what most PR practitioners are good at and they want to be left alone to go and ‘tell great stories.’ But if you can’t link your work to a company’s revenue and growth, you won’t be measured and if you’re not measured then you’re not allocated budget. So the result is kind of messy right now in PR. You have all these people who have come into the industry the past decade or so, and they’re used to just “telling great stories,” and that’s not something founders are looking to hire against. 

Helen: Why do founders seem to hate journalists these days? 💩

Colin: I’ve never understood this. I think it’s probably because the two are more similar than different. They’re “in it” for one of two reasons: to be change agents in the world or because they love the accreditation that comes with success in their respective fields. And so yeah, they’re similar even though neither group would admit that. And the world needs both. 

Reporters are human beings just like you and me. They have all the same biases and fallacies. But while the tension can be real, I still see a lot of mutual respect on the day to day. I staffed an interview last week with a founder/CEO whose software company helps employees crush their student loan debt. At the end of the interview, the reporter remarked how impressed she was with the mission and work of this individual. This genuinely made my CEO’s day. She was moved. The reporter’s judgment wasn’t clouded by innovation, access, or skepticism from technology’s past promises. She just genuinely thought it was a great thing to benchmark your career against - helping people get out of generational debt. These interactions between founder and journalist happen every single day and never get talked about.

Helen: How can founders reach journalists?

Colin: It’s about more than just having a good story. A good rule of thumb is to be helpful. Take the same approach that has probably worked in getting product feedback from early customers or connecting with investors. Show up, be helpful, and don’t ask for favors. Think of reaching out to journalists like opening a checking account. You have to make some deposits before taking out a withdrawal. 

One practical tip: more and more reporters collect sources via Google surveys/sheets and then broadcast what they’re looking for rather than trying to sift through the endless barrage of emails from PR people. I think this trend will only grow, and founders should look to add their names to these call sheets. Rachel Wolfe, a consumer and finance reporter at The Wall Street Journal, is a great example. 

Helen: Any final thoughts for founders on how to think about PR and communications?

Colin: I tell founders that their PR person should hold the same position in life as their partner, lawyer, and doctor. And they’re far less expensive. We need to know where the bodies are buried. Tell us the truth. Then, go from there. It’s a relationship based on access and trust. Find a PR partner who gets you, even if the process initially feels weird and unpredictable.