Timing Your Launch: Why Early-Stage Founders Rush Into PR Too Fast

During each cohort of a16z speedrun, a familiar question surfaces among founders: when should we engage with journalists? The underlying assumption is straightforward—announce the company, generate press coverage, build an audience, convert that audience into paying customers. There's an intuitive belief that media attention signals a company is on the right track.

Lester Chen, who advises hundreds of founders launching companies through speedrun, spends considerable time reshaping how they think about media relations and press strategy. His framework differs sharply from the conventional wisdom most founders arrive with.

PR as a test, not a megaphone

Chen reframes the entire purpose of press engagement. Rather than viewing journalists as a distribution mechanism, he treats them as a validation tool. "PR for early-stage companies is the crucible through which founders discover if others will find value in telling their story for them," he explains.

Pitching to reporters becomes the fastest way to test whether your narrative about why the company exists and why now holds up against someone with no incentive to be sympathetic. Coverage itself delivers "outside validation and some form of reach," Chen says, but the real value lies elsewhere. "PR is valuable as a forcing function that aligns founders and locks in a point of view. It isn't a feature set list, a market observation, a preachy set of beliefs, but a packaged message tailored for an intentional audience," he notes.

Know your actual customer, not tech Twitter

The hardest part of this test is identifying the right audience. Most founders default to assuming their market is "tech Twitter," when their real customers occupy a far narrower segment. "Some AI companies are also selling into older industries with customers who have never heard the term 'new media'," Chen observes. "This rings even truer internationally. The value of a viral Twitter post or TechCrunch feature holds less weight than a story a manufacturing plant owner might read in a national publication during their weekend breakfast." The former generates attention; the latter "might drive new inbound or firm up in-flight contracts."

The inverse applies equally. For a consumer product targeting Gen Z, a Forbes profile carries minimal value. That same effort would yield better returns through direct founder marketing or creator and user-generated content channels.

When PR actually matters

Fundraising remains the primary driver of PR activity. Chen argues that announcement coverage carries "immense strategic value for signaling to investors as well as helping in the hiring process, especially if immigration considerations are involved."

There's another dimension gaining importance: earned media shapes AI model outputs. When a potential customer asks ChatGPT or Claude about your company, the response draws largely from what credible publications have published about you. Whether you call it SEO or GEO, a quality article today has an extended lifespan.

The biggest mistake: hitting the accelerator too early

When asked about the most common errors he observes, Chen offers a vivid comparison:

"I would say the most common mistake I see early-stage founders making is hitting the NOS too soon. (Sorry I just watched far too many Fast & Furious movies on vacation and the analogy is just too good.) Hitting the NOS too soon means going through a premature process when so many variables remain vague, which ends up burning time and money in the process. They think PR will be the PRIMARY unlock for customer acquisition and forgo considering any other alternative. As crazy as it sounds, I hear it a few times every batch."

Lester Chen

Journalists evaluate startups against specific criteria. Missing these benchmarks typically means no coverage. Chen identifies the red flags he encounters most frequently:

"There isn't a fundraise event, PMF is still questionable, CAC is high while retention remains volatile, product still isn't publicly launched, the list goes on. Don't get me wrong, there are instances where articles have been written about companies with these issues, but there is usually some outlier catalyst which triggers this: a stacked team with shiny pedigrees, a viral moment worth talking about, etc. For most, simply raising some pre-seed money isn't enough. The plot needs to thicken."

Lester Chen

The DIY trap

Another recurring pitfall involves founders attempting to manage PR without professional support. "A second mistake I notice is founders who balk at the idea of getting help from PR consultants or firms," Chen says. "I've seen a lot of 'I'll do it myself' scenarios that end with botched pitches, limited coverage, and founders thinking they 'got PR' when publishing a GPT-written press release to a newswire."

According to Chen, "there is no shame in forking over some amount of money to get help with messaging and running a proper process."

Going direct: the new expectation

When asked what has shifted most dramatically in recent years, Chen is direct: "It has to be founders just going direct."

This phrase originates from Lulu Cheng Meservey, who held communications roles at Substack and Activision Blizzard before launching her own firm. She has long advocated that founders bypass reporters entirely and communicate their narrative directly to their audience. Her "go direct" thesis has evolved into something approaching industry standard.

The obstacle is psychological. Many founders experience genuine discomfort positioning themselves as public figures. "For better or worse, it's almost expected that founders build in public or develop their own online following," Chen notes. "I say worse because most founders suck at doing this or feel deep discomfort when starting. Going direct to your 426 LinkedIn followers feels brutal especially when you see a 21-year-old founder crushing it by making a video every day."

Yet the tradeoff remains worthwhile. "The reality is that there is far less gatekeeping and founders have WAY more channels to generate awareness and find their customers than ever before," Chen says.

This circles back to the foundational question: which channels actually reach your audience? "If you're selling into Generals at the Department of War," Chen concludes, "no amount of LinkedIn thinkpieces will get you a meeting."