Marketing / PR

Subject: EMBARGO [Company name] raises [$X round] to [~5 word summary of what makes company unique/matter]

Hi [Journalist name],

I saw you wrote [related article] and thought you would be interested in covering our funding announcement. [Brief two sentence description of why company is unique/groundbreaking.]

• [Lead investor and other notable investors]
• [Notable metrics/partnerships/existing customers that establish credibility of company]
• [Notable metrics/partnerships/existing customers that establish credibility of company]

We’re asking for an embargo on any stories until [date of announcement]. If you agree to the embargo, please let me know and I can send over a media kit that includes the full press release, multimedia, and investor quotes. I’m also free to talk [a few blocks of availability] and can set up an interview with [investors]. Please let me know if you have any questions!

Best, [Founder name]

[Founder title]

Unlike other types of stories, a funding or launch announcement is hard news, meaning it will only happen once, and it won’t be a story anymore once it breaks. When you pitch the story under embargo, journalists appreciate having time to work on the story, and they also appreciate the guarantee that no one will be able to write before them. With funding stories, if a journalist doesn’t write the day the news is announced, they typically won’t write at all.

You also want to make sure that no one breaks the embargo. This is why you can ask them to explicitly agree to the embargo, ensuring that they’ve registered that there is an embargo and that they know the time it lifts. Once they agree to the embargo, you can send them the full media kit.

Remember, an embargo is different than an exclusive. If you pitch under embargo, there is no understanding that you’re exclusively pitching that journalist. This also incentivizes journalists to post their article right when the embargo lifts, to ensure that no one beats them to the news. If the journalist asks for an exclusive after you pitch them (which will sometimes happen with top-tier publications like the Wall Street Journal), figure out if there are any exclusive angles you can offer them — an interview with your lead VC, a specific funding detail, etc.

If you do offer them an exclusive angle, make sure you don’t offer the same one to any other journalists until after the news breaks. Be very clear what element of the story is an exclusive, and know that sometimes an exclusive angle is not enough. A WSJ journalist might want the entire story to be an exclusive.

Now this gets tricky. To avoid this situation and if you really value an exclusive story (which often means others won’t cover it except for downstream “coverage of the coverage”), we recommend picking one or two journalists who you would be happy offering your story to entirely exclusively and see if they bite first. When you email them, tell them they have a day to claim the exclusive. If they don’t, then you can send the embargoed news to the rest of your list.

We typically recommend sending the initial pitches a week before the embargo lifts, following up once two to three days after the initial pitch, and then again the day the embargo lifts with the full media kit.

Make sure no trace of the news breaks until the day of the embargo lifts. This includes Twitter, Facebook, Medium, and company blog posts. If someone else is making an announcement that will include your news (for example the release of the companies in your Y Combinator batch), make sure to coordinate so that the day of the announcement is the day your embargo lifts.

If you want more background on embargoes, including what types of stories to pitch under embargo, you can check out our blog post here.

• A longer background on the company, roughly 500–800 words. Should contain the following:
• Lead with the hard news, if there is any (funding, launch, major partnership, benchmark reached, etc.) The strength of this alone could warrant coverage. All essential information should be in the first paragraph or two.
• Highlight information on early traction (customers, user metrics, partnerships, etc.)
• Background information on the funding round
• Explain what the company is doing and why it is unique
• Describe the history of the companies and the founders
• Team members and investors available for interview (ideally with clear availabilities designated — you don’t want to have extended back-and-forth)
• Pre-packaged quotes from credible stakeholders involved
• “A hero image” (something to go at the top of an article)
• Screenshots/high-res product photos
• Logos
• High-res headshots
• Demo/launch videos
• Links to previous coverage
• Multimedia assets

http://angle42.co

• Recommended by Paul for Portcos
• Currently working with DODO & LivePeer
• Available for Content, PR and Opinion Articles or a combination of all three
• Pricing, Pantera Portfolio Discounts and further information available in Pantera Bazaar

www.dittopr.coDitto PR – strategy. execution. impact.

Call notes from Sep 2019:

• Team of 20 ppl across London / Brooklyn / San Francisco. 95% senior level PR personnel. Typical structure is a 6-month contract, 90-day termination clause. Retainers average $15k / month up to $30-40k.
• Past Pantera clients: Audius, Augur, Origin. Others include Monero, Decred, CoinList, Ledger, Anchorage.
• Tend to work on messaging / positioning. Strong at writing bylines. Can deliver Tier 1 media and TV, e.g., WSJ, Bloomberg, CNBC
• Right time to partner w/ Ditto: when you have hard news.
• Open to project-based work, such as funding announcement + 1 more after that.
• Not open to advertising work, e.g., digital marketing.
• Deep developer community / engagement experience through their work with Decred - promoting bounties, highlighting projects that pay devs well, hackathons, conferences, Twitter, coding bootcamps.
• For clients who may be more technically-focused, they need to manage expectations as eventually Ditto may run out of news / activity until further development is completed (based on prior client experience)
• Point of contact: Trey Ditto

https://wachsman.com/

https://www.hokkupr.com/

Call notes from Sep 2019:

• Team of 8 people - 3 in NYC, 1 in Boston, LA, Italy and Thailand.
• Previously worked with Ampleforth, Huobi Capital, MyCrypto, Paxos, Nucleus Vision. Kyber Network announcement with HTC.
• Started working with blockchain companies in 2017.
• Typical process: First 2 weeks onboarding. Create one-pagers and profile. Develop comms calendar.
• Work better with companies after Series A. Cover most English speaking media. Worked with FT, SCMP.
• Monthly retainers starting at $7k with month to month contracts, no minimum contract.
• Currently 11 clients, usually take new clients every quarter
• Prefer to start 1 month before first announcement. Purely earned media.
• 120 placements last month for clients. Copywriting / content also available.
• Also experienced with B2B, working currently with Fireblocks - considers B2B as a core strength.

https://sparkpr.com/

Call notes from Sep 2019:

• Around for 20 years - long-time Bay Area PR firm, as founder was early at Netscape. Focused on emerging tech.
• Steven Wright - 20 years of experience, started with Inside Bitcoins and with Spark for ~1 year. Handled EOS token sale, Civic, Simple Token, Blockstack, Abra
• Resources of larger company, but scrappy like small boutique with flat organization.
• Team of writers available to draft pieces/bylines. Full range of marketing services - events, awards, infographics.
• Broadcast capabilities with Bloomberg, CNBC.
• Typical retainer of ~$15k/month

http://wisevisuals.net

• Available for explainer videos and other related work
• Experience with crypto-related content (Augur, Bounty0X)
• Emmy-nominated and Telly winning motion designer

David Nage

Laura Shin

Jason Yanowitz

Jason Choi