# StartupPRPlaybook

> The complete PR playbook for startup founders. Learn to write pitches that get opened, build journalist relationships, and land coverage in top publications.

StartupPRPlaybook is a free, founder-focused resource for getting press coverage without hiring an expensive agency. It provides step-by-step guides, proven templates, and real examples covering everything from writing press releases and pitch emails to building media lists, running launch-day PR, and measuring results. It is built for early-stage startup founders and operators who want to do their own PR on any budget, even $0.

## Guides
- [Startup PR 101: Getting Press Without an Agency](https://www.startupprplaybook.com/guides/startup-pr-guide): Foundational guide to startup PR covering why PR matters, the 7 newsworthiness factors, and how to build your core narrative.
- [How to Write a Press Release for Your Startup](https://www.startupprplaybook.com/guides/press-release-startup): Step-by-step press release writing using the inverted pyramid, with headline, lead, quote, and boilerplate guidance plus distribution and templates.
- [Building a Media List: Find Journalists for Your Startup](https://www.startupprplaybook.com/guides/find-journalists-startup): How to research and target journalists by tier using free methods and paid tools like Muck Rack, Cision, Prowly, and Hunter.io.
- [The Perfect Pitch Email: Templates That Get Opened](https://www.startupprplaybook.com/guides/pitch-email-journalist): 7 pitch email templates plus 20 subject line templates, hook/substance/proof/ask structure, and follow-up sequences.
- [Creating a Media Kit for Your Startup](https://www.startupprplaybook.com/guides/startup-media-kit): How to build a press page and media kit with company boilerplates, founder bios, logos, screenshots, and download functionality.
- [HARO Strategy for Free PR](https://www.startupprplaybook.com/guides/haro-pr-strategy): How to use HARO (Help a Reporter Out) to land free coverage by finding queries fast and crafting winning responses.
- [Funding Announcement PR Guide](https://www.startupprplaybook.com/guides/funding-announcement-pr): Playbook for announcing funding by round size with embargo strategy, a 4-week timeline, and investor coordination.
- [Launch Day PR Coordination](https://www.startupprplaybook.com/guides/launch-day-pr): Hour-by-hour launch playbook covering embargo vs simultaneous release, exclusives, Product Hunt, and channel coordination.
- [Crisis PR for Startups](https://www.startupprplaybook.com/guides/startup-crisis-pr): Crisis prevention, first-hour response protocols, and scenario playbooks for outages, data breaches, and viral content.
- [Building Journalist Relationships](https://www.startupprplaybook.com/guides/journalist-relationships): Long-term strategies for becoming a trusted source through non-pitch outreach, providing value, and social media.
- [PR Timing Strategy](https://www.startupprplaybook.com/guides/pr-timing-startup): The best days, times, and seasons to pitch, plus newsjacking and follow-up timing and building a PR calendar.
- [Measuring PR Success](https://www.startupprplaybook.com/guides/pr-metrics): How to track coverage quality, reach, business impact, and SEO with UTM tracking and weekly/monthly/quarterly reports.

## Resources
- [Case Studies](https://www.startupprplaybook.com/case-studies): Real-world startup PR and growth case studies with applicable tactics.
- [Smile Taxi Service: Multi-Location SEO Strategy Case Study](https://www.startupprplaybook.com/case-studies/smile-taxi-service): How Smile Taxi Service used a multi-domain, geo-targeted website network to dominate Thailand's taxi market.
- [eSIM Hub](https://www.startupprplaybook.com/case-studies/esim-hub): How eSIM Hub, a seller of data eSIMs for travelers, built market-specific credibility with a network of localized exact-match-domain sites (one per country across 10 Asian markets) feeding a single brand hub. The PR angle: local-language landing pages make a brand quotable and findable in each market, including by AI answer engines, and the case study shows how to turn that footprint into earned coverage per market.
- [Flower Delivery in Korea](https://www.startupprplaybook.com/case-studies/flower-delivery-korea): A PR/trust case study on how Flower Delivery in Korea overcomes the central objection in cross-border gifting—will a bouquet ordered from abroad really arrive fresh, on the right day?—with a "local Korean florist, global reach" narrative. Overseas buyers order; a Korea-based florist arranges and hand-delivers locally. Covers the trust signals, social proof, and honest human-interest media angles (diaspora gifting, trust-and-logistics) that make the story credible and quotable, plus how a Virginia origin and global Cloudflare CDN back the promise. No fabricated press or metrics.
- [ThaiQROrder](https://www.startupprplaybook.com/case-studies/thaiqrorder): A PR positioning case study on ThaiQROrder (thaiqrorder.com), a free QR-code table-ordering app for restaurants, cafes, and street-food stalls in Thailand. Diners scan a per-table QR and order in the browser with no app and no signup; menus auto-translate into 8 languages; owners manage orders from a dedicated iOS/Android app with loud alerts. The PR angle: one true fact—0% commission on every order—becomes a newsworthy counter-narrative to high-commission delivery apps, and the case maps two reporter-ready angles (local SMB cost savings; tourist-friendly multilingual menus) plus how to keep the story honest using only verified product facts, not invented metrics.
- [DevTeam Korea](https://www.startupprplaybook.com/case-studies/devteam-korea): An authority/positioning case study on DevTeam Korea, a Korean software studio that handles MVP, web, app, and AI development end to end and operates the result. By fusing development with web security and post-launch SEO/AEO/GEO marketing, it ranks #1 on Google for core Korean development keywords and has signed dozens of major clients. Shows how a verifiable category-leading position becomes a trust signal that wins enterprise clients and earns media coverage.