PR pros work really hard to book press interviews, but here’s the reality: many of them never result in coverage. Getting the meeting is just step one. Turning that conversation into a quoted article? That’s the hard part.

The problem most often? You’re not saying anything new, interesting, or memorable.

After working with hundreds of tech startups over the years, one thing is clear: the fight for media coverage is tougher than ever. Reporters are inundated. Stories are tighter. And many startups simply don’t yet have the business metrics, customer validation, or case studies that typically tip a story from “interesting” to “publishable.”

The good news? You can dramatically increase your odds. This post is about making the most of your media interview opportunity, and ultimately setting yourself up for coverage success.

10 things to prep before an interview

1. Lead with news and forget your elevator pitch.

Reporters need a reason to write now. Is there funding, growth, a major customer win, new data, a bold POV? “We exist” is not news. Most founders will say “We’re an AI-powered contract review platform helping legal teams work more efficiently.” That’s an elevator pitch. It explains what you do. It does not give a reporter a reason to write today.

What gets attention instead: “In the past six months, we’ve cut contract review time by 42% across 18 mid-sized law firms — and one Am Law 100 firm just replaced two legacy vendors with us.” Now you’ve introduced:

• A time peg (past six months)

• Specific metrics (42% improvement)

• Customer traction (18 firms)

• A notable validation signal (Am Law 100 firm replacing incumbents)

That’s showing movement, momentum, and a stronger storyline.

2. Bring real metrics.

Revenue growth. User growth. Retention. Adoption rates. Efficiency gains. If you don’t share numbers, the story becomes vague, and vague stories don’t get written.

Your spokesperson might say, “We’re growing really quickly,” or “Customer adoption has been strong,” and “We’ve seen great traction.” Those statements mean nothing without numbers. A reporter cannot build a story around “strong.”

• Instead of, “We’re growing quickly,” say “We’ve grown ARR from $1.2M to $4.8M in 12 months and added 73 new enterprise customers this quarter alone.”

• Swap, “Customers love the product,” for “Our net revenue retention is 132%, and 64% of customers expanded their contracts within the first year.”

• Instead of, “We improve efficiency,” say “Our platform reduced outside counsel spend by 28% for a Fortune 500 client in the first six months.”

Now the reporter has a growth narrative, scale indicator, validation signal, and a quantifiable outcome. That’s the difference between “interesting company” and “data-backed story.”

3. Have at least one named customer (if possible).

Customer proof changes everything. A real-world use case beats a product description every time. I hear “We work with several leading enterprise clients,” on the regular. Standard language like,“We’re in pilots with major firms,“ or “We can’t disclose names, but they’re very recognizable.” To a reporter, that signals risk. If no one is willing to be named, is the traction real?

Before the interview, ask yourself: Do we have at least one customer willing to be named? Can we share one specific outcome they achieved? Would that customer take a reference call from the reporter if asked? If the answer to all three is yes, your odds of coverage increase dramatically. If the answer is no, consider securing one referenceable customer before pitching, or structuring the story around a data-backed case study instead of general claims.

4. Share a strong, defensible point of view.

The most quotable founders aren’t neutral. They have opinions about the market, competitors, trends, regulation, pricing models, or where the industry is headed. Safe, middle-of-the-road answers rarely make it into print because they don’t move the story forward.

“The market is evolving” is boring.

“AI is creating opportunities and challenges,” is something anyone could say.

“We think there’s room for multiple players” is a clear sign of dodging the question.

These phrases are unquoteable. What works are phrases like:

• “Our view is that 80% of AI legal tools will disappear in the next 18 months because they’re just thin wrappers on public models.”

• “Billable hour firms that don’t rethink pricing in the next two years will lose work to AI-native competitors.”

Now you’ve given the reporter tension, stakes, and a forward-looking claim. That’s something they can build a story around whether they agree with you or not.

Before the interview, pressure-test your POV: Is this specific, not generic? Is it defensible with data or experience? Would someone reasonably disagree with it? If the answer is yes, you’re on the right track. Strong coverage often comes from a strong perspective and not safe and risk-averse commentary.

5. Avoid jargon and feature dumps.

A media interview is not a product demo. It’s not the time to walk through your dashboard, list integrations, or explain your proprietary architecture. Reporters don’t write stories about feature sets. They write about problems, impact, and differentiation.

Your spokesperson might say: “We leverage a multi-layered AI orchestration engine with customizable workflows, seamless integrations, and real-time analytics.” That sounds impressive internally. To a reporter, it’s noise.

Instead of leading with features, translate them into outcomes and stakes. Swap, “Our platform includes automated document classification, AI-assisted redlining, and dynamic clause libraries” for: “Mid-sized law firms are losing thousands of billable hours each year to manual contract review. We’ve automated the most repetitive 60% of that process, cutting turnaround time nearly in half.” Instead of, “We built a proprietary large language model optimized for legal workflows,” say, “Most AI tools hallucinate when handling complex contract language. We trained our system on 12 million verified legal documents to reduce factual errors in high-risk clauses.”

Now the reporter understands the real-world problem, why it matters, what’s broken in the status quo, and what makes you meaningfully different, which shifts the conversation away from “product description” to “story.”

6. Anticipate the hard questions.

Competition. Market saturation. AI hype. Monetization. If you stumble here, confidence drops and so do your odds of inclusion.

A media interview isn’t just an opportunity to share your wins. It’s also a credibility test. Reporters are trained to probe risk, challenge assumptions, and pressure-test your story. If you get defensive, vague, or evasive, that hesitation often makes it into the reporter’s notes — and sometimes keeps you out of the story entirely.

Have crisp, confident answers to:

• Who are your top 3 competitors and why do you win?

• What’s your biggest risk right now?

• How do you make money and is it working?

• What would a skeptic say about your space?

If you can answer those without flinching, you don’t just sound prepared. Instead, you sound credible. And credible sources get quoted.

7. Make the reporter’s job easier.

Offer follow-up materials: data, charts, screenshots, customer intros, or concise background notes. The easier you make it to write, the more likely you’ll be included. Reporters are juggling multiple sources, tight deadlines, and competing angles. If they have to chase you for basic facts, clarify numbers, or wait days for approvals, you’ve just made yourself the harder source to include.

What often happens after the interview, the founder says, “Let us know if you need anything.”

The reporter does need things but now they have to ask, follow up, and wait. In a competitive story, that friction can cost you the quote.

At the end of the interview, a spokesperson or their PR rep should say something like: “I’ll send over a short follow-up email with the metrics we referenced, a customer case study, and a clean screenshot in case it’s helpful.” Then actually send:

• A 3–5 bullet recap of key stats (ARR, growth, retention, etc.)

• One short, tight customer example with measurable impact

• A high-res logo or product screenshot

• A named customer who is willing to speak if needed

• Your correct title, spelling, and preferred attribution

Assume the reporter is writing 3–5 other stories that week. The source who delivers clean, organized, usable information within hours (not days) is far more likely to be included. Beware: Making it easy isn’t about overloading them with materials, it’s about anticipating what they’ll need and delivering it before they have to ask.

8. Be concise and structured:

The hard truth? Rambling kills quotes and strong soundbites win coverage, so think in headlines and not paragraphs. A reporter is listening for clean, usable lines. If your answer takes three minutes, circles the point, and includes five side tangents, they’ll struggle to extract a quote and may move on to someone who said it better in one sentence.

What rambling sounds like: “So what we’re really trying to do is rethink the way legal teams interact with AI, because historically the tools haven’t been purpose-built for their workflows, and when you look at the broader market…” By the time you land the point, the moment is gone.

Instead of a long explanation, compress it: “Our thesis is simple: AI shouldn’t replace lawyers — it should remove the 40% of their work that’s repetitive,” or “Most AI legal tools promise speed. We built ours for accuracy in high-risk environments.” Now you’ve given the reporter a clean quote, a clear position, and a line that can anchor a paragraph that’s usable.

Before any interview and for each key message, write a 12–15 word version. If you can’t say it clearly in one or two sentences, it’s not sharp enough yet. The goal isn’t to sound rehearsed, it’s to sound quotable.

9. Understand the outlet’s (and journalist’s) audience.

Is this reporter focused on funding? Legal risk? AI ethics? Industry disruption?

Tailor your answers to their beat, not your generic talking points.

One of the biggest mistakes founders make is giving the same interview to every outlet. A legal industry trade reporter is not looking for the same angle as a business publication. A tech ethics journalist is not looking for a product walkthrough. If you don’t align with what they actually cover, you’re creating friction from the start.

Let’s say you’re announcing a new AI-powered compliance platform. The generic answer looks like, “We built an AI tool that helps companies streamline compliance workflows and improve efficiency.”

Imagine two different reporters:

1. A funding-focused reporter (e.g., covers raises and growth). They care about traction and market validation. A better answer is,“We’ve grown from $0 to $6M ARR in 18 months, and 40% of our pipeline is inbound from regulated fintech companies.”

2. A legal risk / AI ethics reporter. They care about guardrails and exposure. Say something more like,“Most AI compliance tools operate as black boxes. We built audit trails and explainability into every output because regulators are increasingly scrutinizing automated decision-making.”

These are the same company and same product, but three different angles. Before the interview, spend 15 minutes reviewing the reporter’s last 5–10 articles and ask:

• What themes keep showing up?

• Do they quote founders, customers, analysts, or all three?

• Are the stories data-heavy? Regulatory-focused? Trend-driven?

If their recent coverage consistently includes strong executive POV or named customer quotes, that’s your signal to show up prepared with the type of commentary that actually results in ink for that outlet. The goal isn’t to manipulate the story, it’s to meet the reporter where they are and give them exactly what fits their beat.

10. Remember that you’re competing:

This is the part founders often forget: you are rarely the only source. In trend pieces, funding roundups, AI features, or industry analysis stories, reporters are usually speaking to 3–6 companies. They will include the strongest, clearest, most differentiated quotes. If you don’t give a compelling quote or data point, then someone else will. If your answers are generic, overly cautious, or repetitive of what others are saying, you become the easiest cut.

Imagine a reporter is writing about AI adoption in law firms and interviews four CEOs. A generic response would be, “We’re seeing strong interest in AI, and firms are excited about the potential.” That quote could come from anyone. It adds nothing new. A stronger response is,“In the last 12 months, we’ve seen AI move from pilot projects to budget line items. 63% of our customers increased AI spend this year — even as overall tech budgets stayed flat,” or: “The biggest misconception is that AI adoption is a technology problem. In our experience, it’s a partner compensation problem.” Now you’ve added data, introduced tension, given the reporter a sharper angle, and differentiated yourself from other voices, which is how you survive the editing process and get ink.

Before the interview, ask yourself: 1) What can we say that others in our space probably won’t? 2) Do we have one surprising stat or contrarian insight? 3 )If the reporter only includes one quote from us, what do we want it to be? Because that’s the reality: You may only get one line. Make sure it’s the one that earns you a spot in the story.

If you remember nothing else from this post, remember this:

A media interview is an opportunity and not a guarantee. Coverage happens when there’s real news, proof, a clear point of view, and the reporter has something quotable and useful. If you treat every interview like it will result in coverage, you’re already ahead of most.