Press Doesn't Cover Products. It Covers People.

Authored by Vlada Lomova | Community Contributor, 24six9

Here's something no one mentions when a founder is deep in the hustle of getting their startup noticed: journalists don't cover products. They never have. They cover stories. Tensions and people who did something unexpected.

The moment a founder understands this, the question stops being ‘why isn't anyone covering us?’ and starts becoming ‘what are we actually saying?’

Most founders who pitch to the media and hear nothing back aren't being ignored because the product is weak. They're being ignored because it is the entirely wrong approach.

The Product Is Not the Story

Think about the last time a founder appeared in Forbes, TechCrunch, or Arabian Business. Was it because their product had the best features? Or was it because they walked away from a corporate career to solve a problem no one else was naming? Because they failed publicly and rebuilt? Because they spotted a market shift before the market did?

Journalists operate under constant pressure to find content that earns attention. Readers click on things that are surprising, relatable, or emotionally resonant - not on feature lists.

The product is the context, and the story is the hook. This is how storytelling has always worked.

Founders who get covered consistently understand this: they don't pitch their product, they pitch a narrative that the product happens to illustrate.

What Actually Makes a Founder Newsworthy

There's a framework used with every startup founder before a single pitch goes out: find the story.

Every compelling press story has tension at its center. Something was old, broken, overlooked, or underestimated - and the founder saw it, acted on it, or is actively challenging it. That gap between how things were and how they should be is where the story lives.

The questions worth sitting with BEFORE pitching:

• What did others miss? The insight that led to the company is often more interesting to a journalist than the company itself.
• What was the real cost of starting? Not manufactured drama - genuine sacrifice. Journalists are drawn to founders who made choices that weren't safe.
• What does this founder believe that their industry largely disagrees with? A contrarian position, backed by evidence, is a pitch in itself.
• What's shifting in the market right now - and why does this company exist because of that shift? Trend-tied stories are consistently among the easiest to place, because they're already on the editor's radar.

None of these questions are about the product - they're about perspective, experience, and position within a larger conversation already taking place in the world.

A Backstory Is Not Filler, but Infrastructure

In reality, the founder's backstory is often the most bankable asset in a press pitch. It's the answer to the question a journalist is always implicitly asking: why is this particular person the one building this?

What makes the path unusual - not necessarily dramatic, but unusual - is what a journalist can build a narrative around. Maybe the product was built to solve a problem the founder personally experienced and couldn't find a solution to. Maybe the background is in an entirely unrelated field, which produces an angle no one else in the space holds. Maybe the company is operating in a region that the global conversation typically overlooks.

These details do two things: they make the founder a more interesting interview subject, and they give a journalist a frame that isn't just a product announcement dressed up as a story.

The Founders Being Featured Aren't Necessarily Building the Best Products

PR rewards visibility. The founder who lands a profile in the regional business press isn't always building the most innovative product. They're the one who understood how to position themselves as a voice in a conversation the media was already having. This is about being strategic - about which version of the story is being told, and to whom.

A sustainability publication doesn't care about ARR. A fintech outlet doesn't want a lifestyle angle. An entrepreneurship platform wants the insight: the lesson, the mistake, the thing a founder would tell their earlier self.

The angle has to match the outlet, and the outlet has to match the conversation worth being part of.

A Starting Point

Before the next press release gets written, there's a more useful exercise: articulate in two or three sentences what this company believes about its industry that most people haven't caught up to yet. Not what the product does - but what the team genuinely believes.

That's an editorial voice, and that's what a journalist can build a column around - that's the story.

About the Author: Vlada Lomova

With 7+ years of experience across MENA, Europe and the US, Vlada Lomova has secured placements for founders and brands in some of the world's most respected publications - Forbes, Business Insider, TechCrunch, Arabian Business and The National - and built a reputation for turning complex, fast-moving businesses into stories that actually get told.

Her belief is simple: the strongest PR isn't about visibility first. It's about what the market remembers about you 12 to 18 months from now. That philosophy led her to co-found PRHub.ae in 2021 - a Dubai-based communications agency built specifically for tech, B2B and founder-led brands who need PR that moves at startup speed. She also founded FounderFirst, a dedicated practice for founders who are ready to build their narrative before the market builds it for them.

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