Over the years, I’ve worked with many startups that recognize they need strategic communications leadership. They’re raising capital, trying to stand out in a crowded ecosystem, pivoting their business, or expanding into new markets.
This is where a fractional head of communications comes in. A fractional communications leader provides senior, strategic communications leadership on a contractual basis, helping companies to hone their positioning, design the communications strategy, and advance their market visibility and leadership. And for high-growth startups that are moving quickly, this model is becoming increasingly common.
A fractional head of communications provides executive-level communications leadership on a flexible basis, helping companies shape their narrative and reputation during key growth stages. This approach allows startups to access experienced and proven communications leadership often much earlier than they otherwise would.
Hiring fractional leaders has been readily accepted for particular roles, including chief marketing officers, chief financial officers and chief revenue officers. In recent years there has been more demand for fractional chief communications officers or head of communications roles, as companies recognize the importance of developing or refining their narrative to create a clear, credible, concise and consistent way of talking about themselves and building a strong and trustworthy reputation.
Moreover, communications has expanded well beyond the realms of traditional PR. Startups increasingly recognize the value of someone who can strategically unify the narrative across customers, partners, employees, investors, media, and other stakeholders to support their next chapter of growth.
Fractional communications leadership is most commonly used by startups in the seed through Series C stages, when companies need senior strategic guidance but are not yet ready to build a full internal communications team.
The responsibilities of a fractional communications leader are similar to those of a full-time head of communications, but delivered in a more flexible engagement model. This executive helps shape the company’s messaging and narrative while overseeing the broader communications strategy and program. They may also lead internal communications teams and coordinate with external partners or agencies.
In many startups, one of the most valuable contributions of a fractional communications leader is helping founders articulate a clear narrative about what the company does, why it matters, and how it is differentiated in the market.
Unlike a freelancer who is brought in for a very specific task, fractional heads of communications are more embedded in the company, and oversee a significant scope of work on an ongoing or project basis. This is an important distinction because fractionals tend to work with companies during important inflection points and defining moments. Whether it’s for a rebrand, a corporate pivot, or gearing up for an M&A or IPO, a fractional leader can dive into this critical transformation quickly and effectively.
There are many reasons why a company may choose to hire a fractional head of communications, including:
For many companies, hiring a fractional leader is viewed as a strategic advantage, rather than simply a cost-cutting measure. According to the FRAK Conference's State of Fractional Industry Report, the number of fractional executives has grown from 60,000 in 2022 to 120,000 in 2024, and 72.8% of fractional professionals have 15+ years of experience. Companies are increasingly turning to fractional leaders for their deep experience and ability to solve complex problems quickly.
A fractional leader helps fill strategic communications gaps, enabling companies to access senior guidance to shape messaging, narratives, and reputation during critical phases. This could be when the company is still nascent and building out its communications function, or at transformational moments at a later stage.
Companies may work with a fractional head of communications, an in-house team, or a PR agency at different stages of growth. But what is the difference between these options? Below is a simplified comparison, although of course, every company is different and deeper assessment can determine which approach is best. Additionally, a fractional communications leader often works alongside a PR agency, ensuring that tactical execution aligns with a broader strategy.
| Approach | Strength | Best for |
| Fractional Head of Communications / Chief Communications Officer | Strategic, seasoned and proven leadership | Companies that need senior leadership but not a full-time executive |
| In-house communications team | Full internal communications capacity | Companies with larger programs |
| PR agency | PR execution and program management | Companies that already have a clear narrative, and defined goals |
As the number of startups continue to flourish, there’s been a strong and steady demand for fractional communications leaders in recent years. Because this leader plays a critical role in shaping the company’s narrative, building its reputation, and creating the frameworks needed to scale communications, there are several key criteria to consider ahead of hiring.
Key criteria include the candidate’s proven experience working with startups and startup growth stages, expertise in category positioning, as well as their ability to collaborate closely with founders, executives, and other stakeholders. It’s equally important to assess their strategic thinking—not just PR execution—and their understanding of the company’s ecosystem and the narratives that will resonate most with target audiences.
While tactics like media relations can help drive visibility, effective fractional leaders focus first on shaping how the market understands the company, creating the foundation for stronger communications outcomes as the company grows.
A fractional communications leader is a senior communications executive who works with a company on a flexible basis, leading communications messaging, narratives, and strategy.
Costs vary depending on the scope of work and level of involvement, but fractional engagements are typically significantly more cost-effective than hiring a full-time executive.
They serve different roles. A fractional communications leader provides strategic direction, while PR agencies often focus on execution such as media outreach and campaign management. Having said that, a fractional head of communications executive’s primary value is providing high-level strategic guidance, they frequently execute these strategies (such as conduct media outreach), particularly in startups that lack a full internal team.
Not every startup immediately needs a communications leader. However, companies going through a defining moment or transformation often benefit from a strategic communications partner, such as during a corporate pivot, preparing for fundraising, or expanding into new markets.
Communications is often underestimated in the early stages of company growth. Yet the companies that successfully shape their narratives early are often the ones that become category leaders later. A fractional head of communications allows startups to access senior communications leadership at the moment when strategic storytelling can have the greatest impact.
Gravitate PR works with technology and travel startups to develop the communications strategy that supports long-term category leadership. Founder Lisette Paras works closely with executive teams to define their narrative and accelerate visibility and category leadership.
If you’re exploring whether a fractional head of communications could support your company’s growth, get in touch to discuss your communications strategy.
PR professionals often pride themselves on being storytellers, able to frame a company’s narrative in a way that captures attention. But here’s the thing: finding an angle is only one part of the equation. The other is evidence. Without data to back up its claims, a story won’t go far, especially with increasingly skeptical audiences inundated with content every day.
I’ve always believed that what separates an average PR professional from an exceptional one is their ability to create something meaningful when there’s nothing obvious to say. No product launch, no funding announcement, no M&A. Rather, the communications expert needs to dig into their own curiosity, industry knowledge, and creativity.
Sometimes, existing research and third-party data is enough to support a narrative. But often, it isn’t. Some of the most impactful campaigns I’ve seen didn’t rely on external data; they created it. In doing so, the data didn’t just support the story; it became the story.
That said, creating compelling data isn’t as simple as fielding a survey and hoping something interesting emerges. Based on my experience working with dozens of brands over the years, here are a few considerations that separate forgettable reports from ones that actually drive conversation.
The goal isn’t to produce data–it’s to spark and own a conversation. If your company operates in hiring and training, for example, do you want to be known for identifying emerging skills? Forecasting how AI will reshape roles? Or challenging conventional thinking about how companies evaluate talent?
In my work with Hired for several years, we worked on producing quarterly reports about hiring trends in tech, with topics ranging from the state of salaries to the most in-demand skills by employers. As an AI hiring marketplace, Hired had a lot of real-time, proprietary information at its fingertips from both employers and candidates, but we also designed an extensive questionnaire to add deeper insights to support the quantitative findings. Each report was treated as a strategic asset, lead magnet, and conversation starter. As such, rather than recycling the same questions each year, we spent time scrutinizing what was being asked, how the market had evolved, and what key issues would be most valuable to understand before moving forward with each report.
Too often, companies start with questions and hope a narrative emerges. The best data-driven campaigns do the opposite: they start with a clear point of view, then design research that sharpens and supports it.
Different angles will appeal to different audiences. But the beauty of data is that the same data can tell a story in more than one way.
For example, in my work with Hired, we had data about the top tech salaries across the country, which produced multiple stories. One year, we had an economic angle focused on salaries dropping to five-year record lows, alongside a more tech-focused angle about which types of specialized engineers are seeing the highest demand for roles.
The dataset didn’t change, but the framing of our stories did, depending on how we sliced the findings. The strength of a data-driven PR program isn’t just in segmenting data, but in interpreting it through the lens of the target audience. Reporters would often proactively reach out, asking when the next report would be forthcoming. Prospects and customers would eagerly download the report. Ultimately, this resulted in hundreds of media articles, marketing-qualified leads and conversions to Hired.
Before investing in data creation, it’s critical to understand what’s already out there. Creating a survey or research report isn’t a revolutionary approach, but because it can be effective when done well, too many companies jump on the bandwagon, only to fail because the data is too self-serving or says nothing interesting at all.
Ahead of putting any questions or hypotheses into the field, it’s essential to read up on what insights are already available. For a topic as saturated as AI, the risk of not saying anything newsworthy or compelling is high, when there are reports that are released by a company virtually every day.
In the early months of the COVID pandemic, remote work was a huge topic, as companies looked at evolving its workplace policies, and employees sought more work flexibility. Unsurprisingly, there were hundreds of articles on the topic each day. My work with Remote, an HR platform that helps companies hire employees and contractors from all over the world, included devising and launching the inaugural list of the Best Destinations for Remote Work–a list of the top cities based on key criteria that we devised. This list continues to be updated each year.
Companies that release recurring reports based on proprietary data, such as the ADP National Employment Report that is timed each month to coincide with the US jobs report, succeed not because they publish data, but because they publish something others can’t easily replicate. It’s timely and extensive, and is always anticipated as an indicator of the economy.
Too many surveys exist to validate what everyone already suspects: employees are stressed, AI adoption is rising, budgets are tightening. That’s not insight–and it’s definitely not news.
The real opportunity is to capture change and get ahead of the news curve. Ask questions such as: What’s shifting that hasn’t fully played out yet? What contradictions are emerging? What are people doing that conflicts with what they say they believe?
In my work with EDITED, a retail intelligence company, our data program tapped into the real-time analytics in its platform, which gave us an edge in our storylines. How was a brand performing based on its controversial statements? How were retailers preparing to compete against Amazon for its annual Prime Day sales? What predictions could we make ahead of Black Friday and Cyber Monday?
Anticipating what stories would generate interest and having compelling data and spokesperson meant that within a year, we secured hundreds of articles in top-tier outlets including The New York Times, Bloomberg, Fortune, Fast Company, NPR, Forbes, and many others–and these publications featured at multiple times over the course of the year. Public relations became the top driver of traffic to the website within the first year, accelerating awareness of the UK brand in the saturated US market.
Charts and visuals aren’t just about making information easier to digest, they’re about making it easier to share. A strong data point packaged into a clear, standalone visual can travel well beyond the original report. Think about how to create bite-sized pieces of information that can be incorporated into articles, presentations, a series of social media posts, and beyond.
In a crowded media and information landscape, when companies are all vying for attention, visuals and video assets can cut through the clutter. What kind of graphs, charts, analogies, and other representations can best convey the data, to make someone pause and take notice?
At Gravitate PR, I’ve worked with brands like Hired, EDITED, and Remote and many others to build data-driven campaigns that generate meaningful coverage and conversation. If you’re thinking about how to create data-driven campaigns that set your brand apart, let’s chat.
Whether you call them bylines, guest columns, contributed articles, opinion pieces, or op-eds, they all refer to articles written on behalf of an executive, typically for a publication (and may also appear on blogs or LinkedIn).
The reality is, many companies approach bylines as a way to “get their name out there.” But without a clear point-of-view tied to their market narrative, these articles rarely stand out or drive meaningful impact.
When done well, bylines help to:
For many of my clients, bylines are not just a content tactic; they’re a core part of a broader communications strategy. Guest articles can support key priorities for startups by consistently publishing on specific themes that shape how the company and its category are understood over time.
Over the years, as the media landscape has evolved and newsrooms have fewer resources, it’s opened up more opportunities for opinion pieces from executives, academics and other industry leaders to be published. This shift has made bylines an effective way for startups to shape industry conversations, not just react to them.
At Gravitate, I guide clients on how bylines fit into a comprehensive narrative and PR strategy, rather than just how to write them. Below are the key principles when developing and placing bylines.
If you’re looking to secure a byline placement, it starts with a compelling angle, not a company message. A common mistake executives make is treating bylines as a subtle sales pitch. In reality, editors are looking for original perspectives on timely issues, not product-driven narratives.
Ahead of pitching, review what a publication typically publishes:
This ensures the pitch aligns with their editorial lens, rather than just a company’s internal priorities. If a publication expresses interest, request and follow their editorial guidelines closely. Expectations can vary significantly between outlets like The New York Times, Fast Company, VentureBeat, and niche industry publications.
Even a short byline benefits from a clear structure. Before committing pen to paper, it’s helpful to define:
This is especially important for companies in competitive or emerging markets, as how you’re perceived can influence everything from investor conversations to hiring pipelines. Strong bylines are not just informative; they are opinionated. Whether you’re writing a how-to, a trend analysis, or a contrarian take, the piece should present a clear and compelling point of view that educates, challenges assumptions, and moves the conversation forward.
Every claim should be backed by credible sources, such as research, data, or real-world examples. Often, incorporating proprietary data or unique insights is what elevates a byline from generic commentary to something journalists and readers actually remember. Additionally, avoid turning the piece into a product pitch. Publications are highly sensitive to this and will often remove promotional references, or reject the article entirely.
For example, I’ve worked with companies targeting the government sector that couldn’t publicly discuss their work due to its sensitive nature. To be seen as a prominent voice and authority in this sector, I worked with the client to develop a series of narratives that formed the basis of contributed articles and other commentary included in journalist’s media stories. This gave both the company and its sales team credible third-party content to support conversations with prospects.
If your byline doesn’t clearly support how you want to be positioned in the market, it’s unlikely to deliver long-term value, no matter where it’s published. It’s a delicate balance: the article shouldn’t read like marketing or advertising copy, but it must still reinforce how you want to be perceived.
Finally, focus on clarity and accessibility. Even technical topics should feel engaging. The most effective bylines often incorporate real-world examples, personal experience, and a distinct voice.
Publishing the byline is just the starting point. The real value comes from how the piece is integrated into your marketing communications strategy.
Once the article appears, it’s important to extend its impact. A few ways to do this include:
Bylines can feel like a tactical exercise—but when approached strategically, they become a powerful tool to shape perception, build credibility, and support long-term growth. Over time, a consistent byline strategy should compound, with each piece reinforcing your positioning and building recognition around specific themes.
For high-growth companies, the goal isn’t to publish a single article. Rather, it’s to build a repeatable system that shapes how the company is perceived by customers, investors, and talent over time—while consistently contributing meaningful perspectives to the market.
For most high-growth startups, a funding round is a milestone worth announcing. But a funding announcement alone is rarely enough to generate meaningful attention.
In 2020 and 2021, megarounds and soaring valuations created a crowded media environment where companies were battling to be seen, heard, and published. That environment has changed. While there are still plenty of funding stories (especially for AI startups), scrutiny is higher, the media landscape is even more competitive, and investors, customers, and prospects are far more focused on substance over size.
So how can a company turn its funding round into a strategic PR moment? They certainly can’t just announce it and hope for the best. Rather, this news needs to advance a strategic narrative about who the company is, where it's going, and why this news matters now. Below are several ways to maximize this milestone.
The core elements of a funding release are always the same: the amount raised, investors involved, and intended use of funds. Well-known VC participation adds credibility, but it’s not the full story, nor a surefire driver of attention.
Rather, the real question is: What does this funding mean in the context of the startup’s ecosystem, and broader corporate narrative?
Strong funding narratives typically anchor to one of three things:
With this context, the funding becomes a signal of something bigger, rather than a transactional event.
For example, I worked with WalkMe at a critical inflection point, as a pioneer of the digital adoption platform (DAP): a category that the market had not yet fully recognized or understood. For its pre-IPO funding announcement, I anchored the narrative in proof points, rather than leading with category education alone, highlighting enterprise customer growth, international expansion, and product vision. The goal was to shift the conversation from “what is this?” to “this is already working at scale.”
This approach was particularly important given prior skepticism from TechCrunch, which had previously and unflatteringly dismissed the product as an updated version of Microsoft “Clippy.” By consistently introducing evidence of traction, we reframed the positioning without directly confronting it.
In covering the funding, the same journalist reversed their stance, noting the platform was “more powerful and complex” than initially described—helping solidify WalkMe’s category leadership.
One of the most underestimated challenges in a funding moment is alignment. A startup isn’t just telling its story–it requires coordination across founders and executives, investors, communications teams, and internal stakeholders.
In weaker announcements, each party emphasizes something different:
In stronger ones, everyone reinforces the same core story from different angles. That alignment comes from clear messaging and tight coordination early in the process.
For example, I worked with Katana Graph as it emerged from stealth, using its Series A news as a deliberate market entry moment into the graph computing space. Backed by investors including Intel Capital and Dell Technologies Capital, I led coordinated communications across stakeholders to ensure unified positioning. We anchored the messaging around Katana Graph’s cutting-edge, high-performance platform, positioning it as purpose-built for AI-scale data and emblematic of a new class of graph infrastructure.
This approach translated into consistent coverage across 20+ articles and investor amplification, with media repeatedly reinforcing the same core themes of innovation, performance, and next-generation technology.
Startups often default to one of two approaches:
However, the right choice depends on the strength of the story. Considerations include the startup’s existing brand profile, the strength of the narrative, and the supporting data available. While going down the exclusive route can increase the chances of a more in-depth feature article, it also doesn’t mean that there will only be one resulting article, but that one publication runs the story ahead of others.
The media strategy should follow narrative strength, not the other way around. A weak story won’t become strong because it’s exclusive. Conversely, a strong angle doesn’t need dozens of outlets to land.
Additionally, these two approaches aren’t the only ones that can exist. As a newly minted startup, I worked with ZeroEyes, which had a funding round extension to its Series A. While extending the current round typically isn’t considered a news event, the startup was still in its early stages of building awareness, with a very unique technology (using AI to identify weapons before a potential mass shooting occurrence). We used this news strategically as a way to drive visibility to the company, generating coverage from Axios and other industry publications, who noted the innovation of ZeroEyes’ offering.
Earned media is a primary channel for visibility around a funding announcement, but it’s not the only one. The most effective funding stories take an integrated marketing communications approach across multiple channels, including:
The goal isn’t just visibility: it’s repetition and reinforcement across audiences. This is especially important in today’s environment, when media cycles are shorter, attention is fragmented, and key audiences often discover companies outside traditional media.
For example, I partnered with Sendoso’s executive and marketing teams to lead strategy and execution for its Series C news, aligning eight VC firms and managing a European PR agency to ensure coordinated global outreach. Rather than a one-off release, we built a synchronized, multi-channel launch spanning media, owned content, social amplification, a LinkedIn Live with the CEO and lead investor, and a Nasdaq Times Square billboard—all timed to appear concurrently.
The result elevated a funding announcement into a strategic brand moment—positioning Sendoso as a category leader and maximizing impact through tightly integrated execution.
5. Use the News to Set Up What Comes Next
The biggest mistake companies make is treating a funding release as the end result. In reality, it should act as a starting point for the next phase of your strategic communications strategy.
A strong funding moment should:
This is particularly important in a tighter funding environment, where:
The question isn’t just: “Did we announce the round successfully?” Rather, it’s: “Did this move our narrative forward in a meaningful way?”
Having led dozens of funding announcements, I view these stories as a springboard to tell a company’s story impactfully. It’s not a one-and-done activity, but an opportunity to further advance a company’s messaging and extend it across additional PR initiatives–including media and influencer relations, speaking engagements, award submissions, and other forms of communications.
Funding news is not just a signal of momentum: it’s an opportunity to define market position and shape perception. The startups that stand out aren’t those with the largest rounds, but those that use the moment to tell a clear, credible story about why they matter, why now, and what comes next.When executed strategically, a funding story becomes more than news—it becomes a strategic asset that reinforces market positioning, builds sustained visibility, and strengthens category leadership. If you have an upcoming funding announcement and need a PR partner, get in touch.
“Newsjacking” has been a core PR tactic for years—capitalizing on breaking news to insert your company’s perspective into the conversation.
But in today’s environment, where attention cycles move faster, media is more fragmented, and credibility is harder to earn, reacting to the news isn’t enough.
The companies that stand out aren’t the ones that show up the most, but are the ones that show up with something meaningful to say. The truth is, most newsjacking fails not because companies aren’t fast enough, but because they don’t have anything original to say.
For founders, CEOs, and CMOs, this isn’t about how often you’re mentioned–it’s about how you’re understood. Done well, a strong newsjacking strategy:
Done poorly, it’s noise. Done worse, it’s off-brand and could even backfire.
So how do the best companies apply this tactic successfully?
Most teams approach newsjacking backwards. They start with the headline and ask, “Can we comment on this?”
The better question is: “Where do we have the right to have an opinion—and does this reinforce our narrative?”
As part of a broader executive communications strategy, every company should have a clear point of view on:
Without this foundation, reactive commentary becomes generic, and easily ignored. That’s because there’s been no basis to develop a perspective before news breaks. Everything becomes reactive, driven by the news cycle rather than a clear point of view. Whatever is conveyed should be grounded in something relevant and concrete, to build credibility over time.
All this goes without saying that while a clear perspective is important, above all it must be interesting to a reporter. Any self-serving viewpoint can be seen from a mile away, and it's a major turnoff to any journalist.
Yes, real-time awareness matters, which means being on top of the news each day, scanning the headlines to see what stories are gaining traction and trending.
But here’s the thing: real advantage often comes from anticipating narratives before they peak. Not all news is predictable—M&A, geopolitical events, or leadership changes can break without warning. But many of the most important narratives build over time. Skilled teams can spot these early signals by tracking emerging industry trends and recognizing predictable cycles, such as corporate earnings, anticipated IPOs, and major product launches.
The goal is to shift from a purely reactive approach to one that’s more predictive. This is where a more incisive media relations strategy creates leverage, because you’re not just responding faster, you’re responding smarter.
For example, I worked with Salaryo, a fintech startup providing flexible financing to freelancers and startups, partnering with coworking spaces like WeWork as part of their business model. I capitalized on WeWork’s eagerly anticipated IPO, to announce Salaryo’s latest round of funding, and used this as a springboard to tell Salaryo’s corporate narrative and provide perspectives on the coworking industry. This led to an in-depth feature in Business Insider, along with broader coverage across business, finance, and real estate publications.
And when WeWork’s IPO didn’t happen? Well, Salaryo’s CEO had already gotten ahead of the news cycle with perspectives on the industry, which we were able to adapt for additional stories.
Most commentary fails because it’s safe. It summarizes what happened, but doesn’t add anything new. This is especially common in industries like cybersecurity, which is ripe for newsjacking due to the spate of data breaches and cyber attacks that regularly occur. If a security breach has happened and the best a company can share is the steps that companies should take to ensure it doesn’t happen again, guess what–that’s what any executive can say, because it’s not new or insightful.
Strong executive voices do three things instead to make their commentary memorable and quotable:
For media spokespeople, this requires:
This is the difference between being included in coverage and becoming a go-to source.
As a fractional Head of Communications, I’ve developed a point-of-view framework used by hundreds of executives to articulate clear, differentiated perspectives. It’s a collaborative process: the leaders I work with often bring strong ideas and opinions, which may just need slight refinement to better capture attention and earn column space. At the same time, my outside-in perspective helps identify emerging topics and trends that we can shape into clear, compelling viewpoints together.
Speed matters, but without structure, speed alone creates inconsistency. Many teams approach rapid response as an ad hoc effort, reacting in the moment without a clear process. The companies that do this well treat it as a system, rather than a scramble.
A strong rapid response model typically includes:
This transforms newsjacking from a reactive exercise into a repeatable capability, allowing teams to respond quickly without sacrificing quality or clarity. For example, I worked with a CEO after I shared a breaking news story, with a few bullet points on what the news was about, why it was relevant, and recommendations on our point-of-view. From here, we were able to quickly chat on the phone to refine his viewpoint and supporting points, securing several media opportunities within the day. That speed and quality only happen when the system is already in place.
When a journalist shows interest, timing becomes a competitive advantage. Opportunities are often lost because of slow follow-through.
Executives should be prepared for:
From a leadership perspective, this requires alignment on priorities, a willingness to engage in real time, and a clear understanding of the value these moments create. The easier you are to work with, the more likely journalists are to come back to you.
6. Extend the Value Beyond Media Coverage
Capturing a media opportunity is only part of the equation. The most effective teams treat each moment as part of a flywheel. For example, the same insight that earns a quote in a publication should be repurposed across your broader corporate communications strategy, in areas such as:
For example, a single quote in a top-tier article can evolve into a broader thought leadership strategy, extending both the lifespan and impact of the original insight. In one particular case, I worked with the cofounder of a startup where a topic we’d identified and secured visibility around led to the creation of new sales materials focused on that specific perspective, insight and audience. This is how companies create compounding value, where one well-placed perspective fuels multiple channels.
Traditional PR metrics like volume of coverage capture activity, but skimp on impact. A more meaningful evaluation focuses on how your company is showing up in the conversation:
Over time, effective newsjacking should do more than generate visibility; it should shape perception. The goal is not just to be present in the conversation, but to influence how that conversation evolves. That’s where strategic communications leadership becomes a competitive advantage.
For startups, an IPO isn’t just about revealing its financial books; it’s about stepping onto a much bigger stage. Suddenly, your story is being picked apart by investors, analysts, and the public. What you say, how you say it, and whether people believe you all start to matter a lot more.
That’s why communications isn’t a side function. The narrative you build in this moment can drive confidence, influence valuation, and shape how your company is seen long after the IPO dust settles. Below are a few crucial steps for founders, C-level execs and CMOs on the path to IPO.
Many companies underestimate how early pre-IPO communications actually begins. It’s not when they’re about to file their S-1, but well before this event. That’s because once that filing happens, you enter the IPO quiet period.
And “quiet” is the operative word here. You don’t get to suddenly turn up the volume, launch new channels, or start telling a bigger, bolder story than the one you’ve been telling all along. The market expects consistency, and regulators enforce it. Consequently, the real work happens much earlier. It’s about showing up consistently, building visibility around your leadership team, tightening your category narrative, and creating a steady drumbeat of content and media presence. That becomes your “ordinary course” of communication—the baseline you’re allowed to maintain when everything else goes quiet.
Years ago, a CMO asked for ideas on how to be more aggressive in its communications… After it had already filed its S-1. When I explained the constraints in doing so outside of the “ordinary course” of what had been conducted before filing, he snapped, “I want ideas, not pushback.” Sadly for this rookie, he didn’t realize the IPO framework we were operating in, and had to also hear the same response from his colleagues and legal counsel.
A very different example was my partnership with WalkMe, who had big ambitions to also create a new category and be known as the "Digital Adoption Platform" leader. Our work to drive visibility, design category pillars, and solidify perceptions as the category pioneer and leader was instrumental in its $1 billion valuation ahead of its IPO.
In short: If you wait until you feel “IPO ready” to invest in PR, then you’re already behind. By the time you file, you shouldn’t be introducing your story, but reinforcing it.
For a startup, an S-1 shouldn’t be viewed as a legal hurdle. Rather, it’s your core narrative, written in a way the entire market will analyze, quote, and build on.
Your S-1 positioning shapes how investors understand your growth, how analysts frame your opportunity, how the media talks about you, and even how AI tools summarize your company. Your category, your risks, your positioning all become part of your public identity.
The companies that get this right don’t treat the S-1 as a standalone document, but as the foundation for their investor communications. It’s the foundation for everything else: aligning messaging across channels, making sure leadership is telling the same story, and clearly articulating what actually makes your business different.
If what you say externally doesn’t match what’s in your S-1, it’s a clear disconnect that people will notice. And at this stage, inconsistency can create a lot of unnecessary confusion during this critical juncture.
The IPO quiet period rules haven’t changed much over the years, but the breadth and speed of how communications can communicate has. Whether it’s a LinkedIn post, a blog post, a news article, or even what your employees or partners amplify, it all feeds into how investors perceive your company.
The guardrails surrounding quiet period are clear: no forward-looking statements, no hype around valuation, no discussions about the company’s value or performance (even if this has been past practice), and no talking about the IPO itself. This isn’t about going silent, but it’s important for PR teams to determine the IPO PR strategy, and execute what’s deemed “in the ordinary course” of activity.
While communications are limited to non-financial topics, staying within those lines isn’t always straightforward. The grey area can be if a business reporter interviews your CEO, then includes some of this financial information in coverage. Essentially, you can’t be seen to boost the value of the stock pre-IPO. For this reason–and since SEC guidelines are inherently vague–companies are typically cautious during quiet period and have all communications reviewed by their general counsel ahead of progressing.
4. You Don’t Control the Timing—But You Can Control the Narrative
When your filing goes public. As regulators review it. During the roadshow. When pricing is announced. On IPO day. These are predictable moments when attention spikes, and stories tend to be published around these events.
A PR team needs to be ready for these milestones ahead of going public. This means that the IPO media strategy is prepared to:
It’s also critical to define the media approach on IPO day. Your company may be more conservative and may not want to conduct a slew of reporter interviews on the day of the IPO, or it may want to have as many interviews as possible. Given how the market performs is out of a PR professional’s control (e.g. you could raise less funds than anticipated), it’ll be important to prepare the responses and approach for best-case and worst-case scenarios. You’ll also be working closely with the stock exchange communications team well in advance, who will have a clear timeline on IPO day.
Most teams are laser-focused on getting to the IPO, but underestimate how much changes after. Once your company becomes a public entity, your corporate communications strategy fundamentally changes.
Additionally, your CEO is no longer just telling a growth story—they’re managing expectations in real time. This requires:
A lot of companies struggle here, not because they don’t have a story, but because they haven’t built the muscle to communicate like a public company.
An IPO is one of the most defining moments in a company’s lifecycle, but it also needs to be understood beyond the main event. For founders and executives, trust and reputation is built over time through:
Ultimately, a strong IPO communications strategy doesn’t just support your valuation. It helps sustain it long after you go public. As a fractional Head of Communications, I work directly with founders, CEOs, and CMOs to build and execute a tailored IPO communications strategy. This includes:
Pre-IPO Readiness
IPO Process Support
Post-IPO Transition
If you’re planning for an IPO—or even considering the path—it’s not too early to start building the communications foundation. Get in touch to discuss your IPO communications strategy.
