The Four Essential Phases of a Successful Funding Announcement
Written by Rebecca Emery, Founder & Managing Director
Rebecca Emery is the founder of Not Born Yesterday, a London-based PR agency specialising in founder-led businesses. With over 10 years of experience building and protecting the reputations of high-profile founders and leaders at some of the world's biggest brands, she now helps tomorrow's biggest brands do the same.
In my daily interactions with founders, ranging from early-stage startups to established scale-ups, I am frequently asked how to effectively communicate major business milestones. A recurring topic is the funding announcement, often framed around the singular question: "I have a press release, so who should I send it to?" However, personal passion for a business does not guarantee media interest. What feels like monumental news internally for a day may not necessarily resonate with the press.
Then we come to the most common issue I address. Most founders think of a funding announcement as a single moment, the day the press release goes out. Let me tell you right now, it isn’t. It is a sequence of moments. Each stage builds on the last, and skipping any of them is what makes good news land badly.
So let me break down the four steps I recommend to our clients at Not Born Yesterday when it comes to announcing a fundraise.
Get your story right early on
Before you go anywhere near a journalist or a draft press release, you need your messaging straight. That starts with a one-liner, a single jargon-free sentence that says what you do, for whom, and why it matters. If you cannot deliver it in under 12 seconds and have a non-specialist repeat it back to you, keep working.
From there, build out the rest of the messaging document: a 50-word boilerplate covering the problem, solution, why you, and traction; three to five key messages; and concrete proof points underneath each, including your customer numbers, technical milestones, market data, and team credentials.
This document is the spine of everything that follows. Share it with your co-founders and team so everyone tells the same story. Inconsistency is what makes founders sound forgettable.
While you are at it, make sure your messaging actually answers the questions you will be asked: What do you do? What problem are you solving? Where did the idea come from? What traction can you show? Why are you relevant now? Who are your competitors, and how are you different? How do you, or will you, make money?
The runway to success
This is the stage most founders compress, and it is the stage that hurts most when you do.
Map your media targets. Focus on three to five journalists or titles where your ideal investors, customers, and hires read, not just every outlet you can think of. Then start building relationships with them before you need them.
Speak to your clients and partners early about whether you can use their names externally. Permissions take longer than you think, and chasing logos, headshots, and quotes in the final week is where good announcements quietly fall apart.
Activate your LinkedIn. Founders at this stage should be posting opinions, insight, and milestones, not just announcements. By the time the funding news lands, your profile should already feel like a place where people pay attention.
And do not leave it to the week before to bring in external support. Good comms need a runway.
The announcement itself and telling the story
Media interest is driven by the specific problem your business addresses and its current relevance. Journalists prioritise the “why now” and “what’s new.” To secure coverage, your narrative must be insightful, disruptive, timely, or entirely new. You should clearly articulate the destination of the capital, whether it is intended for hiring, entering new markets, or transitioning a concept into a functional product.
Most importantly, if budgets allow, you can bolster your pitch significantly by providing fresh, unique data that ties into your wider story on launch day. Working with a third-party data provider is always recommended. This enhances both your credibility and the overall strength of your argument. Effective stories often centre on fresh funding, products, markets, or data.
A few things not to do at this stage. Do not believe the adage that all PR is good PR; the internet does not forget. Do not lie or provide numbers you do not want to be held to later. Do not underestimate how interesting your own insights and trend data can be. The pattern you think is obvious is often the most quotable part of the story.
The afterlife where the value of PR compounds
A fundraise announcement is a moment, but the work that follows is what builds your reputation.
Consistency across channels creates a cumulative impression that no single piece of coverage can achieve on its own. Think in three categories. Earned, such as press, podcasts, awards, and analyst mentions, creates social proof for the people you have never met. Owned, including LinkedIn, blogs, newsletters, investor updates, and long-form thought leadership that you control, compounds over time and is increasingly essential for being found at all. Shared, including speaking slots, ecosystem partnerships, industry bodies, and peer reputation, builds the warm networks where the next round of investors and hires actually come from.
Keep showing up across all three, and the next announcement, whether it is more funding, a product launch, or a milestone, lands on much warmer ground.
A single funding round will get you a day of headlines. The communications discipline around it is what gets you the next one.
Read more from Rebecca Emery
Rebecca Emery, Founder & Managing Director
Rebecca Emery is the founder of Not Born Yesterday, a London-based PR agency specialising in founder-led businesses. With over 10 years of experience building and protecting the reputations of high-profile founders and leaders at some of the world's biggest brands, she now puts that expertise behind the brands of tomorrow. Rebecca works hands-on with ambitious startups and scale-ups across sectors, helping founders build the kind of media presence that drives real results. Not Born Yesterday goes beyond your traditional PR agency, acting as a true communications partner that combines honest counsel, impactful storytelling, and agile strategy to deliver the outcomes today's brands actually need and want.
