How to Pitch Your Story to Media With Breadcrumbs

23 Mar. 2023

Today’s Goals

• Learn the most common media struggles for startups
• Understand what breadcrumbs are, and where to find them online
• Atrium Case Study
• Discover how to pitch the media with breadcrumbs

​

Being a great storyteller isn’t about being the most talented communicator. It’s about knowing your audience better than anyone else

Why is Media So Important for Startups?

​

• Earned media is the most valuable form of exposure you can have for a business and for your personal brand
• Earned media helps you create a category, shapes the narrative of your industry, and makes emotional connections with key stakeholders
• Companies that succeed in press are richly rewarded with the best opportunities to grow and to create impact

​

​

Why Is Media Hard For Startups?

• Media is incredibly competitive
• There are only small handful of reporters covering early stage startups
• Techcrunch has fewer than 30 reporters
• Big companies dominate the headlines
• MSFT, Amazon, Meta, Apple

• Most startup founders struggle to achieve media attention which makes it hard when it’s time:
• Fundraise
• Recruit
• Sell Product
• Focused on the wrong media
• Telling the wrong stories
• Make the story about themselves
• Sell features, not benefits

About Chikodi Chima

• Former VentureBeat staff reporter
• Founder of Moonshot where I’ve launched nearly 100 companies
• Clients have raised more than $1.5 billion
• Wrapbook
• Compound Protocol
• Trellis Research
• Butlr

​

• PR Mentor
• 500 Global
• First Round Fast Track
• Alchemist Accelerator
• StartX
• Columbia Journalism Grad

I Taught Myself How To Do PR Using Breadcrumbs

• In 2010 I moved to San Francisco to start a publication about sustainable transportation
• I didn’t know anything about the industry or the players
• I used breadcrumbs to find out everything I could about what happening up to the minute

• Grew the audience to 80,000 monthly uniques completely organically
• Use the same technique with every company that I engage with

What Are Breadcrumbs?

Breadcrumbs are words that allow you to enter the conversation already taking place in your customer’s head

What Are Breadcrumbs?

Breadcrumbs are highly specific words that your audience uses to express

• Pain
• Anxiety
• Hopes for the Future

• Names of CEO’s and Influential People
• Politicians
• Regulators
• Pending or Recent Legislation
• Specific Products and Services
• Industry Jargon

What makes a good breadcrumb

Breadcrumbs are:

• Specific ⚓️
• Timely ⌚️
• Relevant 🎯
• Trending upward 📈

Examples of Breadcrumbs

• CEO’s
• Sam Altman, OpenAI
• Shou Zi Chew, TikTok
• Regulators
• Janet Yellen
• Gary Gensler
• Politicians
• Elizabeth Warren
• Pending or Recent Legislation
• Reg CF
• Section 230

​

• Names of Companies
• Midjourney
• Product Lines or Services
• Adobe Firefly
• Industry Jargon

More Specific is Always Better

Case Study - Atrium

• Justin Kan launched Atrium to serve the legal needs of startups, but he was unknown in the world of legal
• Atrium had already announced $10 million of seed funding, but needed to announce its launch
• We used breadcrumbs to find reporters who knew about Justin as a startup operator, but hadn’t covered the funding

Breadcrumbs��Justin Kan ❌ – Too Broad

Twitch ❌ – Way Too Broad

Cruise Automation ✅ – Recently Acquired

​

Where To Find Breadcrumbs Online

• Google
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Reddit
• Substack

How to Use Breadcrumbs in Your Media Outreach

• Enter the conversation happening in your customer’s mind
• Share your strongly held beliefs
• Offer value
• Communicate the problem you’re solving and who it impacts
• Share your relevant background, and what got you interested
• Paint a picture of a bright future
• Show the pain of inaction

​

​

How to Pitch Your Story With Breadcrumbs

• Sell the problem you’re solving, not the solution 🤕
• Communicate clearly who is impacted by the problem, and the consequences of their inaction
• Provide relevant data, and offer timely analysis or predictions

• Look for industry-specific media where your customers go for solutions
• Be comfortable earning a small audience before moving on to bigger publications

All founders have a Story. Your business is a rejection of the status quo

The Truth About Media Relations

• There are thousands of industry trade publications covering every imaginable topic
• There are dozens of outlets where your story is relevant
• Journalists are always hungry for a great story
• Having 5 solid journalist relationships at industry trade publications can change your life

​

Conclusion

​

• Breadcrumbs are the words your market uses to describe the conversation happening in their head
• Breadcrumbs follow an idea to an audience where you can be the customer champion
• Breadcrumbs allow you to tell a story continuously, and be relevant even when you don’t have any “news.”

Want to Work With Me

​

I’m offering a media strategy workshop

• 20 Breadcrumbs you can use to target media
• 10 Targeted reporters you can
• 5 original stories you can pitch to press or publish on your own

Become a Media Master: https://Moonshot.as.me/breadcrumbs-workshop

Questions?

Breadcrumbs Exercise

https://bit.ly/breadcrumbs23

Thank you

​

Chikodi@moonshotpr.com