By Jordan Baker, Founder of Fair Public Relations and former UK national journalist
Journalists do not need a founder to be famous before they will consider featuring them.
They need something more useful: a story.
That story might come from an unusual business journey, a difficult decision, a significant failure, a remarkable customer problem, an unexpected career change, a personal experience that led to the company, a genuine piece of expertise or a business development that matters beyond the founder themselves.
What journalists do not automatically need is a 1,500-word biography explaining every stage of the founder's career.
The founder's preparation should make the reporter's job easier.
Who is this person?
Why are they interesting?
What can be verified?
What happened?
What is unusual?
What can they actually talk about?
Are photographs available?
Can they answer difficult questions?
And can they respond before the journalist's deadline?
Those practical details frequently determine whether an interesting founder becomes a usable source.
“I founded a business” is not yet a founder story
Launching a company can be personally significant.
It is not automatically editorially significant.
A pitch saying:
“Jane Smith founded an innovative marketing company because she is passionate about helping entrepreneurs succeed”
could describe thousands of founders.
The journalist needs the part that makes Jane's experience distinct.
Perhaps Jane:
lost her previous company and rebuilt;
left a high-profile career;
started the business after experiencing a particular problem;
grew through an unusual commercial model;
made a contrarian decision that worked;
overcame a substantial practical obstacle;
or has expertise that helps explain a broader business issue.
The story lives in the detail.
Commercial success is not the only route
A founder does not need to have sold a company for £100 million.
Smaller founders can be interesting because their experiences reflect questions ordinary readers recognise.
For example:
starting again after redundancy;
running a company while caring for a family member;
building a business from a highly unusual location;
switching careers at 50;
recovering from a major commercial setback;
or identifying an unexpected consumer problem.
The experience needs to be genuine.
It does not need to be billionaire-sized.
Who is the story actually for?
This is one of the first questions I would have asked as a journalist.
The same founder can have several possible stories.
Trade publication
The editor may care about:
industry lessons;
technical decisions;
business model;
professional expertise.
National newspaper
The journalist may need:
wider relevance;
strong personal story;
significant trend;
consumer consequence.
Local newspaper
The founder's connection to the area may matter more.
Business publication
The story may focus on:
growth;
failure;
leadership;
money;
staff;
strategy;
or entrepreneurship.
A founder pitch becomes stronger when it is built for the publication rather than copied into every newsroom.
What facts should a founder prepare?
Dates matter.
If the founder says:
“I launched during lockdown”
which lockdown?
Which month?
If they say:
“We grew 300%”
from what to what?
If they say:
“I invested my life savings”
how much are they comfortable disclosing, and can the broad claim be supported?
If they say:
“We have helped 50,000 customers”
what counts as a customer?
Journalists may check.
Prepare the answers before the pitch.
Financial claims need particular care
Founder stories often become more interesting when money is involved.
Revenue.
Debt.
Investment.
Salary.
Losses.
Business sale.
Personal investment.
Funding.
Those figures can make a story tangible.
They should also be accurate.
At Fair, if a client tells us something material about what they have earned, raised or achieved, we want to understand what evidence supports it before putting the number in front of a journalist.
The journalist may ask us to prove it.
That is completely reasonable.
Prepare the founder's chronology
A useful founder-story timeline might contain:
career before the company;
event that triggered the business;
company launch date;
important setback;
turning point;
major milestone;
current position.
This prevents obvious inconsistencies.
If the founder tells one journalist the company started in 2019 and another that it began in 2021, credibility starts to deteriorate.
What makes a founder's opinion interesting?
Specificity.
Compare:
“Entrepreneurs need resilience.”
with:
“One mistake I made was keeping an underperforming service for two years because it generated revenue, even though it distracted us from the part of the company customers actually valued.”
The second gives the journalist:
a decision;
a consequence;
an admission;
and a lesson.
Generic motivational language is easy to find.
Specific experience is more valuable.
Founders should be willing to discuss mistakes
This does not mean confessing every private failure to a newspaper.
It means understanding that journalism normally needs tension.
A story where:
everything went perfectly;
every decision was brilliant;
every customer loved the product;
and the founder has no regrets
often feels like marketing copy.
A founder who can explain:
what went wrong;
what changed;
what they learned;
and what they would do differently
is usually more interesting.
What evidence will the journalist need?
Depending on the story:
business accounts;
funding records;
screenshots;
research;
customer evidence;
photographs;
public filings;
product information;
professional credentials;
or another source.
Not everything will be requested.
Having it organised makes the campaign easier.
Prepare a proper founder biography
A media biography should explain:
who the founder is;
what company they run;
what relevant professional experience they have;
what subjects they can legitimately discuss;
and any credentials that materially support the story.
It should not read like an awards submission.
Avoid empty claims such as:
“visionary entrepreneur”;
“leading disruptor”;
or:
“world-renowned business expert”
unless something objective genuinely justifies them.
Facts are more useful.
Photographs can determine whether the story works
A strong founder story with poor imagery can be frustrating for a journalist.
Prepare:
a clear headshot;
a wider portrait;
relevant workplace photographs;
product images where applicable;
historical photographs if the story involves the founder's past;
and any other images that genuinely help tell the story.
Images should be:
high resolution;
properly credited;
accurately captioned;
and cleared for publication.
A journalist should not discover at 5pm that the only photograph is a tiny cropped LinkedIn profile picture.
Do journalists always need professional studio photography?
No.
Authenticity can be much more useful.
If the story is about a founder who built a bakery, a good photograph in the bakery may be more valuable than a generic corporate portrait.
If the founder is a designer, their studio may tell part of the story.
If they created a product, show them with it.
The photograph should help the reader understand who the person is.
Prepare for questions you may not love
A journalist is not necessarily going to ask only the questions in your PR pitch.
They may ask:
Why did the first business fail?
How much did you lose?
Why did a co-founder leave?
What happened to the customer complaints?
Why is the product more expensive?
How much do you earn?
Why should anyone believe your claim?
The founder does not have to answer every private question.
They should prepare for the possibility.
Can you ask for interview questions in advance?
Yes.
It is normal to want to understand the broad subject.
A journalist may provide:
the main areas;
some example questions;
or, particularly for email interviews, every question.
What founders should not generally expect is an absolute promise that no follow-up question will arise.
Good interviews are conversations.
An interesting answer often creates the next question.
Can you demand approval of the final article?
Usually not.
Editorial control belongs to the publication.
A journalist may agree to check:
a technical fact;
a complicated figure;
a specialist term;
or potentially sensitive details.
That is different from giving the founder a veto over the final article.
In journalism, requests to approve the whole piece or quotations before publication are sometimes referred to as readbacks.
In my experience, full readbacks are not the norm and can irritate journalists when demanded as an entitlement.
For particularly sensitive or highly desirable real-life stories, some details may be negotiated in advance.
If something is essential, discuss it before the interview.
What makes somebody enjoyable to interview?
The best interviewees tend to:
answer the actual question;
speak naturally;
give specific examples;
have a clear opinion;
admit when they do not know something;
avoid unnecessary jargon;
and resist turning every answer into a plug for their business.
That final point matters enormously.
If the journalist asks:
“Why are businesses struggling to hire?”
and the founder answers:
“At Smith Recruitment, our award-winning recruitment solutions…”
they have stopped being a source and started performing an advert.
The company will normally be credited anyway.
Answering well is what creates the editorial value.
Prepare a one-page founder media pack
A practical one-page pack can include:
Founder
Name, exact title and company.
Short biography
Approximately one concise paragraph establishing credibility.
Story
The core founder angle in two or three sentences.
Key chronology
Important dates and milestones.
Evidence
Sources supporting major claims.
Three topics
Subjects the founder can genuinely discuss.
Images
Links to approved downloadable photographs.
Availability
Telephone, video, written comment and relevant working hours.
Contact
PR contact details.
The document is not designed to tell the whole story.
It is designed to make verification easy.
Worked hypothetical example
Generic introduction
Sarah Brown is the passionate founder of an innovative online homeware company that is revolutionising interior design through a unique customer-first approach.
Nothing in that sentence tells the journalist why Sarah deserves an article.
Journalist-ready angle
Sarah Brown started her online homeware company after spending £18,000 renovating a house she had bought at auction and discovering that almost a third of the furniture she ordered would not fit through the property's narrow Victorian staircase. She now runs a seven-figure furniture business designed around small and awkward urban homes and can explain the five measurements buyers routinely forget before ordering large furniture online.
Now there is:
a personal trigger;
money;
an amusing practical problem;
commercial development;
reader advice;
and a reason Sarah has relevant expertise.
The figures and person here are hypothetical.
That is exactly how a founder story should be tested before pitching.
What should a founder avoid?
Unsupported figures.
Exaggerated job titles.
Pretending ordinary milestones are extraordinary.
Overwritten biographies.
Fake vulnerability.
Invented hardship.
Attacking competitors.
Disclosing private information about another person without permission.
Assuming the journalist will include every requested brand message.
Expecting publication because an interview took place.
A strong founder story should remain strong when the marketing adjectives are removed.
Real Fair example: Jessica Crane
Fair's documented Jessica Crane campaign is a useful example of how founder and professional experience can travel across several editorial subjects.
The nine-month case study includes coverage examples from publications including Yahoo, AOL, GOBankingRates, The Independent and Fortune Europe, with Jessica's experience contributing to journalism around entrepreneurship, money, remote working and running a small business.
The useful lesson is not that another founder will receive those same publications.
It is that a founder's media value can extend beyond a dedicated profile about their company.
Experience can become useful commentary.
That gives the campaign more routes.
Goodwill matters here too
A founder's first interview should not be approached as a one-time transaction where the objective is to squeeze maximum promotional copy out of the journalist.
Be useful.
Answer properly.
Send promised evidence.
Respect the deadline.
Thank them.
Do not immediately bombard them with three more company announcements.
Journalist relationships can develop over time.
A short quote today may create familiarity that helps the reporter return to the founder later.
That long-term goodwill is more valuable than forcing one interview to carry every message the business has ever wanted to say.
Frequently asked questions
Do founders need to be famous to get media coverage?
No. Journalists regularly feature people who were previously unknown to the general public where their story, expertise or experience is relevant. Fame can make somebody interesting, but it is not a prerequisite. A distinctive founder journey, strong professional insight, compelling human story or genuine business development can create editorial value without a large social following.
Should I send my full life story to a journalist?
Usually not in the first pitch. Lead with the part that makes the story immediately understandable and relevant, then make the supporting chronology available. A long biography can be useful for research, but asking a journalist to read 2,000 words before discovering the angle creates unnecessary work. Good PR selects the right details rather than sending everything indiscriminately.
Do journalists need photographs of the founder?
Not for every type of article, particularly a short expert quote, but good authentic imagery can materially improve feature opportunities. Founder profiles and human-interest stories often need strong pictures. Prepare approved high-resolution photographs with accurate captions and permissions before outreach begins so a promising article is not delayed by missing assets.
Can a founder ask to approve the article before publication?
They can ask, but they should not normally expect editorial approval. Journalists may check a factual point, technical wording or sensitive information, but the publication retains control of independent editorial content. If the founder has a genuinely essential condition around a sensitive story, it is better to discuss that before participating rather than attempting to impose approval after the interview.
Have a founder story worth telling?
Fair PR helps founders identify genuinely newsworthy angles, prepare useful supporting material and approach relevant journalists.
If you are unsure which parts of your experience the media might find interesting, explore Founders PR, Standard PR or contact us to discuss your story.
About the author
Jordan Baker is the founder of Fair Public Relations and a former UK national journalist.
He works with founders, experts and growing businesses on journalist-led earned-media campaigns, founder storytelling and credible public positioning.
View Jordan Baker’s media expert profile
