How VCs and Ecosystems Can Help Portfolio Companies With PR

VCs and ecosystems help portfolio companies with PR most by teaching founders what PR is before their first announcement, not by handing out placements afterwards. A short primer delivered at investment or grant close, a review gate before a portfolio company's first big news, and warm context on which reporters cover their category will save founders from spending their first budget on wire releases that build nothing. Amplification on your own channels helps too, but it only works if the story underneath is strong.

I'm writing this to the people who run platform teams at funds and grant or growth programmes at L1 and L2 ecosystems. You're in the best position to fix a problem I keep seeing, and it costs you very little.

The problem you're positioned to fix

In August 2024, after a round of conversations with early-stage founders, I posted this.

Early stage web3 founders part of different L1/L2 ecosystems aren't aware about what PR entails! About 3 founders i spoke to told me that they use wire services because it's easy to get coverage! Ecosystems + VCs must take proactive initiatives to educate their portcos! Shilika Jain on X, 8 Aug 2024

These were funded, capable teams. Nobody had told them that a paid release isn't coverage, or that their funding news could only break once. By the time they found out, the news was spent. I wrote up the wider pattern in the wire service trap.

Founders listen to their investors and to the ecosystem that funded them. A one-hour session from you carries more weight than a dozen blog posts from someone like me.

What a portfolio PR primer should cover

I've run PR workshops for accelerators and cohorts, including one for the XRPL Labs Accelerator with Tenity, and I've sat as a judge on a Stellar cohort run by Myosin, advising founders on their PR strategy. The questions founders ask in those rooms are remarkably consistent. A primer that answers them has eight modules.

1. Earned, paid, owned and syndicated. What each one is, what it signals to a reader, and why only earned coverage builds third-party credibility. This is the module that prevents the wire mistake.
2. What counts as news. Funding, launches, partnerships, data, people. Which of these a reporter will cover and which belong on the company blog.
3. The news angle. How to attach a routine announcement to a bigger story a reporter already cares about. I've written a seven-lens method that works well as a workshop exercise.
4. How reporters work. Beats, inboxes, deadlines, embargoes, exclusives. That reporters are paid by their outlet, not by the project.
5. The pitch. A short, personal note to one reporter, and what a good one looks like next to a bad one.
6. The founder's footprint. Why a reporter searches the founder first, and what they need to find: a clear point of view on X, a byline or two, a podcast.
7. Timing a first announcement. The weeks of build-up before a launch or raise, and why the news shouldn't go out on a wire before reporters see it.
8. Reading a PR report. How to tell coverage from distribution when an agency sends a link list. My coverage report audit method is a ready-made module.

Keep it practical. Founders in these sessions want examples, not theory.

When to deliver each part

Timing matters as much as content. A primer delivered after the first announcement is a post-mortem.

You don't need a full-time PR person on your platform team to run this. You need one owner who books the sessions and a short list of practitioners you trust to deliver them.

The pre-announcement gate

The single most useful thing a fund or ecosystem can add is a light review before a portfolio company's first big announcement. Not approval. Just five checks, done on a 20-minute call.

• An angle beyond "we raised" or "we launched". If the founder can't say it in one sentence, the announcement isn't ready.
• Some founder footprint. A reporter will search them. Something should come up.
• Named reporters for this category. If the answer is "crypto media", the target list isn't done.
• Pitch timing relative to the release. Pitches first, under embargo. Release on the company's site at lift.
• Clarity on any paid distribution. If money is going to wires or paid placements, the founder should know exactly what that buys. This one catches the mistake before it costs anything.

Founders don't experience this as gatekeeping when it's framed as help. In my experience, they're relieved someone asked.

What you can provide beyond education

Education is the foundation, but you have assets founders don't.

On the second row: your relationships with reporters are a shared resource across the whole portfolio. Spending them on a weak pitch makes the next strong one harder for every founder you back.

Supporting the smaller teams, not just the flagship ones

Ecosystems tend to put their communications energy behind their biggest projects. That makes sense commercially, but it leaves smaller teams to learn PR the expensive way. I've felt strongly about this for a while.

hate to see how foundations/ecosystems don't support small/ambitious projects in their ecosystem! Shilika Jain on X, 26 Jul 2023

A primer and a gate are cheap to run for every team, not just the top ten. And the smaller teams are often the ones with the most interesting stories: specific users, specific markets, specific problems. With a bit of guidance, those are the stories reporters actually want.

Founders are curious about this when you give them the chance. After the XRPL Labs Accelerator session, I wrote:

more ecosystems, foundations & VCs should make an active effort to educate builders about public relations Shilika Jain on X, 10 Jul 2025

Where this approach has limits

A primer doesn't replace doing the work. Some founders will sit through every module and still need hands-on help to build a story and pitch it, especially for a raise or a token launch. The primer's job is to help them recognise good help and avoid bad spending, not to make them full-time PR people.

There's also a risk of over-standardising. An ecosystem that pushes every portfolio company toward the same narrative ("built on X") produces a portfolio of identical pitches. My sibling post on PR for apps building on an L1 or L2 covers how founders can stand apart inside an ecosystem, and L1 and L2 narrative differentiation covers it from the chain's side.

And if you're a smaller fund without a platform team, start with the gate alone. It's the highest-value piece and needs one person and 20 minutes per company. If a portfolio company needs more than that, point them to someone who runs Web3 PR campaigns end to end.

FAQ

Should ecosystems pay for PR on behalf of portfolio companies?

It can work for specific moments, like a coordinated ecosystem announcement, but I'd be careful about making it the default. Founders who never learn what good PR looks like will struggle once the subsidy ends. Fund the education first, then decide case by case.

How long should a portfolio PR workshop be?

Sixty to ninety minutes works for a cohort, with founders bringing a real upcoming announcement to work on. Longer sessions lose people. Follow it with short one-to-one reviews before each company's first big news.

Can a VC platform team run this without a PR background?

Yes for the gate and the scheduling, with an outside practitioner delivering the workshop itself. The platform lead's job is making sure it happens at the right moment for each company, not teaching every module.

What's the first sign a portfolio company needs PR help?

They tell you they're "getting coverage" and the links are all press release sections or partner content. That's the moment to step in, before the next announcement goes out the same way.

Running a cohort or a portfolio that could use a PR primer? Get in touch and we can plan a session around your founders' next announcements.