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Vol. 01 · Issue 04
The Grovant Press

Founder PR·Podcast tours·Reporter outreach·Newsletter placements·AI citations

Senior PR. Founder-led.

Hire a senior operator to run your podcast tour, LinkedIn ghostwriting, reporter outreach, and newsletter sponsorships. Not a $25k a month Edelman retainer with a junior coordinator on it. The same named senior runs your narrative every week. Every placement, every pitch, every journalist relationship logged in your shared owner doc.

  • 01Senior comms operator, named on day one
  • 02First placement target in 45 to 60 days
  • 03Real journalist relationships, not list spray
  • 04Free narrative audit in four business days
Founding partner · Q4 2026 · No AVE / PR-value reporting

For immediate release

Q4 2026 · Founder partner intake

Free narrative audit
Form 01 / 02

Send the story. Get the tour.

Send your site or LinkedIn. Inside four business days you get a narrative audit, a 90-day placement plan, a named senior operator, and a price.

Mutual NDA + non-disparagement · No AVE reporting · Founder named

Mutual NDA + non-disparagement · No coordinator handoff

Placement log · sanitized representative sample

Six placements. Named, dated, real.

The reason most PR retainers feel like a leap of faith is the report. Six sanitized placements from a recent quarter, tier-banded, with outlets named, dates stamped, and reach reported. No impressions estimates. No AVE multiplier. No PR-value column.

Q3 2026 · client-03 · 6 of 14

Placement log·Q3 · client-03
Exported under your lockup
  • Podcast

    Lenny's Podcast

    “From design partner to Series A in 90 days”

    Tier 1Sep · 2026
  • Print

    Fast Company

    “The agency-stack consolidation playbook”

    Tier 1Oct · 2026
  • News

    TechCrunch

    “Three-person studio quietly building under the radar”

    Tier 1Aug · 2026
  • Newsletter

    Lenny's Newsletter

    “Sponsored placement · 220-word write-up + link”

    Tier 1Nov · 2026
  • Podcast

    My First Million

    “The white-label retainer model that compounds”

    Tier 1Jul · 2026
  • Print

    Inc.

    “Operator profile, founder-led”

    Tier 2Jun · 2026

This is what your monthly report looks like. Outlets named, dates stamped, reach reported. No multiplier math.

Commission a tour

Narrative audit · sample from a Q3 founder engagement

What we read before we pitch a reporter.

Every engagement starts with a narrative audit. Six rows below are pulled from a real onboarding. Critical gaps become the first sprint. Noted items get held in place.

Audit memo · client-03 · 6 of 12 findings
Exported under your lockup
  • CRITICAL
    Messaging house
    No documented positioning doc. Three different one-liners across LinkedIn, deck, and homepage.
  • CRITICAL
    Founder online presence
    LinkedIn at 18 posts in 12 months. No X. No podcast appearances since 2024.
  • GAP
    Earned media · 12 mo
    Two mentions. Both newsletter inclusions, no tier-1 outlets.
  • GAP
    AI-citation footprint
    Brand appears in zero of fifty representative ChatGPT queries for the category.
  • GAP
    Awards calendar
    Eligible for Inc 5000 and Fast Company Most Innovative. No submissions filed.
  • NOTED
    Crisis playbook
    No documented response plan. Founder named as default spokesperson, no media training logged.

Twelve rows like these land in your inbox inside four business days.

Commission the audit
The offer · in four numbers04 / 04
  • I·Founder PR retainer

    $4,000

    / month

  • II·Placement target

    45-60

    days to first hit

  • III·Quarterly booking target

    6-12

    podcast tier-1/2

  • IV·Vanity metrics

    0

    AVE / PR-value

Single product launch from $25K · Crisis comms retainer from $6,000/mo

Press kit · inside cover

Senior PR, end to end. Not just press releases.

Pages 03 – 19 · 05 sections

The Grovant Press·Inside this kit
Vol. 01 · Issue 04
  1. IP. 03
    .tour

    Podcast tour booking

    Tier-1 and tier-2 placements with researched targets and warm intros. Founders show up to record, we run the rest — outreach, hook, host brief, scheduling, post-show clip pack.

    Cadence

    60–90 days · 6–12 placements

  2. IIP. 07
    .pitch

    Reporter outreach

    Named beat reporters we read every day. Pitches written for the reporter, not the wire. Embargoes negotiated when the story needs them. No Muck Rack list spray.

    Cadence

    Weekly · curated

  3. IIIP. 11
    .slot

    Newsletter placements

    Sponsored slots on tier-1 newsletters (Lenny's, Stratechery, The Hustle register). Earned mentions in operator newsletters where the audience is. Beehiiv and Substack alike.

    Cadence

    Monthly · earned + paid

  4. IVP. 15
    .ghost

    Founder LinkedIn ghostwriting

    Operator POV, not guru POV. Reply strategy on top-tier accounts. Personal page beats company page on LinkedIn in 2026 — we treat it that way and ship in your voice.

    Cadence

    4–5 posts / week

  5. VP. 19
    .file

    Awards and lists

    Forbes 30 Under 30, Inc 5000, Fast Company, industry shortlists. Submission calendar maintained quarterly. Awards held as proof points in the sales cycle, not as the strategy.

    Cadence

    Quarterly · submission cal.

Standard issue · 2026

AI-citation tracked as a KPI. Weekly · ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini.

  • Citation footprint
  • Branded-search lift
  • Entity coverage
  • Share of voice

Bundle PR with content, SEO, or design and you land below the unbundled total. One senior runs the narrative end to end.

Send the story

When the call usually comes in

Three reasons the brief lands in our inbox.

  1. Reason 01

    You raised, and the launch needs a press motion.

    Series A closed, the announcement is two weeks out, and you don't want a brand-name firm taking $50K up front for a single campaign. We run the embargo, brief the reporters, book the podcasts, and ship the LinkedIn cadence around it.

  2. Reason 02

    You tried a big firm and got one mention in six months.

    The strategy call was sharp. Then a junior took over, the pitches went out as scraped Muck Rack blasts, and you got a quarterly deck full of impressions estimates. We pick up the work with a senior who actually owns the relationships. No coordinator, no impressions math.

  3. Reason 03

    You're a founder who wants to compound a personal brand.

    Your LinkedIn could be a distribution channel. Your X could be a network. Your podcast catalog could be a permanent asset. We ghostwrite four to five posts a week, book the tour, and brief the reporters who keep asking founders like you to call.

The honest comparison

When founder-led PR is the right answer. And when it isn't.

CriterionEdelman / WeberBoutique firmSenior freelanceGrovant
  • Senior operator on the workdependsyesyesyes
  • Mutual NDA + non-disparagementyesdependsrareyes
  • Curated outreach, not list spraydependsdependsdependsyes
  • Live placement log, no PDFsnodependsdependsyes
  • No AVE / PR-value reportingnodependsdependsalways
  • Founder named, not anonymousnoyesyesyes
  • Annual cost$300k+$120-600k$60-144k$48-120k
  • Minimum commitment12 months6 months3 monthsmonth to month
Editorial standards · in writing
Standards I to IV

The Grovant Press · Masthead standards

Four standards.
Signed before a pitch ships.

  1. I

    Founder named on the work

    The senior operator who runs your tour is named in the MSA and on every pitch. No coordinator handoff, no junior bait-and-switch after the strategy call.

  2. II

    Mutual NDA and non-disparagement

    Signed before we touch your story. You don't get pitched as a logo on our deck. Your competitors don't get pitched by us during the engagement.

  3. III

    No AVE, no PR-value math

    Reporting is real metrics: named placements, share of voice in your category, branded-search lift, AI-citation footprint. No impressions multipliers. The industry has discredited that math; so have we.

  4. IV

    Tier-banded targets, not guarantees

    No reputable firm guarantees TechCrunch. We commit to tier-banded placement counts (e.g., one tier-1 plus three tier-2 per quarter). Miss the band, we eat the next month.

Editor's mark

You can leave after the first sprint. We'd rather you stay because the placements are landing.

Editorial budget · 60-day press sprint

Four story slots. On the budget, every Friday.

Issue No. 04 · slots 01 – 04

The Grovant Press·Editorial budget
Sprint cycle · 60 days
  1. S-01

    Story slot

    Discovery

    Days 01 – 07

    Owner · Senior operator

    Messaging house drafted. Three positioning angles tested with the founder. Outlet long-list scraped, beat reporters flagged, embargo policy set.

    • Messaging house v1
    • Outlet long-list
    • Beat reporter map

    Deadline

    Fri · day 07

    in production
  2. S-02

    Story slot

    Outreach

    Days 08 – 21

    Owner · Senior operator

    Podcast target list locked. First reporter pitches sent — tier-1 first, tier-2 in the second wave. LinkedIn ghostwriting cadence begins. Embargoed previews where the story warrants.

    • Tier-1 pitches sent
    • Podcast outreach live
    • LinkedIn live

    Deadline

    Fri · day 21

    live
  3. S-03

    Story slot

    Landing

    Days 22 – 45

    Owner · Senior operator

    First placement booked or first podcast confirmed. Newsletter sponsorship slot locked. Bylines drafted with named outlets. AI-citation footprint baseline captured.

    • First placement
    • Newsletter slot
    • AI-citation baseline

    Deadline

    Fri · day 45

    pending
  4. S-04

    Story slot

    Recap

    Days 46 – 60

    Owner · Account lead

    Clip book assembled. Share-of-voice delta reported. Branded-search lift pulled from GSC. Next sprint scoped with named outlets, embargo policy, and refreshed angles.

    • Clip book v1
    • SoV delta report
    • Next sprint scoped

    Deadline

    Fri · day 60

    queued
Production sheet · ready by Friday 15:00NDAs in place · 04 / 04

First placement target lands inside 45–60 days. Narrative audit lands in four business days.

Start the audit
PR questions

What people ask before handing over the narrative.

Plain answers about journalist relationships, podcast booking, reporting, and how a senior-led founder-PR program actually runs.

  • Both. A typical engagement runs from positioning sentence to lockup to component library, but if you already have an identity that holds and just need new messaging, voice work, or a press cycle, we can pick up there. The deliverable shape is the same either way: a Figma file with components, a one-page reference card for messaging, and a tracker for press.

  • We pitch one angle at a time to a small list of named editors, not a blast list. If a client is competitive in their space, that shapes the angle rather than the outreach. The press tracker shows every pitch, every reply, and every placement. You see the full list, including the misses.

  • Yes. Founder-voice work is a regular pillar of brand engagements. We do a voice audit first to capture cadence, vocabulary, and the topics the founder actually cares about. Drafts ship from that source document. The founder edits in their own voice; we never publish without sign-off.

  • Never, unless you ask. Brand and PR work ships under your name or under your client's name. Press pitches go out from your domain or your client's. The Grovant mark stays internal. White label is the default; attribution is opt-in.

  • Yes. A typical opener is a brand audit that maps what you already have against what we'd add. If the guide holds, we work inside it. If we recommend updates, we name them in the audit and you decide what changes. Nothing gets touched without sign-off.

  • Six to eight weeks for the core system: positioning, lockup variants, color tokens, type pairing, voice rules, and a Figma component library. Press cycles run independently and ship in parallel. Full rollout across channels takes another four to six weeks depending on volume.

Don't see your question?Send a quick message →
Reply · within 1 business day

Still have a question we didn't cover? Ask it in the brief. A senior reads every submission inside one business day.

What happens after you send

Three steps. Four business days.

You send the story. The narrative audit lands four business days later. Here is exactly what runs in between.

  1. 01Within 24 hours

    A senior replies

    Not a coordinator, not an SDR. The senior operator who would run your tour replies from a real email, confirms scope, and sends the mutual NDA.

  2. 02Days 2 to 3

    We run the narrative audit

    Messaging house, founder online presence, recent coverage, AI-citation footprint, awards eligibility, crisis playbook. Twelve points across the comms surface. No call required to start.

  3. 03Day 04

    Plan and price land

    You get the audit memo, a 90-day placement plan, tier-banded targets, the named senior operator, and a transparent price. Start when ready, or walk away clean.

No follow-up sequence. No drip campaign. If we miss the tier-banded target in a given quarter, we eat the next month.

Start step 01
Closing edition
The Grovant Press
Page 09 of 09

One step

Send the story.
We'll send back the tour.

Inside four business days, you get a narrative audit, a 90-day placement plan with tier-banded targets, the named senior operator, and a transparent price. No commitment, no Edelman markup, no PR-value math.

  • 01Free narrative audit in 4 business days
  • 02Senior operator named on day one
  • 03Mutual NDA + non-disparagement
  • 04Founding partner rates · Q4 2026

For immediate release

Q4 2026 · Founder partner intake

Free narrative audit
Form 02 / 02

Send the story. Tour comes back in four.

Five fields. One business day to a senior reply. No follow-up sequence.

Mutual NDA + non-disparagement · No AVE reporting · Founder named

Sealed · Read by a senior operator

Free narrative audit · 4 biz days

Senior PR, founder-led

Send story