Utilizing Funding Events for Media Coverage

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I’m not a huge believer in announcing funding events. Over the years, it seems as if more and more entrepreneurs, CEO’s and Founders associate a certain level of success to their companies raising money. In all honesty, raising money really doesn’t mean squat. Of course it gives you fuel to scale, build the team, dominate a market, etc. and it’s certainly necessary (but not all of the time). But assuming that you’ve ‘made it’ because you’ve raised millions in funding is ridiculous and completely absurd.

When Rivet & Sway raised our latest round of funding, I knew that I didn’t want to go out with a straight funding announcement. One, it just seemed silly to announce that we’d raised money when we haven’t yet proven that we can build and scale a profitable company that’s sustainable over time. And two, I didn’t think that a funding press release would necessarily reach our target audience of fashionable women. And for the most part (and there are exceptions), our PR efforts need to bring Rivet & Sway awareness to women in our target audience.

So instead of just launching a funding press release, the Team decided to combine the funding news with the announcement of our first integrated marketing campaign around Valentine’s Day. By combining the two newsworthy events, we could attract the interest of journalists who are interested in staying on top of start-up funding while also potentially reaching our target customer with our Valentines Day offer. We’re still in the midst of executing this campaign, but thus far our PR efforts seem to be paying off. Thus far, a number of sites have covered our story:

GeekWire: Women’s online eyeglass seller Rivet & Sway peers ahead with $2 million
All Things D: Warby Parker Competitor Rivet & Sway Raises $2M More
Vator TV: Rivet & Sway bags $2M for women’s prescription glasses

We have some pretty big goals for this campaign and so we’re not even close to fully measuring the results. But I’m pretty happy with how the PR component has played out thus far.

Questions, comments, concerns? Let ’em fly in the comments below.

John

Other sites covering Rivet & Sway last week: