How to Write a Press Release for a Startup

What a press release actually is (and when it works)

A press release is a short, factual news announcement written for journalists. It is not an advertisement and it is not a blog post. It tells a reporter that something happened, gives them the facts in an order they can use, and makes their job easy enough that they might write about it. That is the whole point. You are not trying to impress the reader. You are trying to save a busy editor twenty minutes.

Here is the part most founders get wrong. A press release only works when there is genuine news. A funding round closed. A product shipped. Two companies signed a partnership. You crossed a number that means something. If none of those things happened, no format on earth will rescue the announcement, because the problem is not the writing. There is simply nothing to report.

When you do have real news, a press release does a few useful jobs. It puts one clean, quotable version of the facts on record, so ten different journalists do not print ten slightly different numbers. It gives wire services and aggregators something to pick up. It becomes the canonical reference you link from your own site. And it signals, quietly, that you take the announcement seriously.

When it does not work is just as important. If your goal is a proper profile of you and your company, a mass-blasted release is the weakest tool you own. Reporters get hundreds of them a week and skim most in seconds. For a feature, a personal, researched pitch to one relevant journalist beats a generic release every time. We come back to that honest distinction at the end, because it matters more than any template.

The anatomy of a press release

Every standard press release is built from the same parts, in the same order. Learn the parts once and you can write one in under an hour. The order is deliberate. It follows the inverted pyramid, which we cover in a moment, and it matches how a news desk reads.

That end mark deserves a note, because new writers skip it. The three hashes tell a reporter the release is finished and nothing was cut off in transit. Older newsrooms used -30- for the same purpose. Either signals: this is the full text, print with confidence.

How to write a headline that gets opened

The headline decides everything. An editor reads it, decides in about two seconds whether the email is worth opening, and moves on. So the headline has one job, which is to state the news plainly and specifically.

Lead with the concrete fact. A weak headline says something like Leading Fintech Startup Announces Exciting New Milestone. It contains no information. A strong one says Bengaluru fintech RupeeNest raises ₹40 crore to take credit scoring to small-town women borrowers. A reporter now knows the who, the what, the how much and the angle, all before opening anything.

A few habits that help

• Put the number in the headline when there is one. Money, users, cities, percentage growth. Numbers are what get scanned.
• Name the company and what it does, since the editor may never have heard of you.
• Keep it under about 15 words so it survives being pasted into a subject line.
• Cut every adjective that a rival could also claim. Innovative, leading, revolutionary and world-class say nothing.
• Write it last if you are stuck. Draft the body, then the true headline usually falls out of the lead paragraph.

If you are pitching the release by email, your subject line and headline can be the same sentence. That consistency is a small kindness to the person on the other end, and kindness gets remembered.

The inverted pyramid and the one-page rule

News writing runs top-heavy on purpose. The most important information sits at the very top, and each paragraph after it matters a little less. This shape is called the inverted pyramid, and there is a practical reason behind it. An editor can chop the release from the bottom to fit the space available and never lose the core story. If your best fact is in paragraph five, it dies on the cutting-room floor.

So the lead paragraph carries the whole announcement in miniature. Who did what, where, when, and why it matters. Someone should be able to read only those two or three sentences and walk away correctly informed. Everything below is support: the numbers behind the claim, the context, the quotes, the background.

Length is where discipline shows. Aim for roughly 300 to 500 words in the body. One page, printed, is the honest ceiling. A release that runs to two pages tells the reader you could not decide what mattered, and that impression transfers to your company. If a fact does not help a journalist write the story, it does not belong here. Put the extra detail in a linked press kit instead.

A rough paragraph budget: lead, then two or three short body paragraphs, then a quote, then the boilerplate. That is it. Tight beats thorough. The reporter will call if they want more, and giving them a reason to call is a good outcome.

Quotes that are not fluff

Most press release quotes are unusable, and every journalist knows it on sight. They read like this: We are thrilled and excited to announce this incredible milestone, which represents our continued commitment to excellence and innovation. No human speaks that way. No reporter prints it. It is filler wearing a tie.

A good quote does something the surrounding facts cannot. It adds a reason, a bit of judgement, a hint of personality, or a forward look the plain reporting should not carry. The facts say what happened. The quote says why it happened, or what it means next.

Weak versus usable

• Weak: We are excited to raise this round and continue our incredible growth journey.
• Usable: We kept hitting the same wall, a woman running a two-person shop in Nagpur has real revenue and zero credit history. This round is how we underwrite her anyway.

See the difference. The second one has a specific person in it, a specific problem, and a clear use for the money. A reporter can drop it straight into a story. Give one quote from the founder or CEO, and at most one from a second voice such as an investor or a partner. Two strong quotes beat five limp ones. Write them as spoken sentences, then read them aloud. If they sound like a press release, rewrite them until they sound like a person.

The boilerplate: write it once, reuse it forever

The boilerplate is the short About [Company] paragraph that closes every release you will ever send. It gives a reporter who has never heard of you the context to decide whether you are worth covering. Because it appears on every release, you write it carefully one time and then reuse it with only small updates.

Keep it to three or four sentences. What the company does, who it serves, when and where it was founded, and one credibility marker such as scale, backing or reach. Facts only. This is not the place for your mission statement or your vision for the future.

A clean boilerplate example

About RupeeNest: Founded in Bengaluru in 2022, RupeeNest is a credit-scoring platform that helps banks and NBFCs lend to first-time women borrowers in India’s tier-2 and tier-3 towns. Its models use cash-flow and transaction data rather than traditional credit files. RupeeNest works with 14 lending partners and has scored over 3 lakh applicants to date.

Notice there is no thrilled, no leading, no reimagining. Just what the company is and one number that shows it is real. Update the number and the partner count every few months, and the boilerplate stays true without a rewrite. If you want the reader to understand your founder story as well, a strong founder-led personal brand does more of that work than any boilerplate line can.

Types of press release, with the angle each one needs

Not every announcement is the same shape. The parts stay constant, but the emphasis shifts depending on what you are reporting. Here are the common types a startup sends, and the angle each one lives or dies on.

A quick reality check on two of these. A funding release is the easiest to place, because money is inherently newsworthy in India’s startup press. A milestone release is the hardest, because one company’s big number is another editor’s shrug. If you send a traction release, the number has to be genuinely notable or tied to a wider trend a reporter already cares about. Otherwise, hold it.

Key-hire and award releases are quieter wins. They rarely make a splash on their own, but they build a searchable record of momentum that pays off when a journalist researches you later. Send them, keep them short, and do not expect fireworks.

A full worked example, start to finish

Theory only goes so far. Here is a complete funding press release for a fictional but realistic Indian woman-led startup, with every element in place. Copy the structure, swap in your own facts, and you have a working draft. Read it once for the shape, then again for the small choices.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Bengaluru fintech RupeeNest raises ₹40 crore to bring formal credit to small-town women borrowers

Series A led by Elevation Capital will fund expansion into 60 new districts and a Hindi-first lending app

MUMBAI, 16 July 2026, RupeeNest, a Bengaluru-based credit-scoring platform for first-time women borrowers, has raised ₹40 crore in a Series A round led by Elevation Capital, with participation from existing investor Blume Ventures. The company will use the funding to expand into 60 new districts across Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan, and to launch a Hindi-first lending app for borrowers with no formal credit history.

Founded in 2022 by Ananya Rao and Meher Qureshi, RupeeNest builds credit scores from cash-flow and transaction data rather than traditional credit files, letting banks and NBFCs lend to women who run small businesses but have never held a loan. The platform now works with 14 lending partners and has scored more than 3 lakh applicants, roughly 70 percent of them women in tier-2 and tier-3 towns.

India has close to 20 crore women who earn but sit outside the formal credit system, most of them because a thin or missing credit file makes them invisible to a bank’s risk model. RupeeNest reports that borrowers scored through its models default at rates comparable to traditionally-scored customers, a result it says proves the gap is one of measurement, not risk.

“We kept hitting the same wall,” said Ananya Rao, co-founder and CEO of RupeeNest. “A woman running a two-person tailoring shop in Nagpur has real revenue and zero credit history, so the system treats her as a stranger. This round is how we underwrite her anyway, in her own language, on her own phone.”

“RupeeNest is doing the unglamorous work of proving repayment where others assumed risk,” said Mridula Menon, Partner at Elevation Capital. “The data now backs what the founders argued three years ago, and that is what convinced us.”

The new capital brings RupeeNest’s total funding to ₹58 crore. The company plans to grow its team from 45 to about 90 people over the next year, with most hiring in engineering and regional operations.

About RupeeNest

About RupeeNest: Founded in Bengaluru in 2022, RupeeNest is a credit-scoring platform that helps banks and NBFCs lend to first-time women borrowers in India’s tier-2 and tier-3 towns. Its models use cash-flow and transaction data rather than traditional credit files. RupeeNest works with 14 lending partners and has scored over 3 lakh applicants to date.

Media contact

• Priya Sethi, Head of Communications, RupeeNest
• Email: [email protected]
• Phone: +91 98xxx xxxxx
• Website and press kit: rupeenest.example/press

### (end mark)

Read it back and notice what it does not do. It never calls itself leading or innovative. It puts the number and the purpose in the headline. The lead paragraph alone would let a reporter file a two-line brief. The quote from the founder is a sentence a person would say. That is the whole trick.

Formatting, embargoes and the assets to attach

A few formatting conventions make you look like you have done this before. Put FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE at the top when the news is live. If you want journalists to hold the story until a set time, replace it with EMBARGOED UNTIL and the date and time, and never break your own embargo by publishing early. An embargo is a trust agreement. Break it once and reporters stop honouring yours.

Send the release in the body of the email, not as a PDF or a Word attachment that a reporter has to open. Editors read on phones between meetings. A clean, pasted-in release with a matching subject line gets read. An attachment gets ignored.

Assets worth attaching or linking

• A high-resolution founder photo and company logo, linked rather than attached as heavy files.
• One or two product screenshots if the news is a launch.
• A short fact sheet with founding year, headcount, funding history and key numbers.
• Links to your site, a demo, and any earlier coverage that supports the story.

Bundle these into a simple press-kit page on your own site and link to it. That page becomes the one place a journalist can grab everything without emailing you back at midnight. It also lives on, searchable, long after the release itself scrolls out of an inbox.

Distribution in India: paid wires, free routes and going direct

Writing the release is half the job. Getting it in front of the right eyes is the other half, and in India you have three broad routes. Each suits a different budget and goal. Prices below are indicative ranges only, so treat them as a starting point and confirm current rates directly with the service before you commit.

A wire service is worth it when you need broad, on-the-record distribution fast, such as a funding announcement you want picked up across financial media in one morning. Understand what you are buying, though. A wire gets your release republished, often word for word, on many sites. That is reach and it is searchable proof, but it is rarely the same as a reporter choosing to write about you.

Free portals are mostly a waste unless you specifically want the backlink and understand it carries little weight. The route that produces actual features is the third one, going direct. That means finding the two or three journalists who genuinely cover your beat and sending each a short, tailored note. It is slower and it does not scale, and it is also where the good stories come from. We wrote a full guide on how to pitch your startup to journalists in India, and a broader one on how to get media coverage for your startup in India, if you want the step-by-step.

If you would rather hand the whole process to specialists, that is a valid choice with its own tradeoffs. Our rundown of the best PR agencies for startups in India covers what agencies do well, what they cost, and when a founder is better off doing it in-house.

Common mistakes that get releases deleted

Most press releases fail for the same handful of reasons, and every one of them is avoidable. Run your draft against this list before you send it.

• No actual news. The most common failure. If nothing genuinely happened, no wording saves it. Wait until you have real news.
• A buried lead. The interesting fact sits in paragraph four. Move it to the first sentence or nobody reads that far.
• Jargon and buzzwords. Synergy, disruptive, next-generation, best-in-class. These words carry zero information and mark you as inexperienced.
• Adjective soup. Innovative leading revolutionary world-class platform. Cut every adjective a competitor could also claim about themselves.
• Too long. Two pages of everything you could think of. One page, one story, or an editor stops reading.
• Fluffy quotes. Thrilled and excited and honoured. Replace with something a real person would say about a real thing.
• No contact or a dead one. If a reporter wants to follow up and cannot reach a human within the hour, the story dies.
• Sending it to everyone. A blast to 400 addresses reads as a blast. A tailored note to the right five beats it easily.

If you catch yourself writing that your company is thrilled to announce a game-changing solution, stop and start over. That single sentence contains three of the mistakes above. Say what happened, in plain words, and trust the facts to do the work.

The honest truth about press releases

Here is what most guides will not tell you. A press release, by itself, rarely wins you a real feature. At best it gets republished on a few wire-fed sites and adds a searchable line to your record. That has value. It is not the same as a journalist deciding your story is worth telling.

What earns a feature is a story worth telling and the research to back it. Why you started the company, what nearly broke it, the specific decision that turned it around, the numbers that prove the point. A press release announces an event. A story explains a person. Reporters, and readers, remember the second one.

For most founders the smart approach is both, used for different jobs. Send a tight, factual release for your genuine news, funding, launches, partnerships, so the facts are on record and searchable. Then invest your real energy in a proper story, told to the right journalist or published somewhere permanent, when you want people to understand who you are and why your company exists. If you have never written the longer document that forces that clarity, our guide on how to write a business plan is a good place to sharpen the same story.

This is the work we do at Women Can Startup. We do not send out press releases. We research and write permanent founder profiles of Indian women entrepreneurs, the kind of piece that ranks, gets read, and stays useful for years. If you want a properly researched story rather than a one-day announcement, get featured and tell us what you have built. You can also read founder stories we have published to see the depth we mean, or get in touch with a question first.