How a Seed-Stage Startup Landed in The Wall Street Journal

Lessons from Athena’s surprising coverage and what founders can learn about finding the right reporter, framing stories, and pitching press

The Wall Street Journal rarely covers seed-stage startups — let alone one raising just $2.2M. That’s why I was surprised to see Athena, an early-stage company working on how large language models surface brand-related content, featured in Katherine Blunt’s article about the demise of traditional Google search.

Instead of dismissing it as a blip (and because I’m a nerd), I dissected the bigger-picture story: what the founders emphasized, how the reporter framed it, and the pitch that might have landed them coverage. It turned into a case study I shared throughout The To Do List Summit, a one-day event for startup founders on reaching audiences across press, video, social, and events. (The next one is November 8 in San Francisco, and I hope to see you there.)

Some attendees even asked if Athena was a client of mine. Nope.* This was just me geeking out on the puzzle of storytelling — the way a narrative gets pieced together, why a journalist pauses, and how founders can learn from it. Because the better you understand the anatomy of a story, the better you can tell your own.

So let me walk you through how I think Athena landed in WSJ. The hope is that you, as a founder, can reverse-engineer the same playbook and become a better storyteller.

The beat reporter

A beat reporter regularly covers a specific topic, industry, or area of interest — their “beat.” To pitch effectively, you need to read their coverage to understand what they do (and don’t) cover, and consider whether their outlet’s readership overlaps with your target audience.

I was initially confused to see Katherine Blunt covering Athena. Historically, she wrote about power, renewable energy, and utilities for the Wall Street Journal. And the WSJ itself rarely profiles seed-stage startups — its coverage typically skews toward Series B and later.

But in today’s media landscape, beats change often. Digging into Katherine’s recent coverage, I found she was already writing about news sites struggling with Google’s AI tools and the company’s broader search strategy. Then her social media confirmed it: in April she announced a new beat:

Why does this matter? Because it explains why Athena likely pitched Katherine Blunt. Their target audience — comms and marketing professionals — overlaps with WSJ’s readership, and Katherine was newly focused on the very industry shift Athena is tackling. (I’ve found that reporters new to a beat are often more open to an introductory call. That’s your chance to go deeper — add context, frame a compelling story, and make it hard for them to say no.)

You’ll often see reporters switch beats when industries shift, but there’s no easy button to track it. The best way is to make monitoring part of your routine:

• Read the outlets read by your target audience, and pay attention to what’s being covered (and what’s not).

• Follow relevant reporters on X and other social platforms.

• Set up Google News alerts on your competitors, industry keywords, and emerging trends.

(Athena, for example, might have had alerts for “Google” + “Search” + “AI” and noticed Katherine’s byline appearing frequently.)

If you keep tabs on these changes, you’ll know when to pitch a bigger-picture story early in a reporter’s new coverage — and your startup could be the example they use to tell it.

The Story

A funding announcement alone won’t land you coverage. With fewer journalists and more startups vying for attention, you need to connect your news to something bigger. Ask yourself:

• What cultural shift does this reflect?

• What trending story can you plug into?

• What about your founder’s story or background is unique?

• Do you have a partnership with a recognizable company?

• Do you have surprising growth or customer data that gives a new perspective on the market?

• Do you have investors with strong name recognition?

So what might have intrigued WSJ about Athena? Here’s what I gleaned from their coverage:

• Cultural shift: The future of search is changing, and Google’s dominance is under threat.

• Trending story: AI chatbots are reshaping how people find information.

• Founder background: The cofounder left Google’s search team earlier this year after deciding traditional search wasn’t the future.

• Partnerships: Athena’s customers include Paperless Post.

• Data: It gained 100 customers in just one month.

• Investors: Athena secured $2.2M in seed funding from Y Combinator.

It’s important to understand what stands out about your story and how it plays into something bigger happening in the world.

The Pitch:

A recent Propel study of 500,000 pitches found only 3.15% got any response at all. That’s including rejections.

That’s why your pitch needs to:

• Quickly capture the reporter’s interest and make it clear why your story is a perfect fit

• Integrate the elements from The Story above to show your news matters at a big-picture level.

• Nail the basics: no jargon, keep it concise (they shouldn’t have to scroll on their phone to read the entire pitch), and offer an exclusive.

Here’s an example pitch I imagine Athena could have sent to Katherine Blunt to land coverage in the WSJ:

Hi Katherine,

Read your story on Google frantically trying to compete with the wave of AI chatbots threatening its core business.

I'm the founder of Athena, a startup helping brands prepare for a world where customers no longer browse the web and instead rely on ChatGPT. We just raised $2.2M from Y Combinator, and I'd love to offer you the exclusive.

Athena analyzes how generative AI tools interpret and surface your content — giving brands a way to influence what LLMs “say” about them.

As someone who worked on Google’s search team earlier this year, I know firsthand that traditional search isn't the future. And in just a month, over 100 companies are already using Athena to adapt.

Happy to share more on a call and introduce you to investors and customers. Let me know, thanks!

I wrote this pitch and am biased in saying it’s a good pitch, but it hits all the elements of a compelling story: cultural shift, founder credibility, traction, and investor backing.

Keep building your company, but don’t ignore the headlines. When you spot a narrative or trend that aligns with your story, use these lessons from Athena to connect the dots for reporters and turn your news into meaningful coverage.

If you found this breakdown useful, subscribe to my Substack. I’ll share more deep dives like this one — reverse-engineering how founders land press and start to build a brand.

*Disclaimer: I’ve never worked with this startup and don’t know their actual media strategy. For all I know, an investor casually mentioned them to a reporter who happened to be writing a trend piece.