How to use this guide

This guide is 64 pages across 11 sections, and it works best when you jump in rather than read front to back. Each page answers one question a founder hiring PR would actually type into a search box, answers it in the first paragraph, and stops. Find the section that matches where you are in the hiring cycle and start there.

The sections follow the life of an agency relationship in order:

• Deciding whether to buy - the Foundations section covers what PR is, what it can and can't do, readiness signals by stage, and ballpark costs before you take a single meeting.
• Shopping and about to sign - the Service Menu explains what agencies actually sell. Choosing an Agency walks the evaluation, including the questions worth asking in a pitch and the red flags that should end a conversation. The Deal covers pricing models, scope of work, and contract terms before money moves.
• Already hired - Onboarding and Working Together explain the first 90 days, the responsibility split, and why your own responsiveness decides a large share of the outcome.
• Wondering if it's working - Measurement separates real metrics from vanity metrics, and When It's Not Working tells you whether to pause, renegotiate, or fire.
• Facing a specific moment - Special Situations covers funding announcements, launching out of stealth, founder personal brand, and crisis.

Hiring within a month? The fast path is four pages: whether you need PR yet, what PR costs, agency red flags, and the questions to ask in a pitch meeting. Then score every finalist against the agency vetting scorecard in the Reference Shelf, and check published pricing so you walk into meetings with a number in mind.

This guide will not teach you to do PR. No pitch templates, no reporter scripts, no press-release mechanics. Every page makes you a sharper buyer (decide, time, price, choose, measure) and leaves the execution to whoever you hire.

PressFriendly sells what this guide recommends. I wrote it after firing eight PR agencies and building the one I would hire, and the advice holds whether or not PressFriendly exists. So run every checklist here against us too. Ask the same hard questions, and walk if the answers are weak. Book a call when you want to test that.