The Headshot Mistake That Kills Placements (and How to Fix It This Afternoon)
This single oversight costs founders press coverage more often than any bad pitch. The fix takes one afternoon and no professional photographer.
Professional PR teams always prepare two sets of photos: one in bright, solid-coloured clothing against a clean background for media use, and one with company branding for marketing. These are kept in separate folders and never confused. The branded version never goes to a journalist.
This sounds like a small thing. It isn't. When a journalist says yes and asks for a headshot, they need it within the hour. If you come back two days later with something organised, the story has moved on and so has the journalist.
What to prepare now, before your first pitch
Your media asset kit — everything in one folder, on your phone
- Headshot: Non-branded clothing (solid bright colour, no logos). Plain background. Both horizontal and vertical versions. High resolution. If you can't afford a photographer, use portrait mode on a modern phone near a large window with natural light — no flash, no ring light.
- Clothing note: Avoid black, white, patterns, stripes, reflective fabrics, and anything with text or logos. Solid bright colours photograph well and don't clash with publication backgrounds.
- Founder bio: Three sentences, third person. "[Name] is the [title] of [company], [what the company does in one clause]. [One sentence of relevant background.] [Where you're based.]" No adjectives. No "passionate about." No LinkedIn summary language.
- Company boilerplate: Three sentences. What you do. Where you operate and at what scale. What makes you different — factual only. No "leading," "innovative," or "world-class."
- Media contact: A name, email, and phone number for someone who will respond within hours — not days.
Why this matters more than you think
When a journalist Googles you before writing a story, they're forming an impression before they've even read your pitch. A professional, accessible photo — and a bio that reads like something a journalist would actually quote — signals that you understand how this works. It removes friction from an already difficult process.
Journalists work on tight deadlines. They're not going to wait for you to organise a photo shoot. The founders who get covered consistently are the ones who have everything ready before they need it.
Save everything in a folder you can access on your phone. When a journalist says yes at 4pm on a Tuesday, you need to send it before they leave for the day. That folder — with every asset named clearly and sized correctly — is what makes that possible.