If you want paying customers, then yes, you need everything in place to capture them and retain them. If you want attention from VCs, or to boost your personal

If you want paying customers, then yes, you need everything in place to capture them and retain them. If you want attention from VCs, or to boost your personal brand, it's less important to have product/market fit, a scalable product, an optimized funnel, or even a published product. Step 0 is to figure out why you want to do press outreach in the first place.