When we were planning our launch I was blown away at how easy it was to get on some fairly major publications; most of them actually reached out and made contac

When we were planning our launch I was blown away at how easy it was to get on some fairly major publications; most of them actually reached out and made contact with us. Granted, we had a very compelling story (I lived in my car, our product democratizes breaking news), but in my excitement I made a huge mistake, which I'm glad the author focused on. We got too much press too long before our product went live. We were a couple months away from launch, and all of the sudden BBC, Yahoo and San Francisco magazine are asking us if they can feature us. Do you really say "no" to BBC?" Yes. You do. While it was cool to watch signups come in at a rate of 1 per minute (to an empty landing page), now when we actually do launch it will be an uphill battle. Getting press isn't hard if you have a compelling product, but it also should be a part of your overall launch strategy. Make press happen the way you want it to, and time things right. I found reporters are by no means offended if we said, "We're not ready yet; we're heads-down focusing on product. It will be a much better story in a month when we launch, can we circle back then?" You're the founder; make it happen how you need it to.