One way is to approach it as two deals in one: 1) getting VC money in exchange for equity 2) paying for PR There is a lot of advice on the first item on the In

One way is to approach it as two deals in one: 1) getting VC money in exchange for equity 2) paying for PR There is a lot of advice on the first item on the Internet. The second item is somewhat covered in the following pg's essay: http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html pg seems to believe offline coverage is somewhat obsolete for online startups. This may or may not apply to you. Another way to think about it is to consider how important is the pr service for your expected outcome. See http://paulbuchheit.blogspot.com/2007/03/equity-math-for-startups.html http://paulbuchheit.blogspot.com/2007/03/equity-math-for-startups.html