Honeyjar Launches AI Platform to Automate Strategic Communications Workflows
Startup Honeyjar debuts an AI-driven tool designed to scale senior-level PR expertise for founders and unassigned communicators across various industries.
Key points
- Honeyjar automates PR tasks including journalist identification, media list building, and coverage tracking.
- Founders Michelle Masek and Nadia Jamshidi leverage decades of agency and in-house communications experience.
- The platform targets non-PR professionals such as marketers, investors, and school superintendents who handle communications.
Honeyjar, a new startup participating in the TechCrunch Disrupt Startup Battlefield 200, has launched an artificial intelligence platform aimed at improving public relations and communications workflows. According to TechCrunch, the company seeks to make high-level PR expertise accessible to founders and other professionals who lack specialized communications training or resources.
The platform automates core communications processes, including writing announcements, identifying suitable journalists for pitches, and locating speaking opportunities. Co-founder and CCO Nadia Jamshidi stated that the system can find reporters, build media lists, scan news and social channels, track coverage, and surface opportunities. These capabilities represent only one component of the broader system being developed by the team.
Context and Background
The founding team brings extensive industry experience to the venture. CEO Michelle Masek and CCO Nadia Jamshidi have spent decades working in both in-house communications roles and at agencies. Masek previously served as the senior vice president of marketing and communications for Obvious Ventures, the venture firm associated with Ev Williams. Her role involved supporting the communications needs of the firm’s portfolio companies.
Masek identified a specific challenge while helping 110 portfolio companies with their marketing and communications strategies. She noted that founders frequently sought assistance with securing media coverage, such as placements in TechCrunch. This recurring demand led her to explore whether senior-level expertise could be scaled through artificial intelligence to help users execute communications proactively and skillfully.
Who Is Affected
Honeyjar’s target audience extends beyond startup founders and traditional public relations professionals. Masek described a large population of “unassigned communicators” who are responsible for communications work without holding the specific job title. This group includes marketers, investors, authors, creators, school superintendents, and sports team leaders.
The startup views this need for strategic communications as incredibly horizontal across different sectors. Masek observed that while the responsibility for communications is often passed around within organizations, the underlying problems are frequently left unsolved. Honeyjar aims to address this gap by bringing together signals, context, strategy, judgment, timing, and execution into a single workflow.
What should you do?
Organizations should evaluate whether their current communications workflows are fragmented or handled by staff without specialized training. Identify teams that manage media relations or public announcements without dedicated PR support. Assess if these teams struggle with consistent execution or lack strategic guidance. Consider tools that can centralize these tasks to ensure consistent messaging and better tracking of outreach efforts.
What to do and how to stay safe: Honeyjar
- Audit internal communications responsibilities to identify staff members handling PR tasks without formal training or dedicated resources.
- Evaluate current workflows for gaps in strategy, timing, or execution that may be causing inconsistent messaging or missed opportunities.
- Monitor the development of AI-driven communications tools to see if they can effectively scale senior-level expertise for your organization.
- Ensure that any new tools integrate with existing media monitoring and social scanning capabilities to provide a unified view of coverage.
Step-by-step guide: Prompt Injection Warning Signs: How to Spot AI Manipulation
General security guidance from the Threat Times newsroom. It is not confirmed advice from the organisations named in this story.
Frequently asked questions
What specific tasks does Honeyjar automate?
Honeyjar automates writing announcements, finding journalists to pitch, building media lists, scanning news and social media, tracking coverage, and identifying speaking opportunities.
Who founded Honeyjar and what is their background?
Honeyjar was founded by CEO Michelle Masek and CCO Nadia Jamshidi, both of whom have decades of experience in in-house communications and agency work.
Who is the target audience for Honeyjar?
The platform targets startup founders and “unassigned communicators” such as marketers, investors, authors, creators, school superintendents, and sports team leaders.
