THE COVER STORY LAB & Happy Hour: How Founders Get Seen | Seattle Magazine & Seattle Business Magazine

​A Seattle Tech Week session and happy hour by Seattle Magazine & Seattle Business Magazine on media, storytelling, and what actually gets covered.

​This session is designed for tech founders, funders, entrepreneurs, brands and business leaders who are building something worth talking about but need to understand how to turn traction into visibility and get visibility for traction. Joined by award winning media host and moderator, Angela Poe Russell, formerly of KING 5.

​We’ll get into the real questions founders ask once the product, funding, and momentum are in motion. Then we'll have time for live audience Q & A along with a networking happy hour with wine and beer to keep the pitching going!

​How do you get your story seen?

​This live experience brings together the people behind Seattle’s legacy media brand for a candid conversation and Q & A on what makes a story worth covering, including publishers, editors, media strategists, and the magazine's owner, a successful tech founder and investor. No stiff presentations. No generic PR fluff. Just real talk on how to pitch, position, and package your company, founder story, product, or brand in a way that resonates.

​We’ll cover questions like:

​How do you turn a business milestone into a media-worthy story?
Funding is one headline, but it is rarely the whole story. We’ll explore how founders can position growth, product launches, partnerships, customer traction, thought leadership, market disruption, community impact, and founder journeys in a way that earns editorial attention.

​What actually makes a story worth covering?
Not every announcement is a feature. The panel will break down what editors look for, how publications evaluate relevance, and how to move beyond self-promotion into a story with timing, tension, audience value, and a clear point of view.

​How do founders pitch without sounding like a pitch deck?
We’ll talk about the difference between investor language and media language — and how to translate your company’s value into a story journalists, editors, customers, and the broader Seattle business community can understand.

​How do you build credibility before, during, and after funding?
From early-stage companies to scaling ventures, we’ll cover how media, brand positioning, founder visibility, community trust, partnerships, and consistent storytelling work together to create authority.

​How do you become part of Seattle’s larger business and tech narrative?
Seattle is a city of builders, investors, innovators, creators, and category-defining companies. This session will look at how founders can connect their story to the region’s bigger conversations around innovation, leadership, culture, economic growth, and what’s next.

​Panelists

​Jonathan Sposato
Owner and Publisher of Seattle Magazine and Seattle Business Magazine, Founder and CEO of JoySauce, the first all-American Asian streaming media platform. Jonathan brings the rare perspective of both a media owner and a successful tech founder and investor. He understands what it takes to build, scale, exit, and tell a story that earns attention. He speaks to the founder journey, leadership visibility, investing, and media growth.

​Rachel Gallaher
Editor-in-Chief of Seattle Magazine, Rachel brings an editorial and writer's lens to the conversation, sharing what makes a compelling feature, what editors look for, and how founders can better understand the difference between promotion and a truly publishable story. She helps decode what editors look for and how trends can become timely, relevant features.

​Liz Galloway
Associate Publisher of Seattle Magazine, PR strategist, and media professional. brings a cross-section of experience in public relations, brand strategy, storytelling, partnerships, pitching, and lifestyle media. She’ll help break down how founders can translate their ideas into visibility, credibility, and strategic media momentum.  Identify the strongest angle, build strategic relationships, and turn it into a visible story.

​Come for the insider media strategy. Stay for the Q&A, networking, and real conversations with the people shaping Seattle’s business, tech, and cultural stories. Now you’re funded. Now you’re building. Let’s get you seen.

​About Seattle Magazine:

​Seattle Magazine is one of the region’s leading lifestyle media brands, spotlighting the people, places, culture, ideas, and experiences shaping Seattle and the greater Pacific Northwest. From food, arts, design, wellness, events, travel, and community stories to the city’s most influential voices, Seattle Magazine captures the pulse of modern Seattle living.

​Seattle Business Magazine focuses on the companies, founders, executives, entrepreneurs, innovators, and industries driving the region forward. With coverage across business, technology, leadership, investment, economic growth, and the future of work, Seattle Business Magazine helps tell the stories behind Seattle’s boldest ideas and the people building what’s next.