Honeyjar pitches AI to streamline PR workflows for non-specialists
Honeyjar, a startup in the TechCrunch Disrupt Startup Battlefield 200, is developing AI to automate public relations tasks such as drafting announcements, building media lists, finding reporters, tracking coverage, and spotting speaking opportunities. Its founders, Michelle Masek and Nadia Jamshidi, say the goal is to scale senior-level communications judgment and combine signals, context, strategy, timing, and execution. The company is targeting founders and other workers who handle communications without holding a formal PR title, including marketers, investors, authors, creators, and school leaders.
Honeyjar, part of TechCrunch Disrupt’s Startup Battlefield 200, is led by CEO Michelle Masek and Chief Communications Officer Nadia Jamshidi. Both bring decades of agency and in-house PR experience; Masek previously oversaw marketing and communications at Obvious Ventures. The tool aims to automate announcement drafting, reporter discovery, media-list building, coverage monitoring, and speaking-opportunity spotting.
Its early traction includes 10,000 waitlist signups within a day, with beta users such as Nextdoor, Coco Robotics, Bloomberg Beta, Mission North, and Full Picture. Honeyjar also says its Comms Lab trains the product on professional judgment, while users still decide whether to send or publish pitches and posts.
Honeyjar’s approach could lower barriers for founders, marketers, authors, and others who handle communications without formal PR training, helping them plan outreach more strategically. It may also ease workloads for small PR teams by automating repetitive tasks. At the same time, broader access to pitch generation could add to journalists’ inbox burdens, though the requirement for human approval may temper automated spam. Its impact may depend on whether it improves relevance and timing rather than simply increasing message volume.