Honeyjar uses AI to bring PR expertise to more teams

Honeyjar is building AI tools to help companies manage communications, from drafting announcements to finding journalists and speaking opportunities. The startup will attend this week’s TechCrunch Disrupt as part of the Startup Battlefield 200.

Its co-founders, CEO Michelle Masek and Chief Communications Officer Nadia Jamshidi, have spent decades working in communications at companies and agencies. Masek previously served as senior vice president of marketing and communications at Obvious Ventures, where she helped advise communications and marketing for 110 portfolio companies.

Honeyjar can find reporters, build media lists, scan news and social media, track coverage, and surface opportunities, Jamshidi said. The company says it aims to bring those tools together with strategy, judgment, timing, and execution. Masek said the product is also intended for people who handle communications without holding communications roles, including marketers, investors, authors, creators, school superintendents, and sports team leaders.

Masek said Honeyjar is designed to support PR firms and in-house communications teams, not replace professionals. Users must approve and send or publish drafts themselves. Masek said the product may also tell a founder they are not ready for press coverage.

Masek said Honeyjar’s waitlist received 10,000 signups in its first 24 hours. Beta testers include Nextdoor, Coco Robotics, Bloomberg Beta, Mission North, and Full Picture. The founders are also training the product on communications judgment through an initiative called the Comms Lab.