What should I look for in a fintech PR firm for IPO or M&A?

Look for outcome literacy, not just fintech experience. Ask how many IPOs or M&A transactions the firm has actually been part of, and what happened to those companies. If their answer is organized around impressions, placements, or outlet prestige, keep looking. The right firm understands that the goal is positioning your company so acquirers or institutional investors already recognize your narrative authority before the deal is on the table.

How does strategic PR counsel help a fintech company plan for an IPO?

Strategic PR counsel builds the narrative record that institutional investors and analysts find during due diligence, well before the S-1 is filed. That means consistent executive visibility in tier-one financial and trade press, positions staked out clearly outside the quiet period window, and a market narrative that answers why now and why this team. The work needs to start 18 months before the target IPO date. PR that starts at the announcement is already too late.

When should a fintech company start PR before an IPO or M&A?

For IPO, 18 months out is the right window. SEC quiet period restrictions limit what a company can say publicly close to filing, so narrative positions need to be established well in advance. For M&A, 12 months minimum. Companies in active M&A markets often get approached before their target date — established narrative authority gives a company significantly more leverage when that happens.

What makes a fintech PR firm effective for M&A communications?

An effective fintech PR firm for M&A builds narrative before the deal is in motion. Acquirers are watching your coverage, your executive visibility, and your market positioning long before any conversation starts. The firm needs to understand the outcome the company is working toward and build a communications strategy that fills the narrative vacuum in your category in a way your company can authentically own.

What internal readiness does a fintech company need before hiring a PR agency for IPO or M&A?

Ideally, someone in marketing or communications with M&A or IPO experience who can manage the agency relationship and push back when needed. If that person doesn't exist, the CEO or Founder needs to be prepared for a highly collaborative process and willing to share the real internal picture with the agency. Keeping your PR firm in the dark about how you see the deal shaping up limits what they can do for you. The founders who treat their PR agency as a real strategic partner consistently get the best outcomes.

What to Look for in a Fintech PR Firm for IPO or M&A

You might have found us for the wrong reason, but still be in the right place. Let me explain. Most fintech founders or CMOs start the PR agency search by filtering for fintech experience. It makes sense, right? You want someone who knows the space. But it’s the wrong first filter. Here’s what actually matters when you’re evaluating a PR firm for IPO or M&A.

Outcome literacy beats industry experience

When I talk to founders who’ve been through a capital event, the ones who felt well-served by their PR agency share one thing in common: the agency understood what the outcome actually required. Not “we need fintech coverage” but ” this company needs to be seen as the category leader before the deal is on the table.”

That’s a fundamentally different brief. The fastest way to find out if an agency gets it? Ask them about outcomes. Not case studies, not placement lists. Ask how many M&A transactions or IPOs they’ve been part of. Ask them what they did right, and what they could have done better. If an agency can’t look back and be honest about what could have been better, then you aren’t benefiting from the experience.

If their answer is organized around impressions, outlet prestige, or clip volume, keep looking. A full feature in a prestigious publication is worthless if it’s about your CEO’s summer vacation. I’d rather have a founder quoted with a sharp, relevant point of view in a trade publication, than a well known publication with an off-strategy narrative. The question is always: does this move the needle on the outcome? If not, you have narrative leakage. This is why asking to see clips is a misplaced request because you have no context on whether that narrative was relevant or not.

Every industry has a narrative vacuum

After years of doing this, one thing I know for certain: in every vertical, in every industry, there’s a narrative vacuum waiting to be filled. The question isn’t whether it exists. It’s whether your fintech company can authentically fill it, and what’s required to do that.

This is exactly why we run the Fingerprint Strategy before we take on any engagement. It’s not a sales process it’s a diagnostic. We need to know if we can do what’s needed, and if the client can do what’s needed too. If I don’t think we can do excellent PR work for a company heading into IPO or M&A, I’ll say so. Taking a retainer and delivering mediocre results at a high-stakes moment isn’t something I’m willing to do.

What you’re looking for in a PR firm is whether they can identify that vacuum and build a strategy around filling it one that makes acquirers or institutional investors sit up and say “that’s a perspective I haven’t heard before.” That’s narrative differentiation that moves valuation conversations.

Start earlier than you think you need to

For IPO, I like to see 18 months out. That’s not an arbitrary or bloated timeline The quiet period leading up to an IPO filing creates real constraints on what a company can say publicly. If you wait until 6 months out, you’re building narrative inside a window where you can barely speak. Positions need to be staked out well in advance to avoid market manipulation or forward looking scrutiny. That takes time and deliberate sequencing.

M&A PR is slightly different, and frankly more complex. I’d say 12 months minimum, but here’s the caveat: in active M&A markets, companies get approached before their target date all the time. Someone is watching your narrative and they’re forming an opinion about your valuation before you’ve decided you’re ready to sell. When you get approached early, you have to decide: take the bird in hand, or keep building value. Companies with established narrative authority have more leverage in that moment. The ones who haven’t started PR yet are negotiating from a weaker position.

Are you ready for PR? The question founders need to ask themselves

Before a fintech founder even starts evaluating PR firms, they need to have a candid conversation with themselves about what building value with PR looks like.

Ideally, you have someone in marketing or communications with M&A or IPO experience on your team. That person becomes the strategic partner inside the company they understand the stakes, can manage the PR agency relationship, and push back when needed.

But not every company has that person. If you don’t, the CEO or founder needs to be genuinely prepared for how collaborative this process is. There will be moments when the PR agency feels demanding. There will be moments when it feels like the tail is wagging the dog. That’s not a bug, it’s a feature, that’s what it looks like when a PR firm is actually doing the job.

The other thing I’d ask every founder to do: be honest with your agency. Don’t keep us in the dark about how you really see things shaping up. Share the internal picture, where you think the deal is heading, what you’re worried about, what the board is saying. A good PR agency takes that information seriously, and there may well be a recipe to nudge things in your favor in ways that are entirely legitimate and strategically sound.

I don’t know why, but some CEOs think it’s better to keep things close to the vest. We can be the cannon on the battlefield, but only if you invite us to be on the battlefield. I can remember the first time I realized how few CEOs let us in, and the difference in the outcome, and how excited our team was to really be able to influence outcomes. That’s part of the reason we implemented our Fingerprint Strategy, because I want us to work with THOSE partners, not the companies who see PR as some kind of fly buzzing around without a purpose. The founders who treat their PR firm as a real strategic partner, not a vendor on a need-to-know basis, are consistently the ones who get the best outcomes.

Ready to have Avaans Media evaluated how PR can impact your capital event? Start with a Fingerprint Strategy.