A Chat with Yury Molodtsov, COO & Partner at MA Family

Tell us about MA Family

 

MA Family is a communications partner for tech startups. We help companies in the tech space reach their business goals by leveraging the power of media. That could mean building brand awareness and attracting early investors for a Seed-stage startup — or helping a company like Flipper Zero push back against government overreach in Canada.

 

What do you think makes this company unique?

 

What sets us apart is our background: we come from the tech world, not traditional PR. I was the first employee at Day One Ventures, a venture capital firm based in San Francisco. My co-founder was a writer at Forbes before working in VC herself. Because of that, our team has a deep, intuitive understanding of the tech ecosystem. We speak the same language as our clients and know how to turn even routine product updates into stories the media actually wants to cover. We operate like consultants — shaping internal messaging and leading media strategy from the inside.

 

What is your advice to startup founders on public relations?

 

Public relations is about borrowing the audience and credibility of major media outlets — but only if you have something truly interesting to say. The beauty of PR, unlike digital marketing, is that it doesn’t come with fixed costs: one great profile can shape your company’s public image for years, drawing in customers, hires, and investors.

You don’t necessarily need to hire a PR firm to get coverage, but it does take work. Founders need to identify what makes their company compelling and understand what reporters actually cover. Most journalists are looking for news — they don’t write about companies just because they like them.

Take a hard look at your product roadmap and business milestones. What stands out? What could be newsworthy on its own? While funding announcements used to be an easy win, they’re no longer enough. If you’re announcing a round today, use it as a hook — but focus on what really matters: what your product does, why it’s unique, and the value it brings to customers and the world.

 

 

What most excites you about this industry?

 

What excites me most is helping founders tell their stories. Many of the people we work with are highly technical — often immigrants who’ve moved to Europe or the U.S. to build their next big thing. I want to make sure they have the same storytelling firepower as well-connected Stanford grads in Silicon Valley. Leveling that playing field is incredibly rewarding.

 

How has the media industry evolved over the last couple of years?

 

We’re seeing two opposing trends. On one hand, some legacy publications are disappearing, and with them, incredibly talented editorial teams. On the other, there’s a rise of new media: individual writers launching their own platforms on Substack and beyond, many of whom are now building out small, nimble editorial teams.

Writers like Eric Newcomer and Alex Konrad are breaking major stories, conducting deep investigations, and interviewing top tech CEOs — all while running lean operations. The opportunities are still out there, but it’s tougher to break through. New media outlets publish fewer stories, so the bar for coverage is higher than ever.much harder to break through — new media write way fewer articles.

 

How will AI affect the media industry and companies’ relationships with it?

 

We believe AI could actually help revitalize the media industry. Social media disrupted journalism by allowing anyone to reach an audience without editorial standards — which undermined the value of quality reporting. But AI changes the equation.

High-quality journalism is now a critical input for training large language models. That’s why you’re seeing deals between outlets like the Financial Times and OpenAI. Being included in an LLM’s training data could become as valuable as ranking on the first page of Google once was. In that way, AI has the potential to reestablish the value of trusted, high-integrity media — both for audiences and for companies looking to build lasting credibility.