Building a public profile for a death-tech pioneer
Legacy Compass approached Jefferson Communications as an early-stage start-up with a powerful but sensitive proposition: a platform helping individuals, families and employers navigate loss, terminal illness and end-of-life planning.
The challenge was twofold. First, how do you build public visibility for a company operating in a subject area that most people actively avoid discussing? Second, as a solo-founder business moving through seed funding, product build and early commercial traction, Legacy Compass needed a communications partner who could flex with its pace of change, supporting fundraising milestones, B2B pilot launches and founder positioning, often at short notice, while maintaining a consistent and credible public voice.
Jefferson Communications built a proactive, multi-channel PR programme centred on the founder as a compelling and authentic spokesperson. We secured her coverage in Sifted, inclusion on a prestigious national list recognising the UK's most promising young companies, supporting her attendance and profile-raising at the associated industry celebration, and helped position the business for entry into further award and recognition programmes.
Alongside this, we ran an ongoing press office function: fielding and prioritising incoming journalist enquiries, drafting expert commentary on breaking workplace and HR news, and proactively pitching personal, story-led features to national and trade press.
This included securing coverage in a national broadsheet, a leading current-affairs title, a women's lifestyle publication, a specialist HR trade title, and a healthcare-sector trade publication, each piece grounded in the founder's own story or in practical guidance for HR leaders supporting grieving staff. We were careful to balance commercial visibility with the sensitivity of the subject matter, checking tone and framing with named case study contributors and being led by the founder's comfort in each instance.
We also supported the wider commercial narrative: helping the business navigate its positioning as it moved from pilot workshops into paid B2B partnerships, and ensuring consistent messaging across investor updates, award submissions and press materials as the company evolved from early pilots to fundraising rounds.
Over an 18-month retained relationship, Legacy Compass secured sustained coverage across national, consumer and trade media, building a public profile disproportionate to its size and stage. Its founder became a recognised commentator on workplace bereavement and grief, regularly called upon by journalists for expert reaction on breaking HR and wellbeing stories.
The business's inclusion in a high-profile UK start-up recognition programme provided a valuable platform-building moment, generating visibility among investors, peers and potential B2B partners at a pivotal commercial stage.
Perhaps most importantly, the coverage secured helped translate a difficult, often-avoided subject into an accessible, human story, supporting Legacy Compass's mission to make conversations about loss and end-of-life planning easier for individuals, families and the organisations that employ them. Further detail on Legacy Compass's work and mission can be found on the company's own website.
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