What Entrepreneur Magazine Actually Covers
Before you pitch anything, you need to understand what Entrepreneur is and what it is not. Entrepreneur is not a general news outlet. It is not a business magazine in the Fortune or Forbes mold. Its editorial identity is specific: it covers founders, operators, and the people actively building companies, with a particular emphasis on startups, growth strategies, leadership, and the psychological and tactical dimensions of running a business.
That specificity is actually your advantage. It means the editorial team has a very clear picture of the reader they are serving, which means a well-targeted pitch that speaks directly to that reader has a much higher conversion rate than a generic "our company is growing" pitch would at a broader publication.
Entrepreneur publishes across several formats: feature profiles of founders and companies, how-to and tactical advice content, lists and rankings (including the Entrepreneur 360 and Franchise 500), opinion and thought leadership from practitioners, and trend coverage of emerging sectors like AI, Web3, wellness, and creator economy businesses.
What the Editorial Team Looks For
Entrepreneur's editors and reporters are specifically looking for stories that will be useful or inspiring to other founders and operators. That is the filter every story passes through: will the person reading this at 7am before their team arrives find it valuable enough to keep reading?
The strongest Entrepreneur stories share a few traits. They have a founder with a specific, interesting journey. They contain a lesson or insight that is transferable to other businesses. They are told with enough concrete detail (numbers, timelines, specific decisions) to feel real rather than promotional. And they have a news hook or timely angle that connects them to something happening in the broader business landscape right now.
The Story Types That Actually Get In
Based on what Entrepreneur consistently publishes, a few story archetypes reliably break through the editorial process.
The contrarian founder story
This is the "we did something everyone said was wrong and it worked" narrative. Entrepreneur's audience has a particular appetite for stories that challenge received wisdom about how to build a company. If you bootstrapped when everyone said you needed venture funding. If you hired senior talent first when the playbook says junior first. If you entered a market everyone said was saturated. These angles resonate strongly.
The specific growth tactic with real numbers
How-to content with genuine specificity performs exceptionally well on Entrepreneur. Not "how we grew our social media" but "how we increased qualified leads by 340% in 90 days using a specific LinkedIn strategy" with enough tactical detail that the reader could actually attempt it. Specific numbers, specific tactics, specific results. Vague success stories get ignored.
The turnaround or near-failure story
Entrepreneur's readership skews toward people in the middle of hard decisions. Stories about how a company nearly died and what specific actions saved it generate enormous engagement because they speak directly to fears and challenges the audience is currently navigating. The vulnerability required to tell this story well is exactly what makes it compelling to Entrepreneur's editors.
The trend story with a strong thesis
If your company operates in an emerging or fast-moving sector, Entrepreneur's reporters are often looking for practitioners who can explain what is actually happening in that space and what it means for other businesses. Being the founder who explains clearly why a trend is either overhyped or underestimated, backed by direct experience, is a strong editorial positioning.
How to Build Your Pitch
Entrepreneur pitches follow the same basic structure as pitches to any major publication, but the emphasis is slightly different. Where a Forbes pitch leads with the size of the business opportunity, an Entrepreneur pitch leads with the founder experience and the specific insight or lesson the reader takes away.
Structure your pitch in three parts. The first is the hook: one sentence that describes the story you are pitching in a way that is immediately clear and interesting. Not "Company X is a fast-growing startup in the wellness space" but "The founder of Company X turned a failed first business into a category leader by doing the exact opposite of what her investors recommended."
The second part is the substance: two to three sentences of supporting detail. What happened, when, with what outcome, what is the takeaway. The third part is the offer: what format are you proposing (profile, first-person essay, expert quote for a larger piece), why now, and why you specifically are the right person to tell this story.
Keep the entire pitch under 200 words. Entrepreneur editors are reading dozens of these daily. A pitch that requires 500 words to get to the point has already lost.
Finding the Right Contact at Entrepreneur
Entrepreneur has a clear editorial structure. There are editors who handle specific verticals: leadership, growth, franchising, startups, finance, technology. Pitching to the right vertical editor rather than a general inbox significantly increases your response rate.
Read the mastheads and bylines. When a piece runs on a topic that overlaps with your story, note the reporter's name. Look at their recent work across the previous two or three months. What angles do they tend to take? What industries have they covered? What did their best-performing pieces have in common? Then reference that context explicitly in your pitch.
A pitch that opens with "I read your recent piece on [specific topic] and have a direct counterpoint from my own experience building in that space" converts at a dramatically higher rate than a cold pitch with no connection to the journalist's actual work.
Contributor Network vs Editorial Coverage
Entrepreneur runs two distinct types of content that are easy to confuse. Editorial coverage is written by Entrepreneur's staff or contracted journalists. The Entrepreneur Leadership Network (formerly Expert Network) is a contributor platform where approved practitioners write their own articles under the Entrepreneur banner.
Both appear on Entrepreneur.com and both carry genuine credibility. However, they are reached through completely different paths. Editorial coverage requires pitching reporters and editors in the traditional way. Contributor access requires an application to the Leadership Network and ongoing content production once approved.
For most brands, the highest-value outcome is editorial coverage, because it signals that an independent journalist found your story worth writing. Contributor content is also valuable and builds SEO authority under the Entrepreneur domain, but the credibility signal is slightly different.
Timing and Persistence
Entrepreneur editorial works on longer lead times than a daily news outlet. Print features are planned months in advance. Digital features typically have a one to four week lead time. If you are pitching around a specific event or milestone, begin the process at least three to four weeks beforehand.
Follow up once, after five to seven business days, with a single line that adds new information. "Wanted to add that we just crossed X milestone since I sent this" is a legitimate follow-up. "Checking in to see if you received my pitch" is not.
If you receive no response after two contacts, move on. The story may not be right for this moment. Revisit it in three months with a fresher angle, or use the experience to sharpen the pitch for the next outlet you target.
Getting into Entrepreneur is absolutely achievable for founders with a genuine story to tell, a specific insight to share, and the discipline to build a pitch that serves the reader rather than the brand. The publication rewards authenticity and specificity above almost every other quality.
At Quorum Media, we place founders and brands in Entrepreneur, Forbes, Business Insider, and 70+ other major publications. If you want to talk through your story angle, get in touch.