The library

Every teardown. Filed and annotated.

Filter by artifact or hat color. White is honest craft. Grey works but watch the line. Black is what not to do.

Press releaseWhite hat

The Funding Announcement That Got 40 Pickups

A Series B announcement that buried the funding number and led with a category claim — and got picked up by every outlet that "doesn't cover funding."

B2B SaaS😈 2/10
Press releaseBlack hat

The Vague Product Launch Nobody Covered

A "revolutionary AI platform" release with no customer, no number, and no news peg — a masterclass in what not to do.

AI / SaaS😈 9/10
Media pitchWhite hat

The 3-Line Cold Pitch That Landed TechCrunch

No "hope this finds you well." No 600-word preamble. Three lines, one specific data point, one ask.

Dev tools😈 2/10
Crisis statementBlack hat

The Apology That Made It Worse

A crisis statement that hit every passive-voice landmine, blamed users, and got re-quoted as the lede in every follow-up story.

Fintech😈 8/10
Crisis statementGrey hat

The 24-Hour Crisis Response Done Right

A data breach disclosure that hit the press *before* the journalists did, named everything that mattered, and reframed the story from "company hacked" to "company moves fast."

B2B SaaS😈 5/10
Exec quoteGrey hat

The CEO Quote Engineered for Pull-Out Copy

A two-sentence quote so structurally tight that it appeared verbatim in 23 of 31 articles — including the print pull-quotes.

B2B SaaS😈 5/10
Founder bylineWhite hat

The Op-Ed That Built a Category

A 1,200-word founder byline that didn't mention the product once — and became the most-cited piece of the year in its category.

B2B SaaS😈 3/10
Awards entryGrey hat

The Submission That Won Without the Best Product

An industry-awards entry that beat better-funded competitors by writing the entry the way the judges actually score it.

B2B SaaS😈 5/10
Analyst briefingGrey hat

The Slide That Got Into the Magic Quadrant Conversation

How a $20M ARR company got named in an analyst report against $500M competitors — using one slide and one number.

B2B SaaS😈 4/10
NewsjackingGrey hat

The Reactive Comment That Hijacked the News Cycle

A 90-minute window, a 4-sentence reactive comment, and a CEO who became the lead source in 12 follow-up stories on a competitor's crisis.

B2B SaaS😈 6/10