How to get your startup into Fast Company
TL;DR
Fast Company is a US business magazine and website about technology, leadership, design and new ideas in business. A founder has three verified ways in: a finished guest article for the Work Life section (free, unpaid, selective), a pitch to the right editor for news coverage, or a paid entry to one of its awards lists. It suits founders with a strong point of view or a product with a clear social or design angle.
What is Fast Company?
Fast Company launched in November 1995, founded by Alan Webber and Bill Taylor, two former Harvard Business Review editors. Its publisher today is Mansueto Ventures. The magazine covers technology, leadership, world changing ideas, creativity and design, and it runs well-known lists such as Most Innovative Companies and World Changing Ideas, plus events like the Innovation Festival.
Who should pitch Fast Company?
- Founders who can write a sharp, original opinion piece on work: productivity, hiring, work culture, career development or entrepreneurship.
- Startups with a product that solves a social or climate problem and launched within the past year, a fit for World Changing Ideas.
- Companies with news that changes how a whole industry works, pitched to the editor of the relevant section.
- Skip it if your article is a disguised product ad. Fast Company says over-the-top self-promotion of you or your company prevents publication.
How much does Fast Company cost?
Editorial coverage and guest articles are free, and Fast Company does not pay for contributed stories. The awards lists charge an entry fee per submission: for Most Innovative Companies, each entry requires a separate fee, and World Changing Ideas has an early rate. Fee amounts sit behind the application login, so check them there. The Fast Company Executive Board is a private, fee-based network whose members publish on the site.
The domain authority of 92 belongs to fastcompany.com; the real gain from an article is readers and credibility.
How do you share your startup on Fast Company?
- Read the editorial contribution guidelines and recent Work Life articles.
- Write a complete, unpublished article of 600 to 900 words, intended only for Work Life, and email it to submissions@fastcompany.com. Send no pitches, abstracts, outlines, press releases or interview offers, and no phone calls.
- Wait one week. Submissions are reviewed about once a week, and if you hear nothing within a week, the piece was not selected. Following up does not help.
- For news coverage in other sections, find the right editor on the masthead and send a short pitch or a finished article to that person.
- For awards, apply through the World Changing Ideas page: the early-rate deadline is 13 November 2026, and selected honorees appear in the Summer 2027 issue. Most Innovative Companies 2027 applications are closed; the list comes out in March 2027.
Tips to get more out of Fast Company
- Write from your own experience as a founder, with one clear takeaway for other professionals.
- Mention your company once, as context, and keep the product pitch out of the article.
- Fast Company only allows generative AI in editorial content when an editor asks for it, so write the piece yourself.
- Weigh award fees against your budget: an entry buys an editor's review, never a guaranteed place.
Our verdict
Fast Company gives a founder real visibility with business readers, and the guest article path costs only your writing time. The bar is high, replies are rare, and the awards lists cost money with no promise of a result. Founders with a strong argument about work have the best odds.
More options: see all tech media, blogs and newsletters. Planning a launch around press coverage? The Fe/male Switch startup game walks women founders from idea to first customers.