For PR ON THE GO, Deepak shares insights on Pearl Lemon’s ROI-focused approach to global campaigns for startups and tech enterprises.

Hi! Please introduce yourself to our startups so we can get to know a bit about your background.

Deepak Shukla: Entrepreneur, ultramarathon runner, and former soldier-in-training turned marketer. I’ve built Pearl Lemon Group into a multi-brand ecosystem spanning SEO, PR, accounting, property, catering, and more, all powered by a relentless drive for growth and self-improvement. From running 200-mile races to launching 50+ ventures, my life’s work revolves around scaling ideas fast, breaking conventions, and helping others do the same.

Living by Lake Viverone, Italy, with my wife Daniela, our dogs Ken and Kiki, and cat Jenny. I’m still chasing the same thing I was at 23: progress, not perfection.

Please tell us about your full-service marketing approach for startups. To which clients do you recommend and offer which services?

Deepak Shukla: I only offer full-service marketing to founders who genuinely want unfair advantages, not just nicer branding. I care about leads, revenue and speed. If your funnel’s broken, we fix it. If you need authority, we run PR. If you need volume tomorrow, we fire up outbound. I once closed a client purely through WhatsApp voice notes while running in the rain because I believe the system matters more than the setting. That’s the exact energy we bring to startups that want to scale fast, even if it means breaking a few ‘best practices’ along the way.

Describe a case study in which you implemented a specific strategy for a startup and how you measured its success.

Deepak Shukla: One of my favourite startup case studies was a tiny investment firm that came to us basically starving for leads. Everyone else had told them to ‘build brand,’ which is startup code for burning money. I threw that out the window and built a pay-per-lead engine instead: Google Ads for intent, Meta for cheap volume, and a custom landing page that pre-qualified people before they even clicked submit. Within weeks we’d doubled their target, hitting 125 qualified leads at around £15 a pop. I measured success the only way that actually matters for a young company: money in the bank and calls on the calendar.

What current PR or marketing opportunity do you think is being overlooked by most startups?

Deepak Shukla: Startups massively underestimate the power of micro-PR, that includes getting featured in niche newsletters, tiny industry blogs, and specialist communities. Everyone shoots for Forbes, but the 2,000 people reading a hyper-focused publication are far more likely to buy from you. When I started Pearl Lemon, I got more leads from a tiny SEO blog nobody had heard of than from the big-name outlet I was bragging about. Most founders chase fame when they should be chasing relevance. Big difference.

How do you approach thought leadership for your clients? e.g. building the CEO's LinkedIn strategy..

Deepak Shukla: When I build a CEO’s thought leadership strategy, I don’t start with LinkedIn, I start with what the founder actually thinks but never says out loud. The edgier, the messier, the more opinionated bits. That’s what builds authority. Most CEOs post like they’re applying for a job, not leading a movement. Once we extract the real voice, we turn it into daily content: stories, contrarian takes, micro-failures, even stuff they think might get them in trouble. That’s where the magic is. I once built a CEO’s entire month of content from three chaotic WhatsApp voice notes he sent while jogging. It performed better than all his corporate posts combined.

How do you approach today's strong demand for short-time and authentic video content?

Deepak Shukla: A big mistake founders make is confusing ‘authentic video’ with ‘I rambled for 4 minutes’. That’s not what today’s audience wants. I push clients toward 20–40 second, high-impact clips: one insight, one story, one punchline. Think espresso shots, not a full breakfast. We track completion rate more than likes and it tells you instantly if your content is boring. I once rewatched my own video and got bored halfway through; that’s when I knew I needed to tighten everything. Harsh metric, but it works.

Please describe a case study for AI strategy with Pearl Lemon, e.g. by implementing workflow automation for your clients.

Deepak Shukla: A fintech startup hired us because their onboarding was a nightmare: 30 steps, multiple forms, and hours of back-and-forth. We built an AI concierge that guided users through onboarding with dynamic prompts, auto-filled documents, flagged errors instantly, and pushed everything into their compliance system. Completion time dropped from 54 minutes to 11. That changed their entire conversion funnel. The CEO messaged me at 2am saying, ‘We didn’t need a growth hack, we needed less damn friction.’ That’s the metric I track with AI projects: friction destroyed per minute.

What is one book you’d recommend to your clients to sharpen their marketing skills for 2026?

Deepak Shukla: If I could force every client to read one book for their 2026 marketing brain, it’d be ‘$100M Offers’ by Alex Hormozi. Not because it’s trendy, but because 90% of marketing problems are actually offer problems. If your offer is irresistible, even average marketing works. If your offer is weak, even genius marketing dies. I re-read it last year on a flight to Milan and ended up rewriting half our sales pages before the plane even landed and my seat neighbour thought I was having some kind of episode. The book slaps you into focusing on value, not vanity, and most founders desperately need that.

Thank you!

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