Four Years, Three Funding Rounds, Three Continents: The CircleCI Partnership

At a Glance

• Volume: 639 Pieces — 4-Year Cadence
• Reach: ~20M Views — Estimated Coverage Reach
• Social Shares: ~37K — Social Amplification
• Backlinks: 473 — Domain Authority

The Partnership 

Over four years, CircleCI cycled through three different internal communications leads. We outlasted all of them. When leadership changed, when strategies shifted, when the company grew from scrappy startup to category leader—Salient PR was the constant. CEO Jim Rose knew we were the rock, the institutional memory, the team that didn't need to be re-onboarded every time someone new sat in the comms chair.

The Challenge 

CircleCI wasn't just selling software. They were trying to change how developers worked—and doing it in a market where every DevOps vendor screamed the same thing about speed and automation. The real challenge wasn't getting coverage. It was earning trust with developers who smell marketing from a mile away, while simultaneously convincing enterprise buyers that this was serious infrastructure, not a toy.

The Strategy 

We built a communications machine that could run through personnel changes, strategy pivots, and a global pandemic. Tokyo office opening. Series D. Series E. Product launches. Speaking slots. Award submissions. We weren't just executing tactics—we were the connective tissue that held the narrative together when everything else was in flux.

Then COVID hit. Suddenly every company on earth needed to figure out remote development, and DevOps went from "engineering priority" to "boardroom emergency." We were already positioned. The inflection wasn't luck—it was four years of foundation meeting a moment.

The Results 

We handed off in March 2021 with CircleCI operating at peak: coverage up 11x from where we started, backlinks flowing, the brand synonymous with enterprise CI/CD. The company would go on to close a $100M Series F at a $1.7B valuation two months later—on momentum we helped build.

More importantly, this engagement made us. Four years embedded with a developer tools company taught us how to speak to engineers without sounding like marketers. We built relationships across TechCrunch, VentureBeat, SiliconANGLE, and the developer press that we still leverage today. When a DevOps or developer tools company asks if we know the space—CircleCI is the answer.