Brett Farmiloe is the founder and CEO of Featured, the AI co-pilot for PR. A year after bringing back Help a Reporter Out (HARO), he's revived a second media brand: Connectively. We sat down with him to talk about the comeback, the playbook behind it, and what it means for small business owners trying to earn media coverage.
SmallBizLeader: For readers meeting you for the first time, tell us about yourself and Featured.
Brett Farmiloe: I'm the founder and CEO of Featured, which I'd describe as an AI co-pilot for PR. We help experts and PR teams earn media coverage, and we own and operate two of the most recognized brands in media sourcing: Help a Reporter Out, better known as HARO, and now Connectively. Over the past four and a half years, we've built a platform that connects a subject-matter expert with a publisher roughly every six seconds, with more than 100,000 users and 2,500 publishers relying on it.
SmallBizLeader: You just brought back a brand called Connectively. What is it?
Brett Farmiloe: Connectively is a journalist request platform. It's where PR professionals, subject-matter experts, and small business owners find reporters' requests for sources and respond to them to land quotes, interviews, and bylines. If you've ever wanted to be the expert quoted in an article, Connectively is where you go to find those opportunities and respond while the story is still being written.
SmallBizLeader: Connectively was discontinued at one point. Why bring it back?
Brett Farmiloe: It was a well-known platform that had gone dormant, and we saw a recognized name with real value still left in it. We acquired it about a year ago, alongside HARO. A brand people already trust is one of the most underrated assets in this industry, and Connectively had that trust banked. Rather than let it disappear, we decided to give it a proper second life as a standalone product.
SmallBizLeader: You revived HARO first. What's the playbook for bringing a brand like this back?
Brett Farmiloe: HARO taught us the playbook. When we acquired it, the conventional wisdom was that it was finished, and we took it from discontinued to what's now a leading journalist request service in the industry. The pattern is simple: start with a brand people already recognize, make sure the product underneath genuinely helps, then actually commit to it instead of treating it as a side project. Quality and trust is everything. We're running the same playbook with Connectively.
SmallBizLeader: How does Connectively work for someone trying to get press?
Brett Farmiloe: You sign up, tell us your areas of expertise, and you start seeing journalist requests that match. When one fits, you respond directly to the reporter. Beyond responding to requests, you can commission expert content for your own blog, pitch bylined articles to publishers, find podcasts to guest on, and look up the journalists who cover your space. We even surface requests that journalists post on Substack, X, and LinkedIn, so you're not limited to a single inbox.
SmallBizLeader: How is the platform different from the old HARO email model?
Brett Farmiloe: Speed, mostly. Email-based services send requests in batches a few times a day, so a reporter's request can sit for hours before anyone sees it. By the time it reaches your inbox, faster sources have often already pitched. Connectively puts requests in a live feed the moment they're approved, and lets you search and filter them. In PR, being early is frequently the difference between getting quoted and getting missed.
SmallBizLeader: Why does this matter for small business owners in particular?
Brett Farmiloe: Most small business owners can't afford a big PR firm, but they can absolutely earn coverage on their own. Being quoted as an expert in a publication your customers read builds a kind of credibility you can't buy with ads. Connectively gives a small business owner the same access to journalist requests that an agency would use, without the agency price tag. For a lot of founders, it's the most direct path to press they have.
SmallBizLeader: You're moving the existing Featured platform over to Connectively. What does that mean for current users?
Brett Farmiloe: Nothing is lost. Everything our customers rely on, including their media opportunities, profiles, subscriptions, and submission data, moves with them to Connectively at connectively.us. The product underneath is the same. The only things changing are the name, the logo, and the web address. It's the same experience at a new home.
SmallBizLeader: Featured itself is relaunching. What's coming?
Brett Farmiloe: On June 2, 2026, Featured relaunches as an AI co-pilot for PR. It's a single place to find and act on media opportunities across journalist requests, podcasts, bylined articles, speaking engagements, awards, and AI visibility, with AI handling much of the discovery and matching. Moving the current platform over to Connectively is exactly what cleared the way for us to build it.
SmallBizLeader: What's your advice for a small business leader who wants to start earning media coverage?
Brett Farmiloe: Show up where journalists are actually looking, and respond fast when an opportunity fits. Reporters don't need the most famous expert; they need a clear, useful answer from someone credible, before deadline. Make it easy for them to say yes. If you want a place to start, Connectively is live now at connectively.us. That's where the requests are.