Leadership and entrepreneurship · Tier one

How to get featured in Fast Company

Getting featured in Fast Company: how its innovation and design desks work, pitching staff, the paid Executive Board, and the Most Innovative Companies list.

Website: fastcompany.com
Owner: Mansueto Ventures
Lead time: Online news: days. Features and contributed pieces: weeks. Recognition lists: applications close months before publication.
Last verified: October 16, 2026

At a glance

Audience. Innovation-minded executives, designers, marketers, and founders interested in the future of business, technology, and work.

Innovation and technology
Design
Work life and leadership
Brand and marketing
Impact and climate
Lists such as Most Innovative Companies and World Changing Ideas

Staff reporting: Staff editors and writers cover tech, design, work life, branding, and impact, and run recognition franchises such as Most Innovative Companies and Innovation by Design.
Contributed articles: Fast Company publishes contributed thought leadership pieces edited by staff, and separately runs the Fast Company Executive Board, a private, fee-based network whose members can publish bylined articles.
Opinion and op-eds: There is no formal op-ed page. Argument-driven contributed pieces appear in sections such as Work Life and Leadership; we could not verify current submission guidelines on the site.
Press releases: Press releases are not published as editorial content. Staff look for ideas, design, and innovation stories rather than announcements.

Pitching Fast Company, step by step

Decide which track you want: staff coverage (earned), a contributed article (earned, edited), or Executive Board membership (paid).
Find the staff writer on your beat (tech, design, work life, branding) through recent bylines.
Pitch the idea, not the company: what is new, why it changes how people work, design, or build.
Track application windows for Most Innovative Companies, World Changing Ideas, and Innovation by Design, and apply through the official entry process.
For contributed pieces, offer a first-person, insight-led article that does not promote your product.

How Fast Company decides what to cover

Fast Company, published by Mansueto Ventures, covers innovation in business: technology, design, work life, branding and marketing, and social and climate impact. Its recognition franchises, including Most Innovative Companies, World Changing Ideas, and Innovation by Design, are among the most visible ways companies appear in its pages.

The editorial lens is ideas. A product matters to Fast Company when it represents a new way of designing, working, or building, and when there is a story about the people and choices behind it.

How to pitch Fast Company

Find the staff writer whose recent work matches your story and pitch them with the idea first. What is genuinely new? Who does it change things for? What does it reveal about where business is going? Bring visuals for design stories and data for work and technology stories.

For the lists, use the official application process during each cycle. Lists are judged by editors, and applications typically close months before publication.

Contributed articles and op-eds

Fast Company has two different routes for executive bylines, and they should not be confused. Editors publish contributed thought leadership that is pitched and edited like any other piece; PR agency guidance on pitching Fast Company is consistent that anything reading like a product announcement or press release will be passed over, and contributed pieces should be insight-led for the same reason. We could not verify a current official submission page on the site, so treat any submission address you find in older guides as unconfirmed.

Separately, the Fast Company Executive Board is a private, fee-based network. Its own pages list qualification criteria (for example, senior executives at companies with $3M or more in annual revenue) and say members can publish bylined articles and contribute to Expert Panels on FastCompany.com. That is a paid route, and readers should treat it as owned thought leadership.

Frequently asked questions

Can you pay to be featured in Fast Company?

You cannot pay for staff coverage or list placement. Executive Board membership, which includes publishing opportunities, is fee-based.

Does Fast Company accept guest posts?

It publishes contributed articles edited by staff and bylines from paid Executive Board members. There is no unedited guest post program.

Who should I pitch at Fast Company?

The staff writer covering your beat, found through recent bylines, or the official application for a recognition list.

A PR-led agency approaches Fast Company by finding the idea in a company’s story, preparing strong list applications, and keeping earned and paid bylines clearly separate. See how we run media relations.

Mistakes that get pitches ignored

Presenting an Executive Board byline as earned coverage; it is a paid membership.
Product launches with no idea or innovation story behind them.
Contributed drafts that read as company marketing.
Missing list application deadlines and asking editors for an exception.

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Sources for this profile (3)

Profiles describe public editorial processes and are reviewed periodically. Digitize is not affiliated with Fast Company. Spot something out of date? Email [email protected].