The boilerplate is the "About [Company]" paragraph at the bottom of every press release, a standardized company description that appears, word for word, on every release you ever send. You write it once, you reuse it for years, and journalists copy from it directly when they need to describe your company in a story.
That last part is why it matters more than its position at the bottom suggests: the boilerplate is the description of your company most likely to appear in print. When a journalist writes "Acme, a Portland-based logistics software company serving 400 mid-size distributors," they didn't research that sentence. They lifted it from your boilerplate. Write it badly and the bad version follows you into every article.
Where it goes and what it's for
The boilerplate sits after the body of the release and before the media contact block, under a heading like "About Harbor Dental" (see the full format breakdown for the complete skeleton). Its jobs, in order:
- Tell a journalist what your company actually does, in language they can quote.
- Establish scale and credibility with one or two verifiable facts.
- Point readers somewhere (your website).
It is not a mission statement, a vision paragraph, or a place to say "passionate." Three to five sentences, 50–100 words, done.
The 4-sentence formula
Sentence 1: what you are. Company name, what you do, for whom. Plain category language a stranger can parse: "X is a [category] that helps [customer] do [job]."
Sentence 2: proof of scale. One or two concrete, verifiable facts: customers served, units shipped, revenue milestone, locations, funding raised, year founded. Pick the strongest one and don't list six.
Sentence 3: what's distinct. The one thing that separates you from the category, stated as fact rather than adjective. "The only platform that X" works if it's true. "The leading provider of innovative solutions" is filler that journalists delete on sight.
Sentence 4: where to learn more. Headquarters city and website. "Harbor Dental is headquartered in Portland, Oregon. Learn more at harbordental.com."
That's the whole machine. Now three worked examples. All are fictional companies, so borrow the structure freely.
Example 1: B2B software company
About Meridian Logistics Meridian Logistics builds routing and cold-chain monitoring software for mid-size food distributors. Founded in 2022, the company serves more than 300 distributors across North America, monitoring over 2 million refrigerated shipments annually. Meridian is the only routing platform purpose-built for fleets of 10 to 100 trucks, a segment historically priced out of enterprise logistics tools. The company is headquartered in Austin, Texas. Learn more at meridianlogistics.com.
Why it works: category is instantly clear ("routing and cold-chain monitoring software"), scale is specific and checkable (300 distributors, 2 million shipments), and the differentiator is a factual market position, not an adjective.
Example 2: Local services business
About Harbor Dental Harbor Dental operates three general dentistry clinics in the Portland, Oregon metro area, serving more than 14,000 patients. Founded in 2019 by Dr. Maya Chen, the practice offers the city's only walk-in Saturday dental hours and same-week new-patient appointments. Harbor Dental is independently owned. Learn more at harbordental.com.
Why it works: four sentences, one scale number, one genuinely distinct fact (Saturday walk-ins), and a detail that matters to local editors (independently owned). Local businesses often skip the boilerplate entirely, which is a mistake, since local journalists are precisely the ones most likely to quote it verbatim.
Example 3: Funded startup
About Finwell Finwell is a financial wellness platform that gives hourly retail workers access to earned wages before payday, without fees or interest. The company serves 120,000 workers through partnerships with 40 retail employers, and has advanced more than $90 million in earned wages since launching in 2024. Finwell is backed by $12.5 million from Foundry Group and Kindred Ventures, and is headquartered in Chicago. Learn more at finwell.com.
Why it works: the funding sentence earns its place because investors are a credibility fact for startups, but notice it comes after the customer numbers rather than before. Traction beats backing. (Announcing the round itself? Start from the funding template.)
The five boilerplate mistakes
- Adjective soup. "Leading, innovative, world-class, cutting-edge." Every one of these is deleted by every editor every time. If you're the leader, cite the number that proves it.
- Mission-statement drift. Any sentence that opens "we believe everyone deserves" belongs on your careers page. The boilerplate states what you do, not what you believe.
- Unverifiable claims. "Trusted by thousands" invites the question "which thousands?" Use real numbers or none.
- Length creep. Every department wants a sentence. Hold the line at five sentences, because a boilerplate that runs 200 words gets skipped, which means it gets quoted never.
- Staleness. "Serving 50 customers" looks bad when you have 500. Diarize a review every quarter or after any milestone. Update once, and it propagates to every future release.
One company, one boilerplate
Write it once, get it approved once, and stop re-litigating it per release. Consistency is a feature: editors who see you regularly start recognizing the description, and your "as seen in" coverage describes you the same way everywhere. Every RepuPR template, from company news to awards, stores your boilerplate and appends it automatically, so it's a decision you make once rather than every time.
Set your boilerplate once and reuse it on every release, and [see how RepuPR works](/how-it-works).