Photo Cred: Nyad
When Nyad, an AI software company focused on wastewater operations, was referred to MAG PR by Boost VC ahead of their $1.3 million pre-seed funding announcement, the company faced a unique opportunity. With a tight 30-day window to bring both funding and product launch news to market, the goal was not just visibility, but meaningful traction across a highly specialized and often overlooked industry — and a platform to attract top talent to their growing team in Birmingham, AL.
Nyad’s platform arrives at a turning point for wastewater infrastructure. As nearly half of the U.S. wastewater workforce approaches retirement, utilities are grappling with growing complexity, tighter regulations, and a widening knowledge gap. Their AI-powered decision-support platform provides real-time biological insights and troubleshooting support, helping operators diagnose issues earlier and run more resilient systems.
For us, the challenge was not only to tell this story, but to ensure it reached the audiences who needed to hear it most, including the engineers, developers, and operators who might be Nyad's next great hire
The Challenge: Breaking Through in a Niche, High-Stakes Market
Wastewater treatment is essential to public health and environmental safety, yet it rarely captures mainstream attention. At the same time, operators are increasingly responsible for managing complex biological systems with fewer experienced team members. Nyad was built to bridge that gap, capturing operational knowledge and translating it into actionable, real-time guidance.
The challenge was positioning this as more than a niche solution. It needed to break through as both a critical infrastructure story and a high-impact AI narrative — one compelling enough to put Birmingham-based Nyad on the radar of top-tier technical talent nationwide.
Our Strategy: Multi-Vertical Storytelling + Embargo Execution
We built a fast-moving, high-precision campaign anchored by embargo outreach to maximize impact within a compressed timeline. We mapped the story across three key audiences:
Local and regional outlets to highlight to highlight Nyad's roots and economic impact in Alabama, and to underscore Birmingham's growing identity as a home for ambitious, mission-driven tech companies
Top-tier tech and AI media to position the company within the broader AI innovation landscape
Industry trades to directly reach wastewater professionals and infrastructure stakeholders
We also leaned into Nyad’s unique differentiators, including its female founder, Virginia Szepietowski, and its mission to modernize a legacy industry, to create a story that stood out across crowded media cycles. That founder narrative also served a dual purpose: it painted a picture of the kind of purposeful, people-first culture that attracts mission-aligned talent.
Key Outcomes: Wall-to-Wall Coverage Across Priority Audiences
The campaign delivered strong, targeted coverage across every key vertical:
Tech & AI: SiliconANGLE, Crunchbase News, AI Insider, Pulse 2.0
Regional: Birmingham Business Journal, Hypepotamus
Industry Trades: Wastewater Digest, Water Online
Newsletter Amplification: Fortune Term Sheet, TechCrunch StrictlyVC
Coverage That Drives Real Business Momentum
The impact extended beyond media placements. Following the launch, Nyad saw a surge in inbound interest across both hiring and customer conversations signaling real market momentum at a critical stage. That hiring interest is no accident. By giving Nyad a national platform while anchoring the story in Birmingham, the campaign helped the company stand out not just as an innovative product, but as a destination for talent who want to do meaningful work in a city on the rise.
By aligning the story with an urgent workforce and infrastructure challenge and executing a tightly coordinated, embargo-led launch, MAG PR helped position Nyad as a breakout player in AI-driven critical infrastructure — and as one of Birmingham's most exciting companies to watch and to join.
“MAG PR quickly understood how to position Nyad at the intersection of AI and critical infrastructure. The launch drove exactly the kind of visibility we needed, not just awareness, but real conversations across hiring and customer growth. It was a pivotal moment for us, and they delivered.”