You're off the ground. Now let's talk PR.

As a project begins to gain traction on your beta testers, who has had success in more traditional PR sources? (basically, any source that's NOT a startup-specific outlet. If you want those, I've bookmarked https://www.eggradients.com/startup-directory)

For those who have been featured in more prominent sources, what did your "first steps" look like in that early phase of reaching out?

There's simply nothing that beats building real relationships with editors, blog owners, brand managers, etc. - and there are many documented ways of crafting a great PR pitch. Basically, there are little to no shortcuts in the long game of PR and marketing. That being said:

has anyone used any PR tools/services that WAS worth paying for?

Some ideas/services that I use that might help others are HARO, Hunter.io, Adapt.io.