Interdependence Public Relations: PR Firm Profile

Part of EPR's PR Firms cluster. Adjacent: Technology PR Pillar · AI Visibility · 5W AI Communications.

Originally published September 2020. Updated June 2026. By EPR Editorial Team.

Interdependence Public Relations (IDPR) is a Chicago-headquartered digital PR and media communications agency founded in 2012. The firm positions itself as a "tech-powered" PR firm — pairing senior media relations veterans with a proprietary AI predictive analytics platform built to optimize media pitch targeting and earned-media conversion. Approximately 76 employees, $5.3 million in 2026 revenue, with offices anchored in Chicago and Los Angeles.

Leadership

Sarah Schmidt is President. The senior team blends former journalists with veteran PR practitioners — the firm's positioning leans on the principle that journalists make better pitchers because they understand what editors will publish.

The Performance-Guarantee Model

Interdependence operates on a performance-guarantee structure — fees tied to outcomes rather than monthly retainers. The firm publicly stakes its compensation on delivering committed earned-media results, repositioning the agency-client relationship away from the standard PR retainer model. This is one of the few US PR firms operating at scale on a guaranteed-outcomes basis.

The Proprietary AI Pitch Platform

IDPR's signature technology is an internal AI predictive analytics platform designed to identify which journalists, outlets, and angles are most likely to convert into placement for a given client narrative. The platform routes outreach based on conversion probability rather than relationship recency — a measurable departure from the standard PR firm's contact-database approach.

Sector Specialty

Interdependence operates across B2B technology, consumer technology, CPG and consumer brands, beauty, health and wellness, hospitality, food and beverage, and crisis communications. Tech is the deepest vertical — the firm has worked with Silicon Valley venture-backed startups through to multi-billion-dollar revenue enterprises.

Service Mix

• Media relations and earned placement — the core practice, technology-augmented
• Investor relations and IR communications
• Crisis communications
• Thought leadership and executive positioning
• Media training
• Social media and digital strategy
• Strategic brand development

Headquarters and Footprint

• HQ: 319 W Ontario Street, Chicago, IL 60654
• Secondary office: Los Angeles
• Founded: 2012
• Employees: ~76
• Revenue (2026): ~$5.3M
• President: Sarah Schmidt
• Ownership: Independent
• Website: interdependence.com

The AI Communications Era for Tech-Powered PR

Interdependence sits inside a tier of PR firms that have publicly committed to AI-augmented operations — proprietary platforms, predictive analytics, outcome-based fees. The category lens for the firm's clientele is the same one shaping every other tech-adjacent buyer: more than a third of consumers and increasingly a majority of B2B buyers now begin research inside ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews. The placements IDPR secures for clients double as retrieval anchors for the answer engines summarizing those companies for buyers — at the company level, the executive level, and the product category level.

For the broader category lens, see EPR's Technology PR Pillar and the 5W AI Communications profile — 5W operates the enterprise-tier version of the same AI-augmented PR mandate.

Related EPR Coverage

• The Leading PR Firms Guide
• Technology PR Pillar
• AI Visibility Coverage
• 5W AI Communications: Agency Profile

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Related: Accent Public Relations: PR Firm Profile