4 ms·

First things first, consider why you are pitching this reporter in the first place. For most companies, TechCrunch is a waste of time (see his note on press re

by tyre 11y ago

First things first, consider why you are pitching this reporter in the first place. For most companies, TechCrunch is a waste of time (see his note on press releases designed to stroke the writer's ego.) They are probably not your market. Your market is the people you help. Those people — small businesses, local governments, regular people, video game enthusiasts, whatever — probably don't read TechCrunch. Find what they read and pitch there. But what about gaining respect in the Valley? No one whose respect you care about will respect you for seeing your funding round in TechCrunch. Focus on building your business. Focus on building your product. Telling stories is important, but only when you're talking about things that matter. Funding is a means to doing other things, not an end in itself. Hiring? When I was at ZenPayroll, the toughest time for hiring was right after our Series A. We had tons of people who applied because we had just raised $20 million and they saw us in TechCrunch. They wanted to join a rocketship (literally heard that in an interview.) We wanted to help small businesses, very different motivations. Pitch your impact. 99% of the time, you are not yet making a big impact. That's okay. Focus on making one, not making up a story as to why you're making one.

anonbanker 11y ago
Man, why can't anyone on HN say that TechCrunch is useless without being karma-bombed?
- mindcrime 11y ago
  TechCrunch is useless for many startups. I won't make a blanket statement that it's useless, because I think it does matter for some startups. If your "thing" is a new consumer facing web app or mobile app that needs to be presented to a lot of fairly tech-savvy "early adopter" types, then sure, TechCrunch is great, because those are the people who read TechCrunch. But... if you're a B2B startup whose target customers are manufacturing companies, logistics companies, retail firms, finance companies, health-care companies, pharama companies, academia, etc., then TechCrunch likely isn't the best place to reach your potential customers. Sure, their base of readership is broad enough that some of your targets probably read it, but if I want to reach executives in the textiles industry, I'm better off getting something ran in "Textile Manufacturing Today" or a general purpose business publication like Forbes.
- onewaystreet 11y ago
  TechCrunch is useful for getting noticed by investors and the non-tech media. It's not useful for building a user-base that isn't investors and early adopters.
mindcrime 11y ago
Pitch your impact. 99% of the time, you are not yet making a big impact. That's okay. Focus on making one, not making up a story as to why you're making one. Aaah, that's gold. I want to print that out and pin it to my wall now!
kaolinite 11y ago
Your customers may not read TechCrunch but they may read The Guardian or the Wall Street Journal and if you want to get an article there, your best bet is to have an article already on TechCrunch and similar sites. It's the same reason why Hacker News, Reddit and other community-based sites matter more than you might think: it lets journalists at larger companies know that there is interest and that you might be worth writing about.
- tyre 11y ago
  I think you underestimate the excellent journalists from The Guardian and The Wall Street Journal if you believe that they: a) cannot find good stories without social proof from TechCrunch b) use TechCrunch as a source for what is up and coming c) value a story already reported in TechCrunch over one that has not received attention. Your best bet is to build something that matters. Good journalists are smarter than we give them credit for.
  - xrange 11y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Churnalism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Churnalism
- larrys 11y ago
  You are getting downvoted for what you said (as of now anyway) however I have gotten press in the WSJ by sending them clippings that appeared in the local paper. This was after they had no interest in the story initially. In other words seeing that even a lowly local paper (ok was a big city paper actually) did a full page article was enough to get them to run a blurb about what we were doing. (On the front page no less). So in other words to your point about Techcrunch it can be thought of as it as a filter of legitimacy that you can use to your advantage.
VonGuard 11y ago
This is a topic that comes up a lot on Hacker News, and as a journalist in tech, the above comment has some very good advice. The press release, however, is not dead at all. It's still quite relevant to all mainstream press outlets, regardless of how TechCrunch or other startup sites feel. Don't just ignore press releases. Do them, but do more than JUST press releases. I also have my own non-profit which we do releases for, and you never know when one will land, or how well. Often, random outlets show up interested after a release, even though the big boys ignored it. Do them. tyre hits the nail on the head in stating that TechCrunch is not your market. As a news site, it may be fun to read, but it's literally a navel gazing Valley hole where the stories of funding only serve to get more funding. It's a cycle, and the more time you spend working to get on TechCrunch, the less time you spend being in the real media, being read about by your potential customers. Customers read other things. Step out of your comfort zone. Maybe instead of TechCrunch writing about your cooking startup, it should be Bon Apetit? Maybe Bon Apetit doesn't answer the phone, so you go to the next magazine down. Maybe none of them answer the phone, so you go to Diablo magazine, San Francisco Magazine, or in-flight magazines. There's a TON of places to get good press if you look beyond the Web. Radio news programs always need stuff, and local newspapers do too. For these cases, here is what I recommend: find the lowest media point in your industry and call the editor personally. Don't have a PR person do it. Don't have a marketer do it. Call them as a CEO, or as a VP or whatever you are. Make sure the call is brief, and offer to send them info via email afterwards. But keep calling. Call them back and politely ask about how you could get a story, if they decline. They may only cover product releases, or may only review products. Find out. Maybe they don't cover funding news. I don't. Few do. It's boring as shit. But maybe they're doing an article about personal data security, or something on the Internet of Things for their newest issue. You won't know unless you call. Through 2 or 3 phone calls, you could get a great story. Work your connections, get to the journalists anyway that doesn't involve email as first contact. But be careful. If you get nothing after 2 or 3 calls, stop. Don't be a jerk and annoy them. My inbox is filled with releases, well over 100 a day. You literally have less than 1 second per email subject line to catch my eye there before I just mark them all as read and move on to actual work. Those are shitty odds. Maybe I read your release if I know your name and email address, and that catches my eye, but usually that will only work for a C-level or some-such. As for impact pitching... I guess that works. What I look for as a reporter is something new. Novelty goes a very long way. Stupid press tricks go nowhere, but knowing just which journalist to go to, and just what type of thing they're looking for is the real key here. Read more magazines, watch local news, and stop reading the Valley's echo chambers. They do nothing of use for your growth.

by tyre 11y ago

anonbanker 11y ago

Man, why can't anyone on HN say that TechCrunch is useless without being karma-bombed?

mindcrime 11y ago
TechCrunch is useless for many startups. I won't make a blanket statement that it's useless, because I think it does matter for some startups. If your "thing" is a new consumer facing web app or mobile app that needs to be presented to a lot of fairly tech-savvy "early adopter" types, then sure, TechCrunch is great, because those are the people who read TechCrunch. But... if you're a B2B startup whose target customers are manufacturing companies, logistics companies, retail firms, finance companies, health-care companies, pharama companies, academia, etc., then TechCrunch likely isn't the best place to reach your potential customers. Sure, their base of readership is broad enough that some of your targets probably read it, but if I want to reach executives in the textiles industry, I'm better off getting something ran in "Textile Manufacturing Today" or a general purpose business publication like Forbes.
onewaystreet 11y ago
TechCrunch is useful for getting noticed by investors and the non-tech media. It's not useful for building a user-base that isn't investors and early adopters.

mindcrime 11y ago

Pitch your impact. 99% of the time, you are not yet making a big impact. That's okay. Focus on making one, not making up a story as to why you're making one. Aaah, that's gold. I want to print that out and pin it to my wall now!

kaolinite 11y ago

Your customers may not read TechCrunch but they may read The Guardian or the Wall Street Journal and if you want to get an article there, your best bet is to have an article already on TechCrunch and similar sites. It's the same reason why Hacker News, Reddit and other community-based sites matter more than you might think: it lets journalists at larger companies know that there is interest and that you might be worth writing about.

tyre 11y ago
I think you underestimate the excellent journalists from The Guardian and The Wall Street Journal if you believe that they: a) cannot find good stories without social proof from TechCrunch b) use TechCrunch as a source for what is up and coming c) value a story already reported in TechCrunch over one that has not received attention. Your best bet is to build something that matters. Good journalists are smarter than we give them credit for.
- xrange 11y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Churnalism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Churnalism
larrys 11y ago
You are getting downvoted for what you said (as of now anyway) however I have gotten press in the WSJ by sending them clippings that appeared in the local paper. This was after they had no interest in the story initially. In other words seeing that even a lowly local paper (ok was a big city paper actually) did a full page article was enough to get them to run a blurb about what we were doing. (On the front page no less). So in other words to your point about Techcrunch it can be thought of as it as a filter of legitimacy that you can use to your advantage.

VonGuard 11y ago

This is a topic that comes up a lot on Hacker News, and as a journalist in tech, the above comment has some very good advice. The press release, however, is not dead at all. It's still quite relevant to all mainstream press outlets, regardless of how TechCrunch or other startup sites feel. Don't just ignore press releases. Do them, but do more than JUST press releases. I also have my own non-profit which we do releases for, and you never know when one will land, or how well. Often, random outlets show up interested after a release, even though the big boys ignored it. Do them. tyre hits the nail on the head in stating that TechCrunch is not your market. As a news site, it may be fun to read, but it's literally a navel gazing Valley hole where the stories of funding only serve to get more funding. It's a cycle, and the more time you spend working to get on TechCrunch, the less time you spend being in the real media, being read about by your potential customers. Customers read other things. Step out of your comfort zone. Maybe instead of TechCrunch writing about your cooking startup, it should be Bon Apetit? Maybe Bon Apetit doesn't answer the phone, so you go to the next magazine down. Maybe none of them answer the phone, so you go to Diablo magazine, San Francisco Magazine, or in-flight magazines. There's a TON of places to get good press if you look beyond the Web. Radio news programs always need stuff, and local newspapers do too. For these cases, here is what I recommend: find the lowest media point in your industry and call the editor personally. Don't have a PR person do it. Don't have a marketer do it. Call them as a CEO, or as a VP or whatever you are. Make sure the call is brief, and offer to send them info via email afterwards. But keep calling. Call them back and politely ask about how you could get a story, if they decline. They may only cover product releases, or may only review products. Find out. Maybe they don't cover funding news. I don't. Few do. It's boring as shit. But maybe they're doing an article about personal data security, or something on the Internet of Things for their newest issue. You won't know unless you call. Through 2 or 3 phone calls, you could get a great story. Work your connections, get to the journalists anyway that doesn't involve email as first contact. But be careful. If you get nothing after 2 or 3 calls, stop. Don't be a jerk and annoy them. My inbox is filled with releases, well over 100 a day. You literally have less than 1 second per email subject line to catch my eye there before I just mark them all as read and move on to actual work. Those are shitty odds. Maybe I read your release if I know your name and email address, and that catches my eye, but usually that will only work for a C-level or some-such. As for impact pitching... I guess that works. What I look for as a reporter is something new. Novelty goes a very long way. Stupid press tricks go nowhere, but knowing just which journalist to go to, and just what type of thing they're looking for is the real key here. Read more magazines, watch local news, and stop reading the Valley's echo chambers. They do nothing of use for your growth.