6 ms·

While this is almost always true, there are exceptions to this rule. If you're working on something that is inherently press friendly, you don't really need to

While this is almost always true, there are exceptions to this rule. If you're working on something that is inherently press friendly, you don't really need to market it. You have the first real self-driving car and you just drove from New York City to Los Angeles? I'm pretty sure that will get you whatever press you want. And then of course there's WhatsApp, which was so focused on solely their product that they had no address or phone number for investors/media to find them. Yes yes, the exception does not make the rule, but they are still important data points. That aside, 99.??% of startups will need to market heavily to compete successfully. Edit: And I just noticed the (Software) parentheses in the title. I guess you can replace self-driving cars with advanced AI, say the first AI to pass the Turing Test.

r_singh 10y ago
Like you said though, it is limited to a very few exceptions. Not every company that receives press grows as desired. I was co-founder at a project that has received 10+ newspaper articles (progressively better placed) and growth kept declining over the months only to become negative. However, I obviously understand that one can never look at these factors in isolation and that there are multiple variables on which growth depends. I would also not consider press to be a part of marketing really.
- MegaButts 10y ago
  I guess an important caveat for the exception to the rule is the product has to be so good that it just automatically makes money. A true self-driving car has an obvious path to profitability. A social media platform that is an existential threat to Facebook is an obvious target for an acquisition.
raverbashing 10y ago
No, even a good "inherently press friendly" thing won't even blip on the radar without some minimal PR and marketing effort
azinman2 10y ago
It's kind of a myth that press is all the marketing you need. You don't get as much quality inbound as you'd think (probability of your entire target market seeing and reading it certainly isn't 100%), and it's a singular moment in time.
michaelbuckbee 10y ago
Having a press friendly startup is good for getting you press - but that's different than marketing. If it's not actually driving sales then it's just noise. For instance, I worked with an early stage hardware startup whose customers were developers (you couldn't actually do anything with the device if you weren't a developer. It was a SDK not a finished product). They generated tons of press because hardware is much easier to understand, show and write stories about than software. But despite being in really high profile publications (millions and millions of people seeing it) - it failed to move the needle sales wise. - Most developers aren't reading these publications - Most press articles don't mention the developer angle - You're just one of many many stories that day in a big publication. - In some ways is _really hurt_ because it made it seem like it was a $100 thing you could buy at Target than a complicated SDK. This resulted in lots of non-devs buying, being wildly disappointed and wanting to return it.
SerLava 10y ago
>You have the first real self-driving car and you just drove from New York City to Los Angeles? I'm pretty sure that will get you whatever press you want. But when they get to your website, they have to know why your car is better than the Toyota being released a month later, and that they won't miss their current manually operated car. Chances are, your LIDAR guy isn't up to the task.
pjc50 10y ago
> self-driving car This is definitely a product that needs media management, because the key question is not so much if it works but if it's safe. That has to be a key part of any self-driving-car strategy. And you also need a legal/lobbying team, as the comma.ai guy found out.
yoshyosh 10y ago
As much as we wish this is true, the same thing happened when the Wright Brothers harnessed the power of flight. It didn't just spread like wildfire. http://www.forbes.com/2003/11/19/1119aviation.html http://www.forbes.com/2003/11/19/1119aviation.html

r_singh 10y ago

Like you said though, it is limited to a very few exceptions. Not every company that receives press grows as desired. I was co-founder at a project that has received 10+ newspaper articles (progressively better placed) and growth kept declining over the months only to become negative. However, I obviously understand that one can never look at these factors in isolation and that there are multiple variables on which growth depends. I would also not consider press to be a part of marketing really.

MegaButts 10y ago
I guess an important caveat for the exception to the rule is the product has to be so good that it just automatically makes money. A true self-driving car has an obvious path to profitability. A social media platform that is an existential threat to Facebook is an obvious target for an acquisition.

raverbashing 10y ago

No, even a good "inherently press friendly" thing won't even blip on the radar without some minimal PR and marketing effort

azinman2 10y ago

It's kind of a myth that press is all the marketing you need. You don't get as much quality inbound as you'd think (probability of your entire target market seeing and reading it certainly isn't 100%), and it's a singular moment in time.

michaelbuckbee 10y ago

Having a press friendly startup is good for getting you press - but that's different than marketing. If it's not actually driving sales then it's just noise. For instance, I worked with an early stage hardware startup whose customers were developers (you couldn't actually do anything with the device if you weren't a developer. It was a SDK not a finished product). They generated tons of press because hardware is much easier to understand, show and write stories about than software. But despite being in really high profile publications (millions and millions of people seeing it) - it failed to move the needle sales wise. - Most developers aren't reading these publications - Most press articles don't mention the developer angle - You're just one of many many stories that day in a big publication. - In some ways is _really hurt_ because it made it seem like it was a $100 thing you could buy at Target than a complicated SDK. This resulted in lots of non-devs buying, being wildly disappointed and wanting to return it.

SerLava 10y ago

>You have the first real self-driving car and you just drove from New York City to Los Angeles? I'm pretty sure that will get you whatever press you want. But when they get to your website, they have to know why your car is better than the Toyota being released a month later, and that they won't miss their current manually operated car. Chances are, your LIDAR guy isn't up to the task.

pjc50 10y ago

> self-driving car This is definitely a product that needs media management, because the key question is not so much if it works but if it's safe. That has to be a key part of any self-driving-car strategy. And you also need a legal/lobbying team, as the comma.ai guy found out.

yoshyosh 10y ago

As much as we wish this is true, the same thing happened when the Wright Brothers harnessed the power of flight. It didn't just spread like wildfire. http://www.forbes.com/2003/11/19/1119aviation.html http://www.forbes.com/2003/11/19/1119aviation.html