

The Emails That Got My Unsexy Start-Up Covered By TechCrunch - jamesdeer
http://jamesdeer.com/journal/2012/10/10/techcrunch-emails

======
mvkel
Based on the organizations you say are signing up for your product, you're
spending an awful lot of time trying to get coverage on a site that doesn't
focus on your core markets whatsoever.

All the time you spent literally begging TC to respond to your emails could
have been spent getting published in trade blogs/magazines/sites that talk
directly to your customer.

Get out of the startup bubble and focus on your customer. Companies that stay
under the radar and are killing it are way cooler than a rewritten press
release on TC.

~~~
jamesdeer
I didn't really spend a huge amount of time doing it to be honest. A little
research, a few emails and Skype call, half a day tops.

We've actually been talked about in a number of trade blogs/magazines/sites
and conferences. We saw some really good results from those as well, and yes,
obviously a higher percentage of converting customers came through those
sources.

I'm not in any bubble. I'm working really hard. We've got some really healthy
revenue and within a month or so based on our current growth, we'll break
even. Not bad for only launching a couple of months ago.

I appreciate your comments none-the-less :)

~~~
avree
>We've got some really healthy revenue and within a month or so based on our
current growth, we'll break even. Not bad for only launching a couple of
months ago.

A blog post describing this would be more interesting to me than how you
e-mailed a TechCrunch author and he wrote an article about you.

I don't mean for this to come across as snarky or belittle your post—it's just
that you basically e-mailed a short pitch to a TechCrunch article and got an
article out of it. That's not really revolutionary; lots of 'unsexy' (see:
Enterprise) startups get covered on TC.

 __EDIT: __Or, comparing the effects of your TC coverage against more targeted
'focused coverage'—since I think a lot of startups fall into the "we need to
be techcrunch'd" trap and don't realize how effective other less buzz-worthy
but more targeted media can be.

~~~
jamesdeer
Sure, I'd be happy to write something about that, and I love the idea of
comparing the TC "results" with the other, more targeted places that wrote
about us.

You are right, all I did was pitch them in a certain way. I wouldn't call us
an Enterprise focused start-up yet and I wasn't trying to come across as
revolutionary— just sharing an experience of how I managed to achieve
something :)

~~~
mvkel
I'd appreciate that as well. It can be a challenge to establish relationships
with these trade pubs and develop beneficial content. Interested to hear your
take on it.

------
diego
Getting covered by TC is easy. They posted 34 stories on the front page
yesterday alone. There simply isn't that much tech news. If you give a decent
story to a reporter that he/she can publish it with little work, you're there.

Why you'd want to be covered by TC is a different story.

~~~
vidarh
> Why you'd want to be covered by TC is a different story.

The SEO benefit of being linked from a high PR site like TC alone can be worth
quite a bit for a startup trying to get a new site ranking well.

~~~
diego
That is a myth. If you know how PR works, you understand that the contribution
from a random TC article (not the home page) is not very significant. Also, PR
is one in a myriad signals Google uses to gauge the goodness of a page. It's
less important than it ever was.

Caveat for startups: most people who mention SEO really have no idea what they
are talking about.

~~~
bryanh
Curious why you would claim links for search engine ranking algorithms are a
myth. Links from high profile sites (like TechCrunch) are demonstrably good,
though I would guess it is definitely a smaller percent now than it was in the
early days (ALA PageRank <http://ilpubs.stanford.edu:8090/422/1/1999-66.pdf>).

~~~
diego
If you know PageRank, what matters is not the _site_ that links to you, but
the _page_ within the site. Techcrunch.com has a PR of 8. On the other hand,
<http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/04/gathercontent-launch/> has a PR of 4. That
page also has tons of outbound links, so the contribution to the PR of
gathercontent.com coming from it page is minimal.

~~~
polyfractal
Smaller publishers re-syndicate stories, which means you gather a whole host
of backlinks...not just the TC one. Plus the google algorithm is much more
complicated than just PageRank. They've pretty much said PR is a small part of
the algorithm nowadays.

There are a lot of other signals taken into account, and getting covered by a
mainstream blog is a good signal. You benefit from their domain authority even
if the page authority remains pretty low.

~~~
diego
Did you read my original comment? My point was precisely that PR is not that
important. If you want to rank higher on Google, simply create good content.
You cannot depend on the signals they use because they change all the time. Do
you have any idea if "getting covered by a mainstream blog" is a signal Google
quantifies, let alone uses?

------
jonmc12
I've been looking for a similar product. Wondering if anyone is aware of a
product that has following features:

1\. Upload web app interaction design specs (wireframes) from psd

2\. Link related graphic specs (pixel perfect) from psd / png

3\. Allows commenting by collaborators on each page

4\. Has API for Integrating updates from 3rd party sites. For instance, noting
in comments that a ticket for this part of the spec was made in Pivotal
Tracker, and then updating status when the ticket is completed.

The author mentions Cageapp.com - this is the general idea, but I don't see
that they have any image linking or basic APIs for integration with 3rd party
tools.

------
tluyben2
Currently I rather be #1 on HN than featured on TC. Ah. Penny dropped.

------
sixQuarks
geeze, what's with all the people giving him a hard time about being written
up on techcrunch? I think what he did was great, and thanks for sharing the
actual email messages.

Quick question: I like the simplicity of your blog, what are you using to
create that?

~~~
jamesdeer
It's a SquareSpace site.

------
irisshoor
Great article. Sharing the actual emails (full version) really makes the
difference. I struggled with this problem as well in two different startups
(getting B2B product into main stream tech blogs). Two things helped me - 1).
trying to wrap it as horizontal product with fun videos and interesting
customer stories 2). Admitting we're not sexy, the "we're not sexy but doing
something really important" works. I like this part from his email : "It's not
a particularly sexy problem, however it's a complete pain in the arse for
those who manage the process of content collaboration & organisation"

------
kellyhclay
For what it's worth, I've yet to actually hear one VC actually say that
getting covered by TechCrunch was a make-or-break for investment.

I'm more curious to see what kind of ROI you got from all of this effort. This
particular TC article didn't drive a ton of social engagement, and as someone
else said, they pump out a TON of content everyday. In terms of helping
acquire users and build awareness, did the article help at all?

------
giftivo
My site giftivo.com was featured on TC on launch day this past week. Like the
OP I found a writer that liked to cover similar products and I emailed her. I
just asked her to check out the site and provide feedback since she is
familiar with similar products and she ended up writing an article. She noted
in the article that she gets contacted by tons of sites in the space so I
guess it was simply a matter of her liking my site.

------
noinput
One overlying question here is in your contact with Anthony in particular over
every other journalist out there, and how that came about. Did you know him
already, have his email from a personal reference or similar, find it online,
take a guess and hit send?

I suppose anyone can blindly email anyone else with hope there is interest for
followup, but having that genuine starting connection makes a huge difference.

~~~
jamesdeer
I'd say a little more than 'take a guess', but that pretty much hits the nail
on the head.

He turned out to be a really nice chap :)

~~~
polshaw

      >a little more than 'take a guess',
    

go on..?

~~~
jamesdeer
Well, as the article says. I looked for journos who had covered start-
ups/companies in similar niches rather than picking someone at random.

~~~
polshaw
I took it that the parent was asking how you made contact with the guy (eg how
did you get his email), but on a second reading it's not so clear. I assume
his email was probably freely available on the TC site then.

------
jeffehobbs
I have not read the article, nor am I conversant in modern technology company
acronyms, but congratulations on your Bed 2 Breakfast start-up!

~~~
jamesdeer
Haha.

------
nthitz
Can we please stop using the word 'sexy' to describe certain startups? I doubt
people have a sexual attraction to most startups.

~~~
nitrogen
Lots of modern marketing and design seems to use elements of human sex appeal
to sell other products - e.g. sleek curves on cars, thin shapes, etc. Physical
attraction is one of the strongest human instincts, so manipulating it to
drive someone to your product can be profitable, and a product which succeeds
in doing so could be described as "sexy." This is the likely context in which
people are describing a company or job as "sexy" or "unsexy."

Additionally, whether a particular job is considered desirable in a mate
(typical example: doctor) can also influence whether the company doing that
job is "sexy."

------
thejosh
That's actually a really good startup idea. Would be nice if pricing wasn't
stuck down in the footer....

~~~
jamesdeer
Thanks Josh.

------
donebizkit
Thanks for sharing! More useful than many generic articles that show up on HN
frontpage.

------
raheemm
Thanks for sharing the actual emails you sent.

------
nhangen
Any journalists here want to comment on how you feel about entrepreneurs
quoting your emails on their blog?

------
ryen
> CMS' put webmasters and developers in control...

I'm pretty sure the opposite is true.

------
kjemperud
"we're the hardest hustler's you'll ever meet, oh, and we scored $2M seed"
<\-- Vungle?

------
legierski
Still on the front page, looks like there's plenty of interest from HN folks!

------
codyguy
What was the Subject line of your email?

~~~
jamesdeer
"Long shot"

