

Put That Techcrunch Down - growdetroit
http://www.growdetroit.com/put-that-techcrunch-down/

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vnchr
Last I checked, TechCrunch is not a definitive indicator of local innovation
and entrepreneurship. It's a blog. They don't heavily cover lots of places.
That's not the point.

Yadda, yadda, "Go Detroit," etc., but what are you talking about? Maybe you
should encourage more Detroit and Ann Arbor startups to send their press
releases to TC. PR effort is likely more correlated with your exposure than
Detroit being the victim of ignorant blogging.

For the record, I've done startups in Ann Arbor and Detroit. It is getting
better, but playing the victim isn't going to help.

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BallinBige
I dont think anyone is playing the victim. It's intended to be more
observational.

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timjahn
I agree with you and my company Entrepreneurs Unpluggd is working to increase
the highlighting of entrepreneurs elsewhere (including Detroit - would love to
get your thoughts on the scene there -> tim at entrepreneursunpluggd).

Personally, I think TechCrunch will be much different in a few years in terms
of it's popularity. Right now, Silicon Valley is the mecca for traditional
tech startup folks. That is gradually (this is key - NOT overnight) changing
though.

Detroit, Chicago, Boston, New York, Portland, Boulder, Durham, Miami,
Cincinnati, Omaha, Des Moines, Kansas City, St. Louis, Austin....the list goes
on and on.

Over time, the scenes in all these cities is going to continue to grow and
more attention will be paid. There will be more "TechCrunches" of these areas,
and I think the coverage will be much more distributed then it currently is.

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vnchr
Tech.li is trying to do that. They've got a long way to go in terms of
quality, but they're collaborating with local bloggers writing about startups.

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timjahn
Agreed, thanks for pointing them out.

I know the Tech.li team (and founder Ed Domain) very well and they are a prime
example of the type of publication I'm referring to.

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notatoad
if you want a blog that covers detroit start ups, start one. techcrunch has
always been a silicon valley site, i'm not sure what you expect to change by
posting a rant like this.

if you want press, the most important thing to remember is that journalists
are lazy. most of them would much rather publish a story that is almost
written for them than they would research and write their own stuff. do
something newsworthy, do a write-up, and submit it to as many journalists and
bloggers as you can. this _will_ get you coverage. if you're not getting the
coverage you want, it's either because you're not doing anything interesting
or you're not promoting yourself enough. getting angry at bloggers won't
change that.

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ahi
You need to read it again. It's definitely not a rant about techcrunch.

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nbashaw
Agreed. The first thing you need to understand is that this is targeted at
Michigan people, not Bay Area folks.

He's basically saying "Look guys, we're outside the TechCrunch universe of big
VC money flowing to tech startups, but that doesn't mean we're not on the
right track to creating a robust entrepreneurial ecosystem. Keep doing what
you're doing - building cool shit."

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growdetroit
Think nbashaw nailed this. Thanks for weighing in.

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BallinBige
Nbashaw, exactly. On another note, we outta' do what Arrington suggested. :]

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PaulHoule
Yep, this true not just for Detroit but for "the rest of us."

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growdetroit
While this is an opinion piece, in our interpretation we did not see ANY of
what was said there as a "woe is me" mentality.

Moreso, a call-to-action, and a request to put things in proper perspective,
as opposed to judging the quality of your startup against the TC darlings who
raise $41mm in a series A. ;)

~~~
vnchr
Thanks for clarifying. I can see that better now. Pointing the finger (at a
news source or particular story) seems like a poor starting point. What are
some new sources you can recommend that focus on startup activity in Detroit?
I feel that should have been part of the article.

Without recommending a better place to look, that's just throwing stones.

~~~
growdetroit
No problem. Glad you commented. If anything, I interpreted it as less about
where to look as a source for media, but more as what the mindset of an
Entrepreneur should be.

You have to admit...TC has an interesting habit of glorifying the funding
round, and as Gary Vee would tend to agree (see the first link in the
article), what should be glorified is the bootstrapped startup that manages to
attain profitability on its own.

There's a local startup we recently interviewed (article coming soon to the
site) that bootstrapped it's way to roughly 3.5mm in annualized revenue in
just a few short years.

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Causification
I cannot remember the last time I read an article about a startup, technology,
or general science where I paid the slightest bit of attention to what city
the company/events called home. If you're an internet company nobody cares
where you're from, aside from nationality and its accompanying laws. The
article's author seems to have an obsession with Detroit and its image. I did
a techcrunch search for my city, and again for my state. Zero articles in the
past year. I don't care because it makes no difference.

I do thank the article for teaching me a new term today: "persecutory
delusions."

