
How To Get an Article on TechCrunch, A Case Study - Cmccann7
http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/01/how-to-get-our-attention-a-case-study/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29
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jacquesm
If it takes 'pitching' TC to get an article there then I predict that sooner
or later there will be party that goes out of their way to look for the news
that will eclipse TC.

Sure, PR is part and parcel of running a tech company. But active journalism
is the staple of a good media outlet and to rely on being pitched almost
guarantees that you're going to miss out on a lot of important stuff.

~~~
_delirium
Even more problematically, it seems to run a real risk that they're going to
publish hype/fluff (well, more than currently). I mean, if you look at that
Michael Arrington email that was quoted, he says that he liked the style of
the pitch, and liked the problem they were addressing, but _didn't care_ if
they solved it or not--- kind of fast-forwarded through the video and wasn't
really paying attention. Makes it pretty easy to hype a non-existent solution,
so long as at least your problem space and your pitch are interesting.

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edanm
The email was sent to a colleague, who was told to pursue it (and who
published the article). Maybe if it was all fluff, then it wouldn't have
gotten published.

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apsurd
I have a problem with the trailer video being completely void of content. Ok
so this isn't a "review my startup" but if it was we'd all rip on the message
not being digestable in 2 seconds. What do you do and why should I care?

Saying vague things about aesthetics and bashing the competition without
citing _how_ you are better does nothing for a to-be-convinced potential
customer.

This brings up a good question. So which one is it? Do we market for clarity
and conciseness, knowing that we have 2 seconds to capture a customer's
interest. Or do we try to get on techcrunch by being overly dramatic, whisp
our users into storyland and make a video that screams "me, me, me!"?

I guess you can do both =) Point is, I watched the video, its 100% about the
company, but uhhh I don't care about the company, I care about what the hell
you product does _for me!_

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marknutter
Another project management tool. Sigh.

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solutionyogi
Generally, I refuse to put my email down for an invite. But rule.fm looks
BEAUTIFUL, I couldn't stop myself and submitted my email address. The YouTube
video is very well done as well.

On their tour page, <http://rule.fm/tour/>, I like how selected section on the
right changes as you scroll through the page.

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jacquesm
What does that have to do with the price of tea in China ?

~~~
josh33
People comment about tangents in articles all of the time on here :) I have to
agree though. It looks good. Sexy even. Producing financials seems bold, but
the app appears capable of doing alot of bold things like calendaring and
mail. Once they get imap enabled, that tool will be powerful.

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win_ini
"Producing financials seems bold, but the app appears capable of doing alot of
bold things like calendaring and mail. Once they get imap enabled, that tool
will be powerful."

Sorry - I couldn't help but chuckle. Saying the app appears capable of doing
"calendaring and mail" is like saying that new Chevy Volt can drive like a
car. There are a shit-ton of apps and systems that deliver mail and
calendaring very well already, this is just another client. Enabling IMAP is
like saying "and now the chevy volt can fill up from a regular gas station too
if you're stuck somewhere" - yeah, just like a prius..."

As I read through the demo page - I was struck several times by how rule.fm
seems like a cool app, but seems to be trying to boil the ocean.

Rule.fm Money for CFOs? Any company that has a CFO would likely not be able to
run this as their CRM (which is basically what it seems like this system is).

This sounds like a salesforce.com-lite CRM system that is web 2.0 looking, but
has no API (from what I can tell).

While a techcrunch article is nice and cool, and I applaud them for getting to
a techcrunch article - the software seems to a solution in search of a problem
that has already been solved before...

Each use case they present seems a bit simplistic and limited.

That's my $0.02, but I'm looking forward to checking it out in more detail to
see if they have actually innovated in solving any of these business problems
(Ticket tracking, financials, Contact management, etc.) rather than just
simplifying it into something that works for a 2 person company - but needs to
be dumped when you hit 5 people.

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j5eb6ach
Having Basecamp walk the plank in the 'trailer' is engaging. But isn't Google
Apps the real competition?

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heresy
They really have the UX nailed (or they know how to make themselves look
good).

Signed up, to see if they can back the appearance up with usability.

Basecamp may need to watch its back..

