

Ask HN: What startup news stories should I talk about on Calacanis's show? - AndrewWarner

On Monday, I'm doing the news on Jason Calacanis's This Week in Startups.<p>There hasn't been much news since his last episode (on Friday) so I'm trying to be more creative.<p>Could you recommend startup business news that...
...people would talk about after the show?
...didn't get the coverage it deserved last week?
...points to an important trend?
======
irina_miami
Guys, guys.. You need a workshop on basic PR strategies... As a former VP of a
tech PR firm, I would be glad to explain the basics:

1) To get any serious media coverage you need to be _newsworthy,_

2) What is _newsworthy?_ Any person, company or event that fits into a large
economical, social or political picture can be considered newsworthy.

3)Best way to learn and practice being newsworthy is to read the Wall Street
Journal (There are other pubs, but if you have only enough time to read one,
make it WSJ)

4) Don't just read an article, but read and answer 3 questions. a) What is the
trend(big picture) that this article describes? b) How does my company fits
into this trend? c) Where can I find statistics that support my point?

4) Once you see a great fit for yourself, write to the author of that article
an e-mail. Most of the WSJ reporters are easy to reach. If you do the 3)
practice right, sooner or later, you will be included in those WSJ stories.
Just think, companies pay $10,000 and up in monthly retainers to PR firms to
get their names in WSJ.

5) Similar strategy applies to getting _coverage_ from Guy Kawasaki & other
top tech bloggers.

a) join Twitter, follow Kawasaki <http://twitter.com/guykawasaki> on Twitter
b) listen what he is talking about c) join the conversation, d) if your
comments(twits) are intelligent, he & others will notice & answer, re-twit
your comments. And that is your surest way to get _coverage_ from Kawasaki.

6)One important point to remember.The media(Kawasaki included) always want to
post a)educational b) entertaining content.

Give them something new(educate them), be it an idea, a point of view,
personal observation & a joke, tie your current work into it for promo
benefit. Keep it short and simple. (Twitter is a good way to train yourself in
brevity)

P.S. I am here because I a fan of Paul Graham's ideas. Paul, if I can be of
any help in your endeavors, you can reach me via my Twitter
<http://twitter.com/mylifeandart>

------
victorseo
Andrew, how about, Should all the cool kids, who have 100,000+
followers/readers (guy kawasaki, louis grey) randomly choose some relatively
unknown start up and give them an exposure boost just for the hell of it? What
do they have to lose if they promote an up and coming app or site with no
expectation of being compensated? Most start-ups need promo as bad as they
need cash. I am talking about a real promo, something beyond just a tech
crunch or mashable mention. Sort of like Oprah, but in the digital space. Hmmm
maybe YOU should do some interviews of someone who has yet to achieve success,
every now and then.... I wish I could give you a suggestion of who might---oh,
I can! Jeff Wurtz of lymabean.com

~~~
AndrewWarner
Thanks for the suggestion. The problem I have with interviewing startups is
that they're full of sh*t. They talk up their product like it's the next
Google.

But what I want to get to is the the honest parts of their stories. I want to
hear how they're up nights worrying that they'll go out of business.

I want to hear that one of their motivations is that couldn't get laid in high
school and business is their way to finally be someone in this world. And they
won't take their eyes off that dream for even a second.

Or something like that. But I'm not a good enough interviewer to draw that out
of them. Yet.

~~~
tdavis
You must be talking to the wrong startups, then. We've never claimed to be
making the next Google. I didn't get laid much in high school, but I quickly
made up for lost time afterwards. I already am someone in this world by virtue
of existing, so that's covered too.

You seem to want all startups to be depressed and self-loathing. Those stories
might be hard to come by since they're two qualities that most entrepreneurs
simply do not have, at least not consistently.

~~~
AndrewWarner
You're right.

I meant that I wanted more openness, not self-loathing.

------
rythie
A lot of people who didn't and have never got mashable/techcrunch/rww mentions
didn't get the coverage they deserved.

For example I have been trying to tell people that we now support facebook
stream API in FriendBinder and since this is only about a week since facebook
released it, it should be semi-interesting, but no one seems interested.

P.S. liked the show, watched it on Friday, live.

~~~
AndrewWarner
Rythie one the things that bothers me is that the "cool kids" can add a stupid
little feature to their products and get a ton of coverage in blogs and
mainstream media.

But anyone who isn't in the "in crowd" can't get heard.

~~~
rythie
Yeah that bothers me too. Though I suspect if I was one of those "cool kids"
it would bother me less ;-)

As an aside, dailybooth is really a unique idea, it's in this round of
ycombinator. I see it has a picture-twitter that suits vloggers (iJustine is
on there for example <http://dailybooth.com/ijustine> )

------
rmason
Andrew,

How about letting the people on here vote for what startup you should talk
about each week?

Collectively as a group this bunch is going to be way ahead of the mainstream
press as to what's hot.

Saw both shows this weekend and they were strangely compelling.

~~~
AndrewWarner
I should have posted this sooner. Your idea is great, but I didn't leave
people enough time to vote.

