The Emails That Got My Unsexy Start-Up Covered By TechCrunch

http://jamesdeer.com/journal/2012/10/10/techcrunch-emails

by jamesdeer • 14 years ago

118 55 14 years ago

raheemm• 14 years ago

Thanks for sharing the actual emails you sent.

jeffehobbs• 14 years ago

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

jamesdeer10• 14 years ago

Haha.

thejosh• 14 years ago

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

jamesdeer10• 14 years ago

Thanks Josh.

mvkel6• 14 years ago

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.

jamesdeer10• 14 years ago

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• 14 years ago

>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.

jakejake2• 14 years ago

My company has a few competitors and every now and then a new one will show up blazing through all the tech blogs.

If I'm being 100% honest I feel a little jealous because I'd like our team to get a little love from our peers in the tech community. But I reevaluate when they shut their doors 6 months later because they spent all of their PR money on coverage outside our industry. This has happened to us three times in about 4 years.

I've spent some time getting write ups and case studies on tech sites. I think it's ok to give yourself a little attention in that way as long as you keep in mind that it isn't really reaching customers. It can be good for developer morale though.

codyguy2• 14 years ago

Would you care to share where all you got covered and which ones actually drove revenue?

petercooper• 14 years ago

I agree, especially with the last sentence. But there's an important point buried in one of the e-mails in the article:

2 weeks ago we walked away from $160,000 in seed funding because we decided [..] we should get profitable before we take funding to get a better valuation

Getting press from places like TC will be very helpful when it comes to finding funding, especially if it's from the typical Bay Area crowd.

But I do still agree with your last sentence and a company that does well in its own niche and doesn't need funding is certainly more cooler than one that does - it's just not what everyone wants to do.

sriramk2• 14 years ago

You target various audiences separately with your PR. Techcrunch, while terrible for acquiring users in most categories, is great - probably a must - for raising funding and hiring.

mvkel6• 14 years ago

Give me a break. If a VC is going to invest in a company based on whether or not it was written about in TC, they are pretty terrible investors.

The only thing it could _potentially_ help is valuation, but any good investor would negotiate that perk away anyway.

detst• 14 years ago

This is misapplied cliche HN wisdom and it's unfortunate that this type of comment makes it to the top yet again. You have no idea what their time would be best spent on. As has already been pointed out, there are other very valid reasons someone might want to get in TC.

mvkel6• 14 years ago

Like? Saying it's "necessary" for a raise is even more ridiculous than what I said.

irisshoor• 14 years ago

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"

jonmc12• 14 years ago

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.

noinput2• 14 years ago

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.

jamesdeer10• 14 years ago

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 :)

polshaw2• 14 years ago

  >a little more than 'take a guess',

go on..?

noinput2• 14 years ago

Figured so and meant no disrespect for your tenacity to find him. If you can't disclose it's understood but I still really want to know the details.

kjemperud• 14 years ago

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

diego4• 14 years ago

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• 14 years ago

> 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.

jamesdeer10• 14 years ago

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

For fun.

diego4• 14 years ago

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.

tluyben2• 14 years ago

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

codyguy2• 14 years ago

What was the Subject line of your email?

jamesdeer10• 14 years ago

"Long shot"

donebizkit• 14 years ago

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

nthitz• 14 years ago

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

nitrogen• 14 years ago

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."

kellyhclay• 14 years ago

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?

sixQuarks• 14 years ago

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?

jamesdeer10• 14 years ago

It's a SquareSpace site.

ryen• 14 years ago

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

I'm pretty sure the opposite is true.

nhangen• 14 years ago

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

legierski• 14 years ago

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

giftivo• 14 years ago

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.

The Emails That Got My Unsexy Start-Up Covered By TechCrunch

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