4 Reasons Why You Should NOT Pitch Your Startup to Techcrunch
And what to do instead.
Hi, I’m David and I started Publiseek, an online mailing list that gets you free PR. Our users have been featured on Forbes, & Reuters. If you’re a startup founder this post is for you.
Techcrunch is the blog on which most founders want to be featured when they finally launch their startup. And why wouldn’t they? It’s established, widely read, and can be worn as a badge of honor. But in the next two minutes I’m going to give you 4 reasons why’re better off spending your time pitching your startup somewhere else.
1. Everyone else is pitching them.
In general journalists are short on time. But that’s specially true if they work for a big publication. Techcrunch journalists have to keep up-to-date with their industry, develop sources, go to press conferences, write about Apple, find a nice image to go along with their post, and check their Facebook. They might come across your pitch. They might even like it. But reading pitches is one of a bazillion things they have to do every day. And even though your startup is great they might just not have the time to follow up.
2. You can get more visibility directly on Twitter.
Pitching a story can take a lot of energy. Especially if it’s your first time and you’re also writing press releases, developing a media kit, etc. So if you want some buzz and chatter without too much effort you might want to consider this alternative. Write a blog post and then tweet it to relevant influencers asking them to spread the word for you. Each person might only have 20K followers. But together they could give you more reach for a fraction of the energy. As an extra all those tweets and likes will point directly to *your* domain. Plus you will end up with more testimonials and quotes on your homepage.
3. Your (potential) users don’t read it.
YOU read Techcrunch. But do your users do as well? Probably not. If you’re a marketplace for mechanics or a social networking site for moms you might be better off pitching media outlets that your users actually read. By the way if you’ve just thought to yourself: “I’m not too sure which outlets my users read” then it’s not too late to redeem yourself. Pause what you’re doing, open a new tab, and take 5 minutes to find and bookmark them. It’s the ultimate way to slowly but surely get insights into the minds, worries, and aspirations of your target market.
4. You’ll get covered by them. Just not now.
Social proof is not just something you need to show to investors. It also applies to the media. And journalists are known to get more interested in you when others have covered you before. So if you really want that Techcrunch post, get written about on another blog first. You can then include that article next time around (with all its like and tweet goodness) to prove to the journalist that your startup actually matters.
Conclusion
So let’s summarize this. If you have the chance to get covered by Techcrunch, by all means use that opportunity. Otherwise, just remember: there are other options. Your end goal is not to get on Techcrunch. Your goal is to get credibility and visibility. And there are many ways to achieve that.
If you liked this check out my startup Publiseek, the mailing list that gets you free PR. Or say hi to me on Twitter: @daveying99