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Meet 30 Cool Young Entrepreneurs

inc.com

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Re: Meet 30 Cool Young Entrepreneurs

#21

Post by axod »

evansolomon wrote: post #16
maxklein wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're absolutely right. Such lists mean nothing to your core business, and the effect is minor in the long run. Imagine you want to create a great airline. What do newspaper articles have to do with that? If your airline is great, people will hear about you. That's how it should be. My original point was just about why it seems that it's always the same people being featured. It's because those people just have more…

You are likely correct that it's unlikely any of these companies' futures will change appreciably because of this coverage. However, PR can definitely make a real difference in a business--see Aaron Patzer's thoughts on this (no particular source, but he talks about it a lot). To take your airline example, Virgin America invested a ton in PR when they launched. Also, I think writing off successful PR (even in this pa…

>> "I don't think there's anything particularly human interest-y about Posterous, or syncing cell phone data to computers."

The human interest bit is that "These are all 'young' people (under 30 or something)". If it was just a list of "hot new startups" it wouldn't have that same angle.

Re: Meet 30 Cool Young Entrepreneurs

#22

Post by lkozma »

paraschopra wrote: post #18
maxklein wrote: post #4

This article made me realise - no matter how much money you are making or how cool your company is - to get featured in such big magazines, your idea has to be simple and it has to be interesting. There has to be some interesting hook, either in your idea or in you. Most reporters are not going to do days of research to find the companies - they will just go for the low hanging fruit. They will think of the companies…

Maybe I lack imagination or maybe A/B testing is dull, but I can't get to understand what a "hook" can be. Would you have any imaginary example for me? Do you mean something like 'mine was a small business, but when I used VWO my sales increased by 20% and finally I could afford a new server to expand the business'? Well there are such case studies available on the site. What sort of hook are you talking about here?

I think your "hook" could be that you are a small (one-person ?) operation based in India, competing with much larger competitors (as far as I can tell from the website, sorry if I'm mistaken). Instead of downplaying it, maybe you could stress this angle of the story. It's risky though, maybe your customers expect to work with a larger company. Still the media might like this side of the story.

Re: Meet 30 Cool Young Entrepreneurs

#24

Post by lkozma »

axod wrote: post #12
galois wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is getting featured on such a list a bad thing? Why do you think these people had to pander to journalists to make this list? They were just doing their own thing. There's so much thinly-veiled jealously in this thread, which, sadly, is exactly what I expected.

It's not jealousy, I think it's great the companies were featured. It's always cool to get your photo/product mentioned somewhere :) Interesting to note that 1/3rd of the people featured were Women. Higher than I'd imagined. I think it could be a bad thing if you make decisions in order to get on such a list, if you're spending time trying to get on such lists rather than doing what you think is best for the business…

Another excuse they gave was that the founder wrote them emails on Sunday. As if emails could not be read anytime later.

Re: Meet 30 Cool Young Entrepreneurs

#25

Post by evansolomon »

axod wrote: post #21
evansolomon wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are likely correct that it's unlikely any of these companies' futures will change appreciably because of this coverage. However, PR can definitely make a real difference in a business--see Aaron Patzer's thoughts on this (no particular source, but he talks about it a lot). To take your airline example, Virgin America invested a ton in PR when they launched. Also, I think writing off successful PR (even in this pa…

>> "I don't think there's anything particularly human interest-y about Posterous, or syncing cell phone data to computers." The human interest bit is that "These are all 'young' people (under 30 or something)". If it was just a list of "hot new startups" it wouldn't have that same angle.

That doesn't make sense in the context of maxklein's comment. He said that the same people get covered over and over because they have a better human interest angle. If the human interest piece were being <30 years old, that would only work once/year when Inc does this feature.

Re: Meet 30 Cool Young Entrepreneurs

#26

Post by axod »

paraschopra wrote: post #20
axod wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The question is though, is getting featured in such a list a good thing. Does it lead to good things? Perhaps I'm just a bitter "old" person (over 30), but I'm not convinced it matters that much. IMHO The Visual Website Optimizer guy should concentrate on providing value and cool stuff for customers rather than pandering to journalists fashion tastes. If he's providing real value, it's fairly simple to start paying f…

I think press does something that advertising can never do: providing social proof. Advertising gets you eyeballs; press gets you eyeball + proof (that a startup is worth knowing more about). But, yes I agree that pandering to a journalist's taste isn't a great idea. But that's not because I think it is against my philosophies (or such), rather it takes so much time to figure out what works for him/her. As I commente…

Surely the proof is "This advertising provided a positive ROI"? :/

Or are we talking companies without business models here?...

Re: Meet 30 Cool Young Entrepreneurs

#27

Post by brianbreslin »

This made me sad. I'm 27 and still haven't made a multi-million $ business. at least i've got 2 years to hit the list, i guess.

any press like this is good press for these startups/entrepreneurs. I was recently featured in the local paper here for 20 under 40, and got a lot of good feedback, and built up my local rep that way.

Re: Meet 30 Cool Young Entrepreneurs

#28

Post by maxklein »

paraschopra wrote: post #18
maxklein wrote: post #4

This article made me realise - no matter how much money you are making or how cool your company is - to get featured in such big magazines, your idea has to be simple and it has to be interesting. There has to be some interesting hook, either in your idea or in you. Most reporters are not going to do days of research to find the companies - they will just go for the low hanging fruit. They will think of the companies…

Maybe I lack imagination or maybe A/B testing is dull, but I can't get to understand what a "hook" can be. Would you have any imaginary example for me? Do you mean something like 'mine was a small business, but when I used VWO my sales increased by 20% and finally I could afford a new server to expand the business'? Well there are such case studies available on the site. What sort of hook are you talking about here?

The more interesting a hook is, the more dangerous it is for the company. Let me give you some samples of hooks:

Slumdog Millionare Hook: "I'm a pennilless indian guy who has taken over the market from american companies." They will call you when they are writing articles comparing india to U.S.

Deformation Hook: "I have only one arm, one eye, in a wheelchair, can't read". But I still managed to make this company.

Location Hook: "I live on a mountain in Tibet, but I'm competing successfully with startups living in silicon valley"

Technology Hook: "Look, I applied my technology to these peoples websites without them knowing and it increased 20%. Then they hired me"

College drop-out hook: "I was kicked out of college, failed, lived on the streets as a bum. Then I came back to make this."

Romance hook: "I lost my girlfriend, and decided to A/B test a bunch of profile pictures. I ended up with the best picture, and decided to start a business out of it"

The key is this: Would a tabloid be interested in writing about this? It has to be dumbed down and sensationalist, and most difficult of all, unique, while fitting within a general pattern.

Difficult to do.

Practical advice for your case: You already have your hook. You are the A/B testing guy that nobody wanted to cover because you were not sexy enough. That's why I remembered you. That's why all these other posters remembered you.

But no journalist knows that story. You can package it and sell it. But like I said at the start - it's dangerous. If it seems fake, it will hurt your credibility.

Re: Meet 30 Cool Young Entrepreneurs

#29

Post by axod »

lkozma wrote: post #24
axod wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not jealousy, I think it's great the companies were featured. It's always cool to get your photo/product mentioned somewhere :) Interesting to note that 1/3rd of the people featured were Women. Higher than I'd imagined. I think it could be a bad thing if you make decisions in order to get on such a list, if you're spending time trying to get on such lists rather than doing what you think is best for the business…

Another excuse they gave was that the founder wrote them emails on Sunday. As if emails could not be read anytime later.

Perhaps they get their email split into 140 character chunks and tweeted to them ;)

Re: Meet 30 Cool Young Entrepreneurs

#30

Post by [deleted] »

brianbreslin wrote: post #27

This made me sad. I'm 27 and still haven't made a multi-million $ business. at least i've got 2 years to hit the list, i guess. any press like this is good press for these startups/entrepreneurs. I was recently featured in the local paper here for 20 under 40, and got a lot of good feedback, and built up my local rep that way.

[deleted]
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