31–39 of 39 posts
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Well is this part of that 30 under 30 thing they do? There's nothing wrong with focusing on a particular demographic.
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Lebron James' childhood friend, and head of his marketing firm, essentially ruined his image - “His brand is [bleep] now,” one high-level NBA official said late Thursday. “He’s destroyed everything.”
Life is great when you're riding coattails.
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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. Lo…
This is a horribly edited article. Almost every 3-sentence summary includes some typographic or grammatical error. Some interesting companies though. Glad to know I'll still be considered a "young" entrepreneur for a couple more years. :)
As for the comments here about how we pick the list and finding good hooks and all of that, I guess I would simply say that we look each year to create a list with a variety of entrepreneurs who are doing creative things, building interesting companies, and challenging the status quo in their industries. Celebrated start-ups such as Foursquare and Posterous were on our radar from the get-go, but we were equally interested in writing about less showy companies such as the e-mail marketer iContact and the fabric retailer CityCraft. I think the result is a fairly unpredictable list; some people are very familiar with some of the companies, but I doubt that anybody is familiar with every company (SuperJam is pretty great, don't you think?)
Finally, for those of you who think young people are not particularly interesting, I'd recommend our regular "How I Did It" feature, or the section on our site devoted to serial entrepreneurs: http://www.inc.com/serial-entrepreneurs
Best, Mike Hofman Editor, Inc.com mhofman [at] inc.com
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.
I found excellence to be too much work, and now aim for adequacy.
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…
Its really kind of simple to be on this list. You just need to apply. Every year they ask for submissions to be included on the list. PR companies will send in their clients names or people will send in their own names. You really want press? First - and this is obviously simplified a little - live in NYC, SF, LA or some major city. Way easier if you live in NYC or SF because that is where all the reporters for big publications in the tech space are based. Then hit up some networking events, have a little personality, and try to sell a story. A story is something as simple as I have been working on this for three years, and it will change the world to my mom is dying and I am doing this for her. Then hustle, hustle, hustle. Present at everything you can. Meet everyone. Tell everyone what your doing. Find reporters, meet reporters friends, if that is really your goal you can make it happen. Cold call reporters. Send in your article. Get on HARO and respond to requests. The Press needs you bad, they need you more than you need them. They HAVE to tell fun and interesting stories. Make your story awesome.
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…
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…
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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?...
This is advertising.