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Michael Arrington’s Dreams of a Blog for True Startups

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Re: Michael Arrington’s Dreams of a Blog for True Startups

#21

Post by rdl »

nikcub wrote: post #18

We were going to setup a 'minor league' (Michael kept referring to it as that internally, and it started long before this talk) blog that simply listed every new startup launch. That ended up becoming Crunchbase. A whole team were hired to enter the data and keep it up to date, and new startups are still go into Crunchbase, just the output is not very good. There was going to be a feed of all new added companies in C…

I actually really like Crunchbase, more so than anything else TC-related. It's really useful to have a quick way to see what investors have invested in something, or what kind of portfolio an angel has.

Re: Michael Arrington’s Dreams of a Blog for True Startups

#22

Post by thaumaturgy »

nikcub wrote: post #18

We were going to setup a 'minor league' (Michael kept referring to it as that internally, and it started long before this talk) blog that simply listed every new startup launch. That ended up becoming Crunchbase. A whole team were hired to enter the data and keep it up to date, and new startups are still go into Crunchbase, just the output is not very good. There was going to be a feed of all new added companies in C…

I have an extremely unpopular point of view on this, because, unlike the most vocal of HN, I believe there are some things that can't have a price tag attached to them. But:

> The prob is that as a tech blog you can't ignore Apple, Google etc.

Yes, you can, dammit. If you mean, "as a tech blog you can't ignore Apple, Google, etc. and still make tons of money and eventually sell out to a media empire", then OK, we have some common ground. I'll go along with that.

But for all of the hundreds of thousands of readers you somehow amass by following the same stories that everyone else follows, there are -- admittedly a much smaller number of -- readers like me who are starving for something that isn't like everything else that's already out there.

I don't care what Apple or Google or Verizon is doing, and I especially don't care that you're covering it versus anyone else. It'll show up in my numerous news feeds. It'll show up on HN. It'll show up on Reddit. It'll show up in Google News. Or someone will ask me about it at some point during the day.

What's valuable to me -- and, I think, enough other people -- is getting the information that other people aren't getting. My clients rely on me to keep an eye on the new and the up-and-coming, and it's getting harder and harder for me to gather that kind of information, because there are diminishing reliable sources for it. You guys and Gizmodo and everyone else all compete for page views on the same silly topics and it's not helping anyone.

I'll agree that you probably won't get to drive a fancy car by running a business without compromising principles, but let's not kid ourselves that we can't run businesses without selling out. Hell, that's probably pretty much the only reason that anybody reads anythign written on 37Signals anymore -- because they're constantly reminding everyone that they haven't sold out, and they're successful. (Some of them even get to drive nice cars.)

And for that matter, it would be lovely if, for a change, I'd get to see someone treat the matter of startups like it wasn't a glamorous Silicon Valleywood lifestyle. Y'know, like a little bit of attention towards all those countless shmucks out there that are building products, taking care of customers, making money, and not dressing like rock stars or scheduling interviews every week.

Re: Michael Arrington’s Dreams of a Blog for True Startups

#23

Post by nikcub »

thaumaturgy wrote: post #22
nikcub wrote: post #18

We were going to setup a 'minor league' (Michael kept referring to it as that internally, and it started long before this talk) blog that simply listed every new startup launch. That ended up becoming Crunchbase. A whole team were hired to enter the data and keep it up to date, and new startups are still go into Crunchbase, just the output is not very good. There was going to be a feed of all new added companies in C…

I have an extremely unpopular point of view on this, because, unlike the most vocal of HN, I believe there are some things that can't have a price tag attached to them. But: > The prob is that as a tech blog you can't ignore Apple, Google etc. Yes, you can, dammit. If you mean, "as a tech blog you can't ignore Apple, Google, etc. and still make tons of money and eventually sell out to a media empire", then OK, we hav…

Actually I should have clarified, I didn't mean that it is impossible to ignore the big stories, more that it is difficult to.

Totally agree that it should be possible, but there is a temptation when you start getting press releases etc. to pump the easy stories out.

Re: Michael Arrington’s Dreams of a Blog for True Startups

#24

Post by g0atbutt »

asanwal wrote: post #7

Arrington says that writing about startups would not be the best business decision, and he is probably right - less people interested in startups than Apple, Facebook, etc as well as a reduced # of advertisers. How would a "startup-only blog" pay the bills? The Startup Foundry guys - would love to hear your thoughts.

Paul Hontz here (aka g0atbutt), founder of the startup foundry. The short answer is I don't know...yet. I believe TSF will turn into a profitable business (and based on the investment offers I've received, other people do to). I want TSF to ooze value from every article,video, and pic. After that's taken care of, I believe the perfect revenue model will present itself. Until then we will keep pushing forward.

Re: Michael Arrington’s Dreams of a Blog for True Startups

#25

Post by matthias »

arn wrote: post #11
lifefundr wrote: post #3

Funny you should mention this...The Startup Foundry is doing exactly that. A blog focused only on startups. Check it out, we have gained a lot of traction and have a relatively large following for being so new (about two weeks). http://thestartupfoundry.com

So... and this is a serious question. Let's say you cover the next Twitter or Facebook before they become the next Twitter or Facebook. Once they explode in popularity, are you going to stop writing about them? Even though those articles are getting the most traffic on the site? And tons of speciality sites start appearing just about Twitter and Facebook. And you even know people from Twitter and Facebook since you p…

A very good question. Will they be really able to resist "Poxxer, who we broke the news on in 2011 here and here" ...pfft always hate that start to a blog post.

If they really would drop startups that made it big they could make it a feature. Instead of a deadpool, they can add startups to a bigpool, and tease the major sites with it: "we followed them then, you follow them now"

Re: Michael Arrington’s Dreams of a Blog for True Startups

#26

Post by nl »

This is a great theory, but the problem is that the startup world (especially consumer-focused, silicon valley startups) is so closely tied to the bigger companies (Google, Facebook etc) that ignoring what they do means you are ignoring things that directly affects the other companies you write about.

It would be like the Wall St Journal ignoring US politics because it isn't financial news.

Re: Michael Arrington’s Dreams of a Blog for True Startups

#28

Post by fredoliveira »

nhangen wrote: post #17
dasil003 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing is that they are focusing on what matters to most people and that's exactly the problem.

Are they? Seems to me that they exist to feed the trolls.

Sadly I believe you'll come to agree that the majority of mis-informed people who read a generalist tech blog like Techcrunch could be considered trolls by the normally informed people who read HN. TC does serve its purpose well - it just saddens me that the blog's purpose and mine as a reader are not aligned.

(disclaimer: I worked with techcrunch for a few years, starting in 05)

Re: Michael Arrington’s Dreams of a Blog for True Startups

#29

Post by slouch »

asanwal wrote: post #7

Arrington says that writing about startups would not be the best business decision, and he is probably right - less people interested in startups than Apple, Facebook, etc as well as a reduced # of advertisers. How would a "startup-only blog" pay the bills? The Startup Foundry guys - would love to hear your thoughts.

just a few quick ideas:

sell tickets to conferences through affiliate programs

allow users to create profiles with a job status field, and collect bounty when referring them to hiring companies

collect sponsorships like mixergy, TWiST, etc

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