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We (unexpectedly) got 60K users in 60 hours - What we learned

patrickambron.me

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Re: We (unexpectedly) got 60K users in 60 hours - What we learned

#5

Post by Jordanian »

"As any startup will tell you, most publications will only feature a startup if given some sort of exclusive. In their eyes, the only reason to cover a startup is if it provides readers with something they can’t get anywhere else."

How do you start this conversation with a publication? How hard is it to simply cold email Mashable and attempt to get an article?

I'm assuming once the relationship is built it's easy to get follow up posts but do you have advice for making that initial connection?

Re: We (unexpectedly) got 60K users in 60 hours - What we learned

#7

Post by patrickambron »

Jordanian wrote: post #5

"As any startup will tell you, most publications will only feature a startup if given some sort of exclusive. In their eyes, the only reason to cover a startup is if it provides readers with something they can’t get anywhere else." How do you start this conversation with a publication? How hard is it to simply cold email Mashable and attempt to get an article? I'm assuming once the relationship is built it's easy to…

When you're pitching a writer for the first time, I've found it's best to keep it short, focus on the story (show them the angle), and make it clear you just aren't blasting a bunch of writers. I usually try something like "Hey I'm the cofounder of BY. We just launched a product that helps people improve their own search results without having to spend thousands of dollars on a reputation firm. For example, my co-founder Pete couldn't get an internship in college because he was being mistaken for drug dealer and couldn't afford 7K to fix it. I read some of your posts on online reputation (link to them) and thought this might be a good fit. Let me know if you're interested--have plenty of details if you want to know more"

And yes, once you establish that relationship it becomes easier to tell them about an upcoming story. Even then, you want to keep it short, and focus on the story for them so the hard work is already done. "Hey, we just released a new feature. We can actually tell you when an employer googles you or finds your profile. For example, say you're interviewing at ad agencies in NYC, you might get a alert that says someone from Ogilvy just Googled your name and found your profile" We're really the only place providing this intelligence, let me know if you want more"

Re: We (unexpectedly) got 60K users in 60 hours - What we learned

#9

Post by patrickambron »

Zenst wrote: post #6

Good things happen to good products. Though Hashable is closing so might see a influx from users migrating from there over the next few weeks.

Thanks. I think focusing on a good product is the most important thing. We do one thing really well: when someone googles your name we help you make sure you have the most relevant things showing up. In terms of Hashable, we aren't a direct replacement, but the type of people interested in networking apps generally like to make sure they look good online :)

Re: We (unexpectedly) got 60K users in 60 hours - What we learned

#10

Post by patrickambron »

pdx wrote: post #8

How are they determining what companies are googling you? Do they attempt to create a top ranked page about you, and then monitor IP addresses visiting it, and match that to some db that maps company to IP address?

@pdx yea you nailed it. Most of our users end building a BrandYourself Profile, which is a simple (but pretty) profile that's really well structured around your name, so it generally ranks on your first page. From there we can use the IP addresses of visitors to determine who they are

We could always tell you when someone found that profile and where they came from (they came from FB, or they came from Google after Googling your name", but recently we started mapping the IP address to organizations. That data is really accesible--you can buy a list from most major hosting companies--but it's not really used for this purpose

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