I promised that TechCabal would get into the trenches and cover local startups. Now we are taking the first steps behind the frontlines. From next week, startups anywhere in the world will be able to pitch their business and products/features to TechCabal and audience.
I already get lots of pitches, about startups and products. The problem is the way they currently come, they are very difficult to process and it’s difficult to determine which ones are worth the time and effort required to write about them. On average, I get emails from startups which are no more than a one paragraph invitation to download some app without further context that cannot be acquired without hours of aimless googling around, or a lengthy conversation with the startup or product purveyor to get more feature-worthy information.
Instead of ranting about how bad startups are at pitching bloggers in ways that makes it easy to write about them, I decided to go the TechCrunch route and create a pitch form that makes life easier for all the parties concerned. Startups (or anyone for that matter) simply fill it out with information about themselves or their product, and we take it from there.
The form serves a double function. If filled out properly, it should give us enough information to produce at the very least, a basic feature that tells people what the startup/product is about. But it also acts as a filter. People who are too lazy to fill it out have no business bothering us in the first place. And the submissions we do get can quickly be evaluated for blog-worthiness, because not all will be. If someone is doing something that is particularly interesting, we will likely reach out to them to see if there’s an even more interesting narrative to be told there.
Filling the form is no guarantee that a feature will be published. But regardless of the quality of their ideas, I think all startups deserve their day at the races. At best, they will shine and attract the kind of interest they want — downloads, VC and such. At best (again), they’ll get critical and necessary feedback. At worst, nothing will happen. And that’s also feedback.
We hope this method will give us the ability to publish more startup and product features from hereon. Let’s see how it goes.
If you would like to pitch a startup/product that has never been previously featured on TechCabal, fill this form.
If your startup/product already has TechCabal coverage and you want follow up press, fill this form.
As always, feedback is appreciated. Please take a look and tell us what you think.
Photo Credit: Alexandre Moreau | Photography via Compfight cc
