Here’s a video of Guy Kawasaki in an interview with Mike Arrington of TechCrunch.
The salient question that Mike answers is, ’How do I get my company in TechCrunch?‘ The short story is:
The ‘standard answer’ is to send an email to editor@techcrunch.com and take your chances. Thirty pitches come in per day this way.
The most effective way is to get a referral from a venture capitalist or someone ‘known’ who can speak on your behalf. Ten per come per day this way. Thirty plus ten equals forty, and he runs four stories per day, so you might think that ten percent make it. However, many of his stories are internally generated (followups, reports on what big companies do, etc.), so the actual percentage is much less.
The key is how good the company is, not the ‘slickness’ of the pitch. For example, an unpolished pitch for a great company will get through. Also, a great pitch for a lousy company won’t. Basically, you should assume that the bull-shiitake detector is always on.
Speaking of bull shiitake, specifically don’t use descriptions such as ‘revolutionary,’ ‘Web 2.0,’ ‘huge,’ ‘change the way you’ll use the Internet,’ and ‘disruptive.’ This is what Mike calls ‘cheap adjectives,’ and they are kisses of death in Michael’s eyes.
To describe what you do, you should provide a tangible frame of reference instead of using the usual bull shiitake. For example, one pitch that worked is 'YouTube for PowerPoint.' Many entrepreneurs are loath to mention other products and prefer cheap adjectives. This is a mistake.
Finally, only the first two or three sentences count. If you don’t capture him that quick, you’re hosed.
In short, you should approach TechCrunch as you would a venture capitalist except that TechCrunch doesn’t write checks, but it can get you in front of 250,000 or so people.
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