I assume this was sort of a typo, but YC doesn't have any particular influence on PR firms. I think you mean influence on the press.
To understand how to do without connections, it's probably helpful to understand what value connections have. The point of connections is authentication. If I recommend a startup to a reporter or an investor, they know I have to tell the truth, because if I start to be a source of bum leads they'll stop listening to me.
The value of authentication is that it makes judging you easier. If you come highly recommended, a reporter or investor will at least talk to you. (The joke is that the YC name can get you rejected by any VC in the valley.) If you don't, they have to judge you for themselves, and that's hard, because they get tons of inbound requests and don't usually have technical backgrounds.
There are two possible solutions: (1) get authentication by some other means than personal recommendations, and (2) get publicity through venues that don't require so much authentication.
The best strategy for (1) is to get lots of users. If your traffic graph (or better still, revenue graph) is going up sharply, reporters and investors will pay attention to you. In effect, users are recommending you.
You may say: how can we get lots of users without publicity? The same way Facebook did: make something so good that users tell one another about it. When you have exponential growth, you can start with a very small seed-- just your friends and friends' friends-- and you'll still win.
A good example of (2) is to talk about your startup on venues like HN, where many readers understand technology well and are capable of judging whether something is good or not without any external seal of approval. Being on HN is not the same kind of traffic boost as TechCrunch, obviously, but it's a start. Literally, sometimes: sometimes TC gets leads here.
Sorry Paul, I definitely meant the press. I think I'm lumping PR in general with press incorrectly. Thanks for clarifying.
Your points on authentication is very interesting. It seems that the press definitely cares about names.
Our feedback from Hackernews is good, but in terms of getting people psyched about it, not so much, I think it's mainly because the target audience is not exactly the best one. The feedback we ARE getting is awesome, technical feedback, and experience driven feedback... but we haven't touched on the users who actually want to USE it. We will probably attack the other communities that are 1) people who love to shop, 2) people who do a ton of research on products. That probably also includes a ton of women in that as well.
Can't forget to build a good app either, so those improvements will come as well. It's hard to know what direction to go in and what to focus on without ample feedback. We have plenty of ideas of what could work, speculation, but validation of these ideas, or even new ideas is what we're fishing for now.
I launched Feedback Army on HN and it did really well. I did it during a slow news day which helped. And the whole idea came from an HN discussion which helped. But I did make the front page of delicious that week. So sometimes it can work.
I assume this was sort of a typo, but YC doesn't have any particular influence on PR firms. I think you mean influence on the press.
To understand how to do without connections, it's probably helpful to understand what value connections have. The point of connections is authentication. If I recommend a startup to a reporter or an investor, they know I have to tell the truth, because if I start to be a source of bum leads they'll stop listening to me.
The value of authentication is that it makes judging you easier. If you come highly recommended, a reporter or investor will at least talk to you. (The joke is that the YC name can get you rejected by any VC in the valley.) If you don't, they have to judge you for themselves, and that's hard, because they get tons of inbound requests and don't usually have technical backgrounds.
There are two possible solutions: (1) get authentication by some other means than personal recommendations, and (2) get publicity through venues that don't require so much authentication.
The best strategy for (1) is to get lots of users. If your traffic graph (or better still, revenue graph) is going up sharply, reporters and investors will pay attention to you. In effect, users are recommending you.
You may say: how can we get lots of users without publicity? The same way Facebook did: make something so good that users tell one another about it. When you have exponential growth, you can start with a very small seed-- just your friends and friends' friends-- and you'll still win.
A good example of (2) is to talk about your startup on venues like HN, where many readers understand technology well and are capable of judging whether something is good or not without any external seal of approval. Being on HN is not the same kind of traffic boost as TechCrunch, obviously, but it's a start. Literally, sometimes: sometimes TC gets leads here.