i stumbled upon guy kawasaki’s blog post "The Top Ten Reasons Why PR Doesn’t Work". he asked Margie Zable Fisher who runs theprsite.com why so many start-ups are "burned" by their experience with PR firms.

i think Margie’s 10 reasons mostly miss the point.

in my previous startup i have been "burned" by PR firms. worked with small, mid-size and very large firm on the same project.

i think that from a tech startup perspective there are 2 main issues when working with PR firms, and why most startups will be "burned".

1. it’s the story, stupid. in most cases the size of the PR firm, and the type of relationships they have does not matter. what matters most is whether the company has a story to tell. where most PR firms fail their clients is on this basic point.

   no good story, no ink.

   when there is no good story than the PR firm will tell you about their "relationship building efforts", the slow gradual process of PR, and other excuses for making you pay retainer fees.

2. PR firms take away rather than add credibility. it’s a different media world, the Internet has made it much wider and accessible. PR person picking the phone and calling is relevant only for main stream media, and in today’s world it is rare that they break out a story. the stories first gather momentum in blogs, then the mainstream media calls you.

   having your PR firm approach a blogger is probably the best way to make sure you’re not going to get coverage.

i think that start-ups should hire a PR consultant that will help in building the strategy, and share experiences. that should be a quick engagement (no retainer), at the end of it the startup should handle the PR itself using in-house resources.

much cheaper and much more effective.

p.s.
small advice for Margie regarding her website.
it really begs for a new design.
kill the pop-up.

i usually find it hard to read "business" books. i tried several times, but i find it hard to stay engaged with most of them.

made an exception this time and i am reading Founders at Work by Jessica Livingston. a collection of interviews with founders of various startups about the early days. figured i could learn a thing or two.

so far i went through craigslist, paypal, tivo, reasarch in motion, tripadvisor, firefox, flickr, blogger, webtv and hotornot.

most of the interviews are with the more "techy" founder, so there are a lot of stories about non-stop coding, nights without sleep, cold pizza, etc. reminds me more of my days in odigo (my previous start-up where i did some of the early coding). this time i am only using writing in excel, word and PPT.. i still find lots of bugs, and i still create most of these bugs when i am writing in questionable states of consciousness… so i guess not much has changed.

most of these startups became successful by doing something completely different from what their original idea was. which is probably a good testament to the fact that the success of a company is more dependent on the team than on the strength of the idea.

another important ingredient that relates to the previous point is ‘persistence’. being relentless. constantly making changes and adjustments to find a way to succeed.

just found this quote in an email i received today. could not agree more.

"Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will
not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius
will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not;
the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination
alone are omnipotent." – Calvin Coolidge

i am spending a good part of this week in a conference in half moon bay, ca (amazing scenery, crappy weather).

the sessions are pretty good, but a big reason for people (me included) to come to such events is networking. i don’t think i am too good at it, but i am getting better over the years.

anyway. i believe that i had just witnessed the bottom in terms of desperate attempt to engage someone in a conversation. it was in the restrooms…

the target was finishing taking a leak at the urinal when this guy approaches him saying something like "i really liked what you said about…" and reaches for a handshake. the target answered "let me wash my hands first. i think it will be best for both of us"..

i seriously doubt that their conversation will result in anything beyond this blog post

every start-up is fighting to keep costs to a minimum. here’s how we’re doing it:

office space:

    in new york we have friends that gave us a room at their office.
    in israel people are working either from home or at tom/roee’s place..

travel:

    mobissimo, priceline, and redeeming lots of miles..

phone:

    try to use skype, jajah as much as possible

conf calls:

    freeconferencecall.com

microsoft office:

    trying to move to open-source alternatives (like neooffice)

salaries:

    everyone agrees to a reduced salary for the seed stage..

every time i open our executive summary or powerpoint slides i find my self rewriting them. the issue is i am not sure i am making them better..

i once asked a painter how does she know when a painting is finished. she said that she doesn’t really, she just stops at a certain point. the issue with these documents is that our thinking is constantly evolving, so i don’t see how i would ever stop making changes.

i should keep old versions, so looking back i’ll be able to see the evolution, and decide how genius or stupid we were.