If there's one thing Calacanis knows how to do, its PR. I don't wanna be mean, but honestly, how else does something like Mahalo get that much funding and coverage?
It is not just PR, it is also the fact that those funding and promoting him like him, and he took the time, effort, and persistence to connect with them.
I have to say, this seems like really good advice, it's in line with most of what I have experienced, except for John Markoff responded to my first email.
But that's stuff that people like Calacanis and Loic Lemeur HAVE TO DO.
They aren't engineers, or designers, so spreading the word on the product, and establishing contacts, it's pretty much the best they can do to help their startup instead of sitting around all day watching others work.
Nonetheless, social skills, or the simple ability to stand out fast, do play as much as big a factor in the success of an endeavour as engineering.
I don't normally agree with a lot of things Jason says, but I am 100% behind him on this one. From day one, I've tried to talk/walk/eat/sleep/breathe the way he describes a CEO should be. Not because of him, but because it seemed like the right thing to do if you're passionate about something.
They say the proof is in the pudding? When we started 8 months ago, I didn't know a single person in this industry or any journalists or anything about how startups worked. When we launched last week, we were on every bigtech blog, BBC, Reuters etc. How? Perserverance and creativity. That's really all it takes, and I'll gladly share all my tips/trials/failures on my blog. Or e-mail me if you have questions.
Calacanis gives good advice. However, many technically-focused founders may find it hard or distracting/distasteful to pursue the hyper-social, big-swagger style he advocates.
So take solace in PG's ViaWeb experience: "Our startup spent its entire marketing budget on PR: at a time when we were assembling our own computers to save money, we were paying a PR firm $16,000 a month. And they were worth it." [1]
Times have changed with blogs and other incremental, low-cash-outlay ways to build buzz. But you can always hire talent to help where you're weak.
Times haven't changed that much for people whose startup is not aimed at the tech-savvy crowd. Ours being primarily sports-related, blogs are simply not where our potential userbase are reading.
