00:00now we have cat and with Craig later to
00:04talk about PR for content PR and content
00:07for growth thanks thank you Jeff hi
00:12everyone I'm cat mini Alec I'm a partner
00:14at Y Combinator and during my time at YC
00:17I've helped hundreds of companies with
00:19their launches with their pitches with
00:22their initial interactions with press
00:23I'm and I'm gonna be joined by Craig
00:25cannon who creates a lot of the content
00:27for YC and we're going to be giving you
00:30a framework for thinking about marketing
00:32content marketing and press as an early
00:35stage founder so Before we jump in let's
00:38define some terms when we talk about
00:40content we're talking about anything
00:42that you create and distribute on your
00:44own channels to attract a specific
00:47audience or user so that means anything
00:48you make for your blog YouTube podcasts
00:52anything that you create and distribute
00:53yourself when when we talk about PR or
00:57press were referring to an early stage
01:00startup pitching an independent
01:02third-party publication so that's news
01:05blogs anything that's external to your
01:09channels so as a founder it's one of
01:12your primary job is to tell the story of
01:15your startup you'll need to tell that
01:17story to investors to press to users to
01:20potential employees and you'll need to
01:23tell that story throughout the entire
01:25lifetime of your company so it's best to
01:26start practicing early so you will need
01:30to tell it clearly and succinctly
01:31because the goal is to tell it in a way
01:34where in other people it makes it easy
01:37for other people to repeat that story
01:39for you and help you spread the word
01:41that's how anything becomes viral so
01:44making good content lets you shape that
01:47story and put it out into the world
01:48yourself and then pitching it to press
01:51helps you put that story in front of a
01:53potentially much larger audience so the
01:56combination of the two can be really
01:58powerful but making good content and
02:01setting up a press practice is a lot of
02:03work so you have to decide and hopefully
02:06I'll help you make that go through that
02:08decision tree whether it's worth doing
02:11at the stage where you're at right now
02:14so we will cover we will cover when and
02:20why to start thinking about doing
02:21content marketing how to think about
02:24content like a product and how to
02:26measure it how to DIY your own PR and
02:29then we'll open it up to questions and
02:32so a couple things before we get started
02:35first for the majority of you before you
02:38focus too much time and energy getting
02:41the word out about what you're building
02:43make sure that you're making something
02:45people want make sure you're focusing on
02:48the right things and it all comes back
02:51to this writing code and talking to
02:53users no amount of press or content
02:56marketing is going to help you if you
02:58don't have something people want and how
03:01do you know that you have something
03:02people want you talk to your users and
03:04additionally talking to your users will
03:07make it easier for you to create better
03:08content and do press that will target
03:11them and second press is not a scalable
03:14user acquisition strategy it can help
03:17you get some early inbound it can help
03:20get you in front of early adopters but
03:22it's not something you can rely on long
03:24term for growth it's not something you
03:27can really control and it's not even the
03:29best way to talk to your earliest users
03:31which is why we're gonna talk about
03:33content and content marketing first and
03:35I will let Craig kick it off here hey
03:45everyone I'm Craig I work with cat at YC
03:48do the podcasts and all that kind of
03:50stuff all right so I before working at
03:54YC I worked at a place called the onion
03:56we made fake news before it was cool I
04:01didn't I did a Photoshop so like putting
04:04Joe Biden's head on like fat guys body
04:06in front of the White House that kind of
04:08thing oh and then after working at the
04:12onion I co-founded a company and we made
04:15a thing called comedy hack day where
04:17developers and comedians work together
04:18to make funny apps and then we had these
04:21big events Alexus judged a bunch of them
04:23and now I work at YC
04:27so hopefully that's like the least
04:28logical connection of things in this
04:31deck so today I'm going to talk about
04:33content content marketing some people
04:36call it content marketing some people
04:38call it editorial some other people call
04:40it brand publishing some people call it
04:42social content and then some other
04:44people call it a word I don't know but
04:47like Kat said this is just like
04:49basically everything you make so it's
04:52gonna be like your podcast YouTube blog
04:54video social stuff whatever we can get
04:59like more specific and granular about
05:02each of those channels if you want to
05:03talk one-on-one but this is going to be
05:05kind of like broad across-the-board
05:07advice that hopefully you can use so the
05:10number one question I get is when to
05:13start really the thing is just like Kat
05:17said and just like Gustav said last week
05:20about applying growth tactics you really
05:23want to be doing this after you've made
05:24something people want and you're
05:26confident that they're not churning
05:28because if they're churning you're just
05:30wasting a ton of energy and a ton of
05:32money so assuming you've hit that point
05:35you can start thinking about content
05:36marketing a lot of people do this in the
05:38beginning because they can't afford paid
05:40acquisition so the way I think about it
05:45is the content as product hopefully you
05:49can just apply all the learnings from
05:50the delet the lectures earlier on about
05:53product and just throw them right at
05:55content content so when you think about
05:58content is product the only thing you
05:59have to change from like the YC advice
06:02of makes something people want is make
06:04something your customers want you are no
06:07longer bounded by nothing you have this
06:10very clear market that you're going
06:12after and you want to make something
06:13that they're interested in I was talking
06:16with Wade foster from zapier they do a
06:18ton of content marketing it's really
06:20good and they write about it on their
06:22blog you can check it out
06:24oh sweet all right cool thanks man and
06:27what he was saying is that in the early
06:30days what they were doing was making
06:34things that hacker news wanted but it
06:36turns out that hacker news and their
06:38customers was not a 100%
06:40overlap so they were spending all this
06:42energy generating this content to get
06:45people through the door but those
06:46weren't actually the customers that they
06:48were looking for so just keep that in
06:50mind and so now that you've committed to
06:54doing content marketing you're gonna do
06:55this what you need to do is pick a goal
06:57so there are basically two things that
07:00early-stage companies want engagement if
07:03you're if you're social company that's
07:06like you know Instagram whatever that's
07:08like time on site anyone else it's gonna
07:11be conversions there's this third thing
07:13called brand which is kind of this like
07:16vague misty thing about like how people
07:18perceive you you really don't need to
07:21worry about this early on I mean
07:23obviously you don't want to like do evil
07:25things and have people hate you but it's
07:27much harder to kind of comprehend and
07:29work towards so engagement or
07:32conversions and now that you're going
07:36you want to just set up analytics Suhail
07:39talked about this but really it's like
07:41super basic stuff the first thing I
07:44would do is set up mix panel not Google
07:46Analytics but something similar to mix
07:48panel will get the job done you're just
07:50tracking where people are coming in what
07:52they're doing what they're clicking on
07:54how long they're on their site all that
07:56stuff and then the next thing you want
07:58to do is install a Facebook pixel again
08:02this might not be super valuable to you
08:04in the beginning but a lot of YC
08:06companies launch without a Facebook
08:08pixel and what this is gonna do is
08:10capture who's hitting your site who's
08:13logged into Facebook so then you can
08:15later remark it at them and this is
08:17gonna be much cheaper than any other
08:19kind of Facebook audience that you can
08:21create so you want to do this because if
08:23you launch on Hacker News and have like
08:2510,000 people hit your site and you
08:27don't have it installed you won't know
08:28who it is afterward all right so the
08:32next most common question I get is what
08:34platform this one's actually not that
08:37difficult you just want to find your
08:40customers so you just talk to them be
08:42like where do you hang out do you hang
08:44out on reddit Instagram whatever you can
08:46look at your referred data but this is
08:48really all you have to do because your
08:51objective is to find people like them
08:54and and then once you're hanging out
08:56there long enough you're gonna be able
08:58to figure out what does well they're so
09:00for instance like essays like Paul
09:02Graham's essays they do well in hacker
09:04news makeup tutorials do well on YouTube
09:07vlogging all that kind of stuff because
09:10you're gonna be wanna be you're gonna
09:11want to make the stuff that does well on
09:13those platforms this is for two reasons
09:17distribution is really hard even for
09:19huge companies a lot of companies would
09:22just rely on paid acquisitions you know
09:23like boosted posts on Facebook that kind
09:26of thing and you have no money and so
09:29assuming these two things are true you
09:31have to figure out where your customers
09:33are and you have to figure out what does
09:34well they're two examples so scent bird
09:39they're YC company they do a perfume and
09:42like makeup subscription box they do
09:45Instagram influencer marketing you can
09:48read all about this online they've
09:49blogged about it a bunch
09:51another example is YC so YC although PG
09:55and Jessica Robert and Trevor might not
09:57say this has been doing like content
09:58marketing since the very beginning even
10:01before so with Paul's essays and then
10:04hacker news was built and then those
10:06essays do really well and that's the
10:08exact kind of audience that would create
10:09a startup they just kind of like rinse
10:12and repeat alright so now that you found
10:17out where you're gonna go in like
10:19generally what you want to be making I
10:22think um not enough people spend enough
10:26time brainstorming it sounds kind of
10:28silly but most content because people
10:32don't spend enough time brainstorming
10:34ends up being derivative of all like the
10:36average of all the other stuff people
10:37see so it doesn't stand out and it looks
10:41like all the other stuff because you've
10:42got the ideas from the other people
10:44whose blogs are reading or your
10:46competitors whatever and my example of
10:50this is going back to the onion so the
10:54onions been around for like thirty
10:55thirty years maybe more at this point
10:57and they've had hundreds of people work
11:00there this is how the onion picks
11:03headlines and I think it's particularly
11:05important because it's allowed them to
11:07consistently good stuff with a lot of
11:09different people over a long period of
11:11time so the way the onion picks
11:13headlines is they have say 10 10 writers
11:16each writer is responsible for 10 to 15
11:19headlines a week and then they email
11:22those headlines to an editor the editor
11:24removes everyone's name and then they
11:27just pick their favorite as a group and
11:29so the objective is to have like only 5
11:33to 10 percent roughly survive and so
11:35what this is really good at is first of
11:38all it removes biases for like who's the
11:40CEO who's the new guy or whatever or
11:42girl whatever and it also gets you past
11:46the point of the like those first 3
11:49ideas which are kind of the same from
11:52everyone this is like a huge problem and
11:54if you go on like just any average
11:56company blog they're all writing about
11:58the same stuff so it's a huge mistake
12:01I think the onion got it right there's a
12:03This American Life episode about it if
12:05you want to learn more and that's how
12:08you get this this is one of my favorite
12:11ever is before my time but it's so good
12:17oh man all right can we just stay here
12:22for the rest of its no just kidding
12:25all right so now you want to make
12:28something good again this is like dumb
12:30stuff that should be self-evident but I
12:32don't I don't know it doesn't seem to be
12:34based on the internet what does that
12:38so that means dedicating real time so to
12:41break down what I talked about before
12:42maybe that's like an hour a week or
12:45every two weeks brainstorming and then
12:48it could take you a whole day it could
12:50take you two days it could take you
12:51three days to write a blog post and you
12:54know maybe in the early days you can't
12:55do that but you should let that amount
12:57of time dictate how often you can put
13:00stuff out rather than go the other way
13:02and be like I have to get a thing
13:04out every week and then you write a post
13:05in ten minutes and it's garbage and so
13:08you're just wasting your time
13:09you also want to dedicate good people
13:12doesn't have to say that you're hiring
13:14bad people but what it's saying is that
13:16you want to dedicate the people who have
13:17actual domain expertise and can lend
13:21wresting to the rest of the world you
13:24know that means usually like a
13:25co-founder lead developer that kind of
13:28thing just two other little things from
13:32the media world you need to be prepared
13:34to edit all the time like just really be
13:37precise about your language because
13:38people don't spend that much time on
13:40your site or your video or whatever and
13:42you need to be prepared to kill a lot of
13:44your work and that really sucks but you
13:48have to do it you know like I said at
13:50the onion like most headlines by
13:53definition would not make it through I
13:55think for a company that's really hard
13:57to do but you know you can easily kill
13:5925% of your stuff and so this is I want
14:06to illustrate why this is important most
14:09people think that they're competing with
14:10people that make the same stuff that
14:12they make that is 100% not true you are
14:15competing with this Elon Musk smoking
14:18weed on Joe Rogan's podcast I haven't
14:21checked the views but I think it's
14:22probably like 10 million now and this is
14:24like a 2 or 3 hour podcast this is the
14:28internet you're competing with this guy
14:29you're competing with porn you're
14:31competing with everything else on the
14:33internet and once you like really let
14:35that sink into your brain you will have
14:38the motivation to make something that's
14:40both valuable and engaging man that was
14:44a good podcast - all right so then the
14:48next thing this is the part that's
14:49really hard for me is promotion so
14:52promotion is both incredibly boring and
14:55totally necessary this means like
14:58sharing articles out over and over on
15:00your Twitter feed figuring out new
15:02different creative ways to do it a lot
15:05of people will tell you to make a
15:07version for each platform you can do
15:10this but again you're gonna be
15:12optimizing for one place where your
15:13customers are you know YC it's so like
15:16now like I clip up the podcasts and like
15:18put it on Instagram and that's cool but
15:20like we're still getting way more
15:22podcast downloads than we are getting
15:23like Instagram views and that's just how
15:28not everything's gonna work everywhere
15:30I'm putting this slide in here twice
15:34because if I were watching this talk
15:36this would be the thing that I'd be like
15:37oh yeah man I got it don't worry about
15:39it and then I would skip over it and
15:42then I would have played myself because
15:45I'm dumb and lazy and I would not
15:47promote it enough and ice-t is awesome
15:51all right so just really quickly I'm
15:54gonna rip through a couple examples so
15:57Gustav talk talked about this one last
16:00SEO Airbnb you made a bunch of CD guides
16:03so these are both super useful they get
16:06you on the site you can hit someone with
16:07a face Facebook pixel you can get your
16:10brand in there and then you can convert
16:11like this is such a dream for them
16:14influencer sent bird influencer
16:16marketing if you google just those two
16:20words you'll read a bunch of blog post
16:21about that customer profiles so zapier
16:25who I mentioned earlier they help
16:27non-technical people work with api's by
16:30doing all these integrations for them
16:31what's particularly cool about this is
16:34that they are always finding new and
16:38creative ways to link stuff together the
16:40customers want to talk about themselves
16:41and they do it over text text interviews
16:44are like a total cheat code for young
16:46companies because they require way less
16:49production than video or audio the
16:52internet really likes it for like SEO
16:53for scraping and it makes the person
16:56look really smart we've done some of
16:58these at YC you time over time like the
17:02person wants to promote it more than
17:04they do then when they see themselves in
17:05a video and they feel weird so that's an
17:08easy thing to do industry advice is
17:11another great one so triple bite helps
17:13companies hire engineers intercom is
17:15that little like chat widget you've
17:17probably seen before
17:18desk trainer at intercom writes about
17:20product and content marketing those are
17:23great essays triple bite hard who used
17:26to be at YC writes about hiring
17:28engineers these are all great posts with
17:31the one caveat being that you have to
17:33really know what you're talking about or
17:35this just won't ring true
17:38next thing tools front this is a YC
17:41company they made a website called good
17:44email copy or something like that or
17:47Matilda just like pulled together her
17:49favorite lines from emails and then
17:52tagged things so like onboarding we're
17:55shutting the company down like all kinds
17:58of like fairly templated emails and you
18:01can go on there and check them all out
18:03so if you have like extra engineering
18:05time these can be super effective
18:08community so both hacker news and
18:12product hunt we're kind of like built
18:14out from from YC entities but just
18:18getting good at engaging with your
18:20community on HN in product ton is really
18:23undervalued if you're someone who's like
18:25known as like a good actor on these
18:28sites and like engages with people and
18:30is cool that's worth your time not
18:32saying just like lurk and comment on
18:34everything but you just know how it
18:36works if that's where your customers are
18:39and then the last thing and this is like
18:41not exhaustive at all but these are just
18:43like some examples publishing so stripe
18:46is now making books 37signals Basecamp
18:51they make books too this is super
18:53powerful in terms of like your
18:54influencer status but really really hard
18:57to track so this would be later down
18:59later down the road but it is effective
19:02and because it's hard most people aren't
19:04going to do it so you can really stand
19:05out and that's it so cats going to come
19:09up to talk about press
19:17all right so let's jump back into press
19:21so why as I mentioned it's not a
19:24scalable user acquisition but it can get
19:26you some early adopting users it can
19:28give you you know your investors or
19:31potential employees a heads up that you
19:33exist and it can help with SEO so a lot
19:35of people ask when do when should I
19:39start to thinking about press so ideally
19:41you will have a sense that you're making
19:44something people want as we said so for
19:46most startups it's worth waiting to
19:48pitch until there's a call to action for
19:51your intended audience so is there a
19:53product that they can try or buy or
19:57something they can sign up for so most
19:59companies who go through YC wait until
20:02they have a launched product and some
20:04very early users before they bother
20:06pitching to press there are some
20:09exceptions so there are companies that
20:11do press pre product if there's
20:13something particularly novel about the
20:16or notable about the company this is
20:18especially true if you're working on a
20:19bio company or something in the hard
20:22sciences that will take you a long time
20:24before you get to product and there are
20:27other companies that wait years before
20:28they do press and so one thing to note
20:31is that most media outlets don't cover
20:34very early stage startups anymore so you
20:37shouldn't waste their time with a
20:39non-story um think about what you're
20:41pitching objectively why should they
20:44care about this and why now and so you
20:47know that's one reason why a lot of
20:49startups will the first time they pitch
20:52press will be to announce a fundraising
20:53round because that's timely news and
20:56that's why you see a lot of those
20:58fundraising announcements it's just an
20:59opportunity a timely opportunity to
21:02pitch so so we'll talk about I'll go
21:08through a checklist of things that you
21:10should prepare when you are pitching
21:12press and the mechanics of how to do it
21:14but a first a quick word on PR firms
21:18don't hire them at the stage that you're
21:21at PR firms are way too expensive
21:24typically you have to keep them on a
21:27and you know most companies even through
21:29seed series a they don't have the budget
21:33for that so the thing is that your
21:37relationships that you build now would
21:39press will hopefully similar to
21:41investors last throughout the entire
21:42lifecycle of your company so you want to
21:44do that work early you shouldn't bother
21:48thinking about hiring a firm or someone
21:50in-house until you have more funding and
21:52so much inbound that the founders can't
21:55deal with it themselves and so one thing
21:59that you know PR people so so PR people
22:03you know a lot of people think oh if I
22:05hire someone to do PR they'll magically
22:08think of all the most interesting
22:09stories that I can pitch well that's not
22:12the case the most interesting stories
22:14are going to come from you the founders
22:16you know your company better than anyone
22:19and so what PR firms do have is
22:22connections to reporters but you can
22:24build those yourself and here's how we
22:26think about it we treat PR like business
22:30so like BD or sales which you wouldn't
22:33outsource early in your company's life
22:35you shouldn't outsource pitching to
22:38press in the very early stages of your
22:40company as I said like these are
22:42relationships that you should build now
22:44and we'll hopefully have for years to
22:47and so when you think about you know how
22:51to do this we can talk about what you
22:53need to do to DIY your own PR
22:55essentially so we will walk through that
22:57now so um a couple things that I
23:00recommend any company do is and people
23:04ask me how much time should I be
23:05spending on this so here's some
23:07recommended prep work I think you can
23:09spend at least thirty minutes per week
23:11reading about the news in your industry
23:13keep a list of publications that cover
23:17your space a list of media outlets that
23:19your users read and a list of specific
23:21reporters are interested in your
23:23vertical so if you don't know which
23:26outlets to track or to read talk to your
23:29users and ask them what they read and
23:30what they're interested in then I think
23:33that if you decide you want to try
23:35pitching to press I think about it in
23:39increments of time so you can build a
23:41calendar you can spend half an hour once
23:44a month thinking about what milestones
23:46are coming up that you're gonna hit what
23:47announcements you might have and map
23:49them out so here's an example using a
23:52startup school company in this batch
23:54they're called or B or B is building
23:57flying robots that help retail with
24:00inventory tracking and surveillance so
24:02for example in January assuming you know
24:05they raise a seed fund they might want
24:07to announce their seed fund rated C seed
24:10fundraising with the you know intended
24:12audience of being engineers then in
24:15March for example they may want to pitch
24:17a trend data story a retinue targeted at
24:21that talks about how AI is lifting up
24:24brick-and-mortar retail sales so you
24:27know it's just good to kind of do these
24:28brainstorming exercises similar to what
24:31Craig talked about in the content space
24:32for potential stories that you can pitch
24:34externally to press so once you've
24:38decided you want a pitch a story and the
24:41first thing to do is to define your
24:43goals and your audience that will help
24:46you determine everything else who you
24:47want to pitch you know this exact story
24:51you want to pitch and how to measure its
24:52success and so once you know who your
24:55audience is you have to draft three
24:57things a one-sentence pitch a three to
25:00five sentence pitch and answers to
25:02frequently asked questions so questions
25:05that are frequently asked by reporters
25:06to early stage startups so let's dig
25:09into each one of these things so one
25:12sentence pitch should go over two things
25:15what you're building and who you're
25:17building it for and you should be able
25:20to say this in jargon free terms that
25:22anyone can understand and repeat so here
25:25are a couple examples of startup school
25:28companies who I think had pretty strong
25:29one-sentence pitches coming in so or be
25:32who I mentioned before
25:33flying robots that help businesses
25:35monitor inventory and do surveillance
25:37it's so clear and straightforward that I
25:40remembered it you know just off the top
25:41of my head when I was describing them
25:43earlier you want anyone to be able to do
25:45that for your company the second one is
25:47another startup school company the box
25:49company they're building smart
25:52says for food delivery so you know what
25:55they're building and who they're
25:57building it for for both of these
25:59examples and for probably all of your
26:01companies a one-sentence pitch isn't
26:03going to capture everything that you're
26:05doing but you don't have to communicate
26:08that in the one sentence pitch just make
26:10it really clear and compelling enough
26:13that people follow up with with
26:15questions and you know you want them to
26:17ask you you know questions that will let
26:20you give them more context so next is
26:23the three sentence pitch with a three to
26:26five sentence pitch you can give us that
26:28that context you can give us more of the
26:30story you should talk not only about
26:32what your company does and who the
26:34customer is but why it's better than
26:36what's currently in the market and then
26:38also if there's anything really notable
26:40that the founders or the story or the
26:43market make sure to put that in there so
26:45usually when we are pitching companies
26:48at YC when we are pitching to press
26:50about their launches or fundraising this
26:52is the pitch that we send to reporters
26:54so let's go through two examples for or
26:57B and the Box company so or B is
27:00building flying robots that help
27:02businesses monitor inventory and do
27:04surveillance the robots were designed
27:07with safety in mind and are outfitted
27:09with light weight vision sensors that
27:11let them navigate autonomously alongside
27:13retail or warehouse employees or we can
27:16save employees hours of manual will work
27:19per shift so they can spend more time
27:20doing things that matter like serving
27:22and helping customers the company is
27:24currently in pilot talks with major US
27:26retailers so we covered what they do you
27:30know who they're building it for and why
27:33they're better than what's currently in
27:35the market when I talk to the or B
27:36founders they said you know what makes
27:38us special is that these are very
27:39lightweight and they're very safe so
27:41that they can fly around indoors
27:44you know alongside humans and really
27:45help them you know we also tease the
27:48fact that they are in talks with big
27:50retailers and so that's something that
27:52might pique someone's interest a
27:55reporter's interest second is the box
27:57company they're building smart
27:59eco-friendly boxes for food delivery and
28:01then you can talk a little bit about the
28:03market the food delivery market is on
28:06it's predicted to grow 79% by 2020 and
28:09then you can talk about the problem but
28:12it's still difficult to order food to
28:15order delivery and get the same quality
28:17would get in a restaurant
28:18additionally packaging is often non
28:20recyclable and non compostable which
28:23creates an enormous waste problem so
28:26then you talk about their solution the
28:28box company is solving these issues with
28:30a patented box that improves the entire
28:32delivery process and you could talk a
28:34little bit about the units that they're
28:36stackable easy to assemble they solve
28:38this soggy sloppy food problem and you
28:42know then if you have specific you know
28:45if so say they have a customer they want
28:47to might want to put that in talk a
28:48little bit about their progress but here
28:51again you have a little bit more context
28:53you can show how big of a problem it is
28:55and how they're solving it so now you
28:58have this I think it's best to for you
29:02and your co-founders to draft the
29:05answers to frequently asked questions
29:07that reporters ask so I talked to many
29:11reporters and one of them sent me this
29:12list and while she was at Laura kolodny
29:15while she was at the Wall Street Journal
29:16she said these are the questions that I
29:18asked all earliest age startups and
29:20expect them to know how to answer and so
29:23you know I won't go through every single
29:25one of these now but you can take a
29:27photo of it or reference it later but
29:30these are so it's best to draft really
29:33succinct answers to these and one piece
29:37of advice I have is that it's great to
29:40practice it's great to practice your
29:42succinct answers but I wouldn't over a
29:44hearse because you don't want to sound
29:46like a marketing robot with everything
29:48memorized you don't wanna have these
29:50memorize answers that you use in every
29:52context so what I typically tell
29:54founders to do is have answers to all
29:56those questions and then what I
29:58recommend doing before talking to press
30:00is bullet pointing the three to five
30:03points that you want to make sure to
30:05talk about in an interview and then let
30:06the rest of the answers to questions
30:08sort of flow organically so it's good to
30:11practice but don't over rehearse so
30:16let's talk now about how to pitch to
30:18what the mechanics are now that you've
30:20done this prep work now that you're
30:21ready I will dig into each one of these
30:23so picking your moment the big question
30:26is why now you know TechCrunch back when
30:29they first started covered pretty much
30:31every single company that launched
30:33because they were like you know one
30:35startup every two weeks would launch and
30:37in the early 2000s but now they get tens
30:41if not hundreds of pitches per day so
30:44you have to think about you know what's
30:46your news hook like you know if you have
30:48news like a fundraising round that sort
30:49of makes it easy or if you can show that
30:52you're part of a trend or current news
30:54story that might be you know what makes
30:57it easier for you to get a response I'm
30:59so the example for or B they can say you
31:02know or B we're a flying robot company
31:05and we're giving brick and mortar
31:06retails a fighting chance against Amazon
31:08so everyone's talking about you know
31:09it's all retail against Amazon these
31:12days so if you can plug yourself into a
31:14trend piece like that that make it makes
31:17it easier so another thing to think
31:20about around timing is that if there's a
31:22big news event happening that week don't
31:25pitch your story so if you're you know
31:27reaching out to TechCrunch during
31:30you'd be crazy lucky to get a response
31:33from them or if you're pitching a
31:35reporter who covers Apple don't hit them
31:37up during WWDC like your chances of
31:39getting a response to decrease immensely
31:42and so now after you are picking your
31:46moment you have your news hook you know
31:48what you want to pitch you can pitch
31:49your target target and this is easy
31:51because you think through who is your
31:53audience what are my goals think about
31:57I would stack rank a list of your top
32:01three choices so have you know these are
32:04the three publications that I would most
32:06like to cover my news and be realistic
32:08realistically the New York Times isn't
32:10going to cover a newly-born company and
32:13as much as I would love them to and so I
32:17would you know look at who is actually
32:18covering startups at your stage and in
32:20your vertical and add those as your you
32:23know your first three choices and so
32:29basically I would recommend giving an
32:32exclusive to your first choice so an
32:36exclusive is one you pitch your story to
32:38just one reporter and if they agree to
32:41pick it up you don't give anyone else a
32:43briefing or a heads up until that
32:46reporter you know publishes their story
32:48and a lot of people ask why an exclusive
32:52versus giving you know kind of a lot of
32:54different reporters a heads up on the
32:56news so the reason is a reporter is more
32:59likely to pick up your story and write
33:00it if they get an exclusive if they can
33:03break the break the news if they can get
33:06so I recommend offering that one
33:09publication at exclusive and once you're
33:11a bigger company and more of a household
33:13name or your bigger you know say
33:15fundraising Series A plus news or huge
33:19hires then you can think more about
33:21briefing multiple reporters at once but
33:23early stage for the vast majority of YC
33:26companies in any one pre YC I always
33:28recommend exclusives first and so now
33:31that you know you know who your target
33:33is that you want to offer them an
33:35exclusive how do you get in touch with
33:37that reporter and so the best way to get
33:41in touch with reporters is through warm
33:43introductions just like business
33:45development right the best way to get an
33:46answer from someone is to get a personal
33:48introduction to that person to that
33:50reporter and so cold emailing will get
33:53you maybe if you're lucky a one in ten
33:55response and warm introductions will get
33:58you know at least half the time you'll
34:00get someone to respond to you so you
34:03know what I would do is create that
34:05stack rank list here are the top three
34:07you know choices of reporters you'd want
34:09to reach out to if I were or B for
34:11example I might want to hit up Laura
34:13kolodny at CNBC she covers drones and
34:16flying industrial robots and so you know
34:20she I would then ask my network you know
34:22everyone I know on Facebook any other
34:24founders I know would you be willing to
34:26get does anyone know laura has she
34:28covered anyone in my network and would
34:30you be willing to give me a warm
34:32introduction and so YC founders often
34:34ask each other for introductions to
34:36press and so that's for them the easiest
34:39way and often and so assuming you find
34:42that person to give you an intro
34:43make it as easy as possible for them to
34:47introduce you so I would draft the email
34:49for them you this is what a draft email
34:52might look like they should be no longer
34:55than this anything longer than you know
34:58two short paragraphs a reporter or
35:02anyone really their eyes will glaze over
35:04so I'm draft that warm in you know intro
35:07email for your friend and and you know
35:09hopefully you have a better chance of
35:11getting a response from that reporter
35:13and then finally I would say give it
35:17time I often get requests from founders
35:19saying like oh can you help me out I
35:20need this to be done tomorrow I want to
35:22launch on Wednesday and that just isn't
35:25going to happen so ideally you know work
35:27your way back say you want to announce
35:29something two or three weeks from now
35:31give it at the very least two weeks for
35:33the whole process of warm introductions
35:35and making you know a you know meeting
35:38with that reporter and then having the
35:39piece come out so two weeks is the
35:41absolute minimum time I would give it
35:43and then sort of you know what things
35:46you know what not to do once you're in
35:48touch for the reporter and some of these
35:49sound pretty obvious and I I don't
35:52believe any of you would ever do these
35:53things one is don't lie don't fudge your
35:57numbers don't say you can do things that
35:59you can't you know as we've seen some
36:02you know very public instances in the
36:04press of things like that happening
36:05those stories will always come back and
36:08haunt you I've seen it time and again ii
36:11don't have like you're entitled to a
36:13story so if you get in touch with
36:16reporter feel free to you know follow up
36:18if they kind of go silent follow up once
36:20or twice very politely but don't sort of
36:24you know I've seen some founders you
36:25follow up every single day for weeks and
36:27it just that's crazy
36:29don't do that because then that reporter
36:32will write you off and you won't have
36:33that relationship long term don't
36:36suggest headlines or copy this is the
36:38reporter's job to do and you know they
36:40see it can they can be a I've seen
36:43people get offended by founders
36:45suggesting specific headlines and then
36:48don't ask to see a draft
36:50I've we've worked with a lot of folks
36:52that come from the life sciences and bio
36:55and they're surprised by this one
36:57they're used to peer-reviewed journals
36:59and but the thing is reporters get
37:02incredibly offended they think you're
37:04questioning their journalistic integrity
37:05if you ask to see what they're writing
37:07before they publish it so don't ask to
37:10see a draft I mean there are certain
37:12cases where sometimes they need to
37:14fact-check some things so they'll show
37:15you something ahead of time but let them
37:18make that ask of you and as I mentioned
37:21don't speak like a marketing robot just
37:23you know talk like a human know know
37:26your numbers know the answers to the
37:27questions but don't worry about having
37:30everything super memorized and so if
37:34everything goes well and you know you
37:36have a piece that is published as Craig
37:40says don't be lazy take the time to
37:42promote it you have you know social
37:44media channels promoted on all your own
37:46channels and if you have an email list
37:49of investors or friends you know shoot
37:53them a note saying hey good news we were
37:55in TechCrunch and you I would draft a
37:58tweet for them and when folks trim you
38:00know draft tweets for me to send out and
38:02much more likely to just copy and paste
38:04and you know help them promote it so
38:07promote the story you know don't be
38:10afraid to ask friends and family put it
38:12on all the socials and then Plan B if
38:15they you know if it turns out no one
38:17wants to run your story it's not a big
38:19deal it's not gonna make or break you so
38:22post it on your own channels and put it
38:23through the whole content process you
38:26know I think it's it's a reasonably good
38:29practice to do that and then think about
38:33after you go through this whole process
38:35was it worth it did it help did the
38:38piece that came out in TechCrunch or
38:40Wall Street Journal or Bloomberg
38:41actually help you achieve the goal that
38:43you set for it did you get new users on
38:46your platform did you get potential
38:48investors you know inbound and did it
38:52actually help you achieve what you said
38:54it what you set out to achieve and so
38:57that is the entire process and we'll
39:02just open it up to Q&A if anyone has any
39:04questions Craig you want to come back up
39:09all right if journalists are already
39:13reaching you and you don't find market
39:15they'd never be focus on product at the
39:17moment it should each spend any time in
39:18meeting with them or to just like focus
39:20on the cockpit so the question if if
39:23journalists are proactively reaching out
39:25to you and are interested in writing
39:26about you but you don't have to really
39:28early and don't have product market fit
39:30what can you like should you spend any
39:33time engaging them you know frankly I
39:34you know it can you know it does helped
39:38us have that relationship and if there's
39:40a way you can be helpful you're like
39:42reasonably quickly or like oh you have a
39:43question about this you know vertical or
39:46this industry I'm happy to answer but I
39:49wouldn't then spend a huge amount of
39:52time pitching your story but you say
39:53like I'd love to keep you posted on our
39:55progress and then check in with them
39:57regular regularly or when you have news
39:59but I think it is good to be helpful
40:02early on what are you gonna write about
40:20oh right yeah sorry if you are just
40:23starting out in content marketing you're
40:25debating whether to do a personal blog
40:26or a company blog my question to you
40:29would be are you writing just about
40:30company stuff okay so one thing that's
40:39really effective is doing it like title
40:42of blog by so-and-so
40:44like you see this with a lot of podcasts
40:46it's like whatever the podcast name I
40:49mean like Joe Rogan is like a good
40:51example but that's not a company thing
40:53people connect with other humans and so
40:57you like having that little extra touch
40:59is nice but I would say overall like
41:01you're gonna want it on your own site
41:03for SEO yeah I like I kind of disagree
41:07with people putting stuff on medium and
41:09so early on yeah I've seen it works
41:11really well when you have like a company
41:12blogging stripe has their company blog
41:14but then they have specific authors for
41:16each blog post but and people really
41:18like connecting with that human
41:23how do you feel about working with
41:25influencers who don't necessarily or
41:28don't have a need for your product at
41:30the top like our company is based around
41:32moving so like if influencer is not
41:35currently moving how do you feel about
41:37working with them it's a promotion the
41:39question is how do you feel about
41:41working with influencers who don't need
41:42your product at the time I I haven't
41:45seen cases like that that have worked
41:49out really well especially for earliest
41:50agent I think a big problem is that
41:52influencers often charge you and are
41:54expensive like if you get some huge
41:57influencer who just loves what you're
41:58doing and wants to tweet about you and
42:00that's great but but more often than not
42:02they're gonna charge you and it's not
42:03worth the conversions not going to be
42:06worth it especially if they're just you
42:08know generally talking about you versus
42:09answering a real need for themselves but
42:12but this is totally something you can
42:14test I like but kind of like what Katz
42:16saying like I wouldn't bet the farm on
42:17something like this be like oh man for
42:19$100,000 we can get in on this thing
42:21like I would skip that but I mean like
42:24at scale it ends up working like I heard
42:26Casey Neistat this vlogger is
42:29responsible for an insane amount of
42:31boosted board sales and I'm pretty sure
42:33they don't pay him anything so it does
42:36work I've seen folks I'm often you know
42:38if you know folks with hardware or like
42:40physical product will send you know
42:42samples or demo pieces to press or
42:46influencers and that's sometimes enough
42:50like Casey nice that loves boosted
42:51boards so he sort of organically talks
42:54about it and that's great but but having
42:55to pay those influencers is not usually
43:00with the three to five centons examples
43:03that you for me and company how much it
43:07that is what they're actually doing
43:08today versus what they want to be
43:12growing pork like so we're not buzzing
43:17how do you draw that balance so the
43:20question is with the three to five
43:21sentence example how much of it is
43:23vision for the future and what they you
43:25know hope to do and versus what they're
43:27doing today and so I think it's I think
43:30you can sort of there is a fine line as
43:33you said I think it's possible to
43:34communicate both you know you can say
43:36this is the vision you know and today
43:39they're doing X and so you know four or
43:42be in or B's case I think they have
43:44prototypes they have pieces that you
43:47know can do that theoretically but like
43:48they or at this point when they would be
43:51pitching but you know they can say they
43:54could add a line in there about if there
43:55is a bigger vision for the company that
43:58they hope to achieve you can definitely
44:00drop it in there but I think it's best
44:01for people to know where you're at right
44:06um this is on some Greg I think the
44:09clickbait versus authenticity I'm one so
44:12that example of Elon Musk's is great
44:14because they're my mercy on my smoked
44:16weed but there was really awesome stuff
44:19in their podcast and I was authentic but
44:22how do you we've got a lot of great
44:24content but it's really sort of expert
44:25level and we sort of at that level of
44:29what do we want to do some catchy titles
44:31cuz that's gonna bring in the audience
44:32what's your view on this hash we balance
44:37this yeah because you can't give the
44:39audience II do not have some sort of
44:40headline right so I would say so the
44:44question is like make clickbait you the
44:47assumption is like we have a good
44:48content we're not getting a lot of
44:49traffic we're debating whether like to
44:52title it something straight or give it
44:54some clickbait headline hopefully get
44:56people in right right so I'm generally
44:59not for that the thing that bothers me
45:01more than clickbait headlines are really
45:04shitty stock photos like I think that
45:06that's like a red flag more than
45:09anything on a blog so definitely skip
45:12those this is something you can test but
45:15kind of back to that zapier point like
45:18if you know where your customers are and
45:20like know what they really want you
45:22should be able to title it in a way that
45:24will get them to respond if you're going
45:26for like giant mass appeal you might
45:29have to do that but like I've never I've
45:32never had success doing like clickbait
45:34stuff and in getting like good results
45:37yeah I mean depends on what the product
45:40is that's the objective right like it's
45:42not it's not quick made technically yeah
45:46the question is like should you make a
45:48good headliner shitty headline you
45:50should make a good headline
46:00during the product marketing the early
46:03stage open to the father's publish
46:06content every how often should public
46:10founders publish content during the
46:13phase we are trying to hit product
46:15market fit still before our product
46:18market fit that's tough I mean as you
46:28were saying that it does take time to
46:30create good content so I don't want to
46:32say you should do something every week
46:33because then that's putting you know
46:35that might be unrealistic for a team of
46:38two right but I mean I would say like if
46:42you can make something actually good
46:45every month you're doing great and I
46:48mean I think a lot of it takes companies
46:50a good amount of time to really find
46:52product market fit so you can start
46:54earlier than you know prior to hitting a
46:57product market fit it's uh it's all
47:01relative to also like the amount of
47:03value that you give with the piece so
47:05like a lot of these like decks like the
47:06mary meeker deck that happens once a
47:08year and then tons of people like
47:10millions of people will download this
47:12thing but if you're gonna like just
47:14right you know a four paragraph blog
47:16post you probably have to publish a
47:18little bit more frequently you know I
47:22you don't have right oh yeah so if you
47:31don't have product market fit she did
47:32not write anything I mean it can be
47:35helpful to build your own brand but I
47:36think yeah in general like like I said
47:39in the talk you're just funneling
47:41traffic so the question is if you have a
48:06celebrity that's really gung-ho about
48:08your product and wants to boost and talk
48:09about it what are the potential
48:12downsides Oh like you know like if the
48:16alt right or something decides in what
48:17you know that's happen right so it's
48:19like I mean there are definite downsides
48:23I don't think that it's not something I
48:25would worry too much about I think the
48:28vast majority of companies don't have
48:30this problem I mean it's it's sort of
48:32like but yeah I think he's in general
48:36it's a good problem if you if you have
48:37like people were so excited about what
48:39you're building I mean if in the case of
48:41I think it was New Balance or something
48:43where you know the alt-right was like we
48:44love New Balance you know New Balance
48:46had to come out and say you know you
48:48know we don't endorse you know what when
48:51what they're saying and so I think you
48:53know you have but but this is such an
48:55uncommon problem that that I don't think
48:58you have to worry about it early on and
49:14also like I agree 100% with cat but if
49:19you're getting a celebrity on board just
49:21because they are inflammatory like if
49:23you thought Alex Jones was like the best
49:25representation of your brand and like
49:28you weren't prepared for the show
49:29that was gonna come like that's kind of
49:37series of obsessor just curious I mean
49:41how often should we send updates or
49:43should we send updates technically um
49:54you know for the vast majority no once
49:58sorry oh yes repeating the question
50:01should be how often should you send
50:03updates to reporters about your product
50:05and the progress that you're making so I
50:07would say that they don't generally want
50:10to hear every you know update you have
50:13about your product or you know that kind
50:16of progress if you have news they
50:18certainly want to hear that if there's
50:19something you want announced and even
50:20you know I would give them the chance to
50:22say no that they're not interested it's
50:24it's worth it if you have news reaching
50:26out there are some cases you know that
50:29where you know for example why see at
50:31this point because we've been around a
50:33while you know a lot of reporters ask to
50:35be added to our email list or a press
50:38list and in in those cases you know you
50:40can send out you can send things out
50:43more regularly but I wouldn't sort of
50:44blast reporters every month with with
50:47your company updates let me give you let
51:04hi so what I've learned over the years
51:08is one journalist live on Twitter so
51:11that's the perfect place I mean if
51:14you're building your product you should
51:17look at which journalists which
51:19publication you want to cover you later
51:22and Twitter is the right place for you
51:24to engage with them and you know they're
51:26super responsive it works amazingly well
51:29apart from that there's this tool called
51:32Herald which is helper reporter it's
51:35just that's where journalists send out
51:40if they're writing a story and they need
51:42help and it could be anything from
51:45scene learning to healthcare to anything
51:48and they send out these um emails about
51:52you know what they're looking for so if
51:54that's your passion if you're an expert
51:58in any of any of those things you can
52:01just you don't have to pitch your
52:02product you can just say okay you know
52:04I'm an expert in XYZ this is what I
52:06think about this topic and that reporter
52:08is going to be grateful and you can
52:11build relationships like that so it's
52:15good advice all right thank you thank
52:18you so much and if you have any
52:21questions for us we're just cat k8ttie
52:23at Y Combinator and Craig CRA AIG
52:26Rebecca we're reading this on a video
52:28right now Craig Ojai Combinator com
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