Someone was asking me recently about the technology blog interest in startups and high tech companies, and the almost exclusive focus on consumer-facing Internet services and consumer electronics. Rarely do you see coverage from the technology blogs on software firms, biotechnology, hardware, or semiconductors.
The reason for this, of course, is that — unless there is a large exit or particularly notable investment — it’s much easier for writers and editors to focus on things they use, can understand, or they have a deep interest in. That’s why (I believe) you see so much more attention to companies like Facebook, or the latest Web 2.0 startup than you ever would see for a company developing non-consumer facing hardware, enterprise computing software, or semiconductors. Frankly, with the exception of consumer hardware, few people–including technology writers–understand or are interested in the latest enterprise software trends, semiconductor technologies, or biotechnology advances. In fact, I’ve found — with a few exceptions — that the vast majority of reporters, editors, and writers are liberal arts graduates with little or no technology background (which is why they are reporters, editors, and writers, rather than engineers or scientists). So it makes sense that they’d be more interested in something they can use as a consumer, rather than trying to decode the importance (and meaning) of your e-discovery software, clockless timing circuits, semiconductor floor planning software, enterprise MRP suite, or whatever else you might be working on.
I think that might be why, for example, a technology rich area like Orange County gets lots let attention nationally than, say, Santa Monica. Orange County has many large technology firms, like Broadcom, Emulex, Epicor, Jazz Semiconductor, Kingston Technology, Mindspeed, Qlogic, Quest Software (not to mention countless medical device firms like Intralase, etc.) — but, very, very few consumer facing Internet firms. But, you get a very consumer facing, readily understandable web site like MySpace, and you get lots and lots of coverage.
Of course, I think this is the same thing you see in Silicon Valley; there are many electronics and semiconductors firms, who employ a very substantial amount of the workforce in Silicon Valley, yet you’ll see more attention to the small Palo Alto startups with the latest “cool” Web 2.0 web site who only have a handful of developers.
So, what do you do if you’re not a consumer facing startup and hoping someone might care you exist?
- Relate how your product or service impacts the world as a whole - ie, why should we care, personally, what you are creating?
- Avoid pitching writers with industry specific buzzwords and highly technical details - whether your device runs at 500Hz or 600Hz, the throughput and bandwidth, etc. - most of that is gobbledygook.
- Focus on the people, track record, and financial - human interest is bigger than technical interest, in most cases.
- Realize you’ll have to do more explaining - unless you are talking to someone who regularly covers your competitors and industry, expect to have to explain more about what you do and your industry.
