Jason Baptiste

All that stuff could be getting submitted and just not upvoted, because it is boring.

It's not boring if you want to become very wealthy. For reference, see jasonlbaptiste's "How to become a millionaire in 3 years?" post:

http://jasonlbaptiste.com/startups/how-to-become-a-millionaire-in-three-years/

These bits in particular:

Charge for something- Building a consumer property dependent upon advertising has easily made many millionaires, but it isn’t the surest path. It takes a lot of time and scale, which due to cashflow issues will require large outside investment probably before you are a millionaire. Build something that you can charge for. That’s how business has worked for thousands of years prior to the 1990s.

Make Sure You’re Robbing A Bank- When Willie Sutton was asked why he robbed banks, he said because that’s where the money is (Thanks to edw519 for this phrase). Make sure whatever you’re going after is where the money actually is ie- a customer that will pay you. Consumer markets are tough, especially with web based products. People expect everything to be free. Businesses are usually your best bet.

If you buy into that, then reading about customers (and business customers in particular) is VERY interesting.

Build a good app/site that people want. You won't get coverage if it isn't good or is essentially a clone.

If your app/site is good then here is a good article for you to start with: http://jasonlbaptiste.com/featured-articles/how-i-pitched-techcrunch-and-13-ways-to-get-press-when-you-launch-your-startup/

Remember TechCrunch coverage does not mean that your startup will be successful and if they don't cover you it doesn't mean you won't be successful either. What is important is building a good app/site that people want.

With regards to offering them money etc... NO. Daniel Brusilovsky was fired from TechCrunch over a bribe attempt - http://venturebeat.com/2010/02/05/techcrunch-daniel-brusilovsky/ - and this isn't a route you should be looking to go down. Although, if you are looking for paid reviews of your website/app which does not mean they will be nice about your app and they are also disclosed that they are a paid review - there are several websites that will connect you with bloggers that will do this for you.

Remember the important thing which is building a good app/site that people want and if you do that, not only will you get coverage but you will get users.

Here's how Eric defined MVP:

<< First, a definition: the minimum viable product is that version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort. ...

Second, the definition's use of the words maximum and minimum means it is decidedly not formulaic. It requires judgment to figure out, for any given context, what MVP makes sense.

http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/2009/08/minimum-viable-product-guide.html >>

By that definition, it feels like a video could definitely qualify as an MVP? It allowed them to validate important learnings about customers with the least effort... not so different from an AdWords MVP smoke test:

http://jasonlbaptiste.com/featured-articles/how-to-go-from-idea-to-launching-with-paying-customers-in-8-steps/

In any case, it sounds like Drew programmed enough to create a prototype but not enough for it to have the polish required for a user to be able see that it "work[ed] seamlessly" or "worked just like magic." So in that sense, the video did allow him to exert less effort and still test his customer hypothesis.

One of the things that popped out at me in this announcement is that he's going to be launching this on email, rather than a blog. I know email seems like it's so antiquated and passé, but after listening to Mixergy's interviews with IdealBite and VitalJuice, I'm not so sure. The CPMs for email newsletters seem to be 20-100x what you can get for a blog in the same space, because the customers are so much more engaged. This might not work as well in a tech market, where the audience presumably uses RSS (or maybe not, as Jason already has a sizable list). That said, the reality seems to be that normal people do not use RSS, so you're probably better off starting an email newsletter than a blog.

Some links:

http://jasonlbaptiste.com/commentary/email-newsletters-business/

http://jasonlbaptiste.com/startups/email-newsletters-are-still-a-serious-business/

http://mixergy.com/jen-boulden-ideal-bite-interview/

http://mixergy.com/amanda-freeman-vital-juice-interview/

I read a piece on this recently:
http://jasonlbaptiste.com/featured-articles/how-i-pitched-techcrunch-and-13-ways-to-get-press-when-you-launch-your-startup/

The main gist is that to get journalists/bloggers to write about you, you have tell them a story that they can rewrite and run. I spent years as a PR professional, and unfortunately, this is still how it works. I wouldn't say that bloggers/journalists are lazy, but they get pitched so often it's hard to select a good story for them.

Some other advice: Find out which blogger usually runs stories about Pinterest or social startups. Find out his/her email address, and write a personalized pitch. Keep it short but engaging.

Last tip: you can call Robert Scoble. His phone number is on his website, and apparently he doesn't mind getting pitched over the phone. Be sure to have your story straight, though!

I guess we have to look at the vision for this project:

http://jasonlbaptiste.com/misc/my-next-startup/ (see #6)

which is to become the defacto platform for SaaS application marketing and distribution, including a billing system (partnering with a company in this space like Braintree or Aria Systems might work well?) and [I'm guessing] sharing data, single sign-on across applications (NEC ApplicationsNet does some of this: http://www.applicationsnet.com/)

Congratulations on pursuing this idea, Jason. I've been watching this space eagerly since your excellent discussion and subsequent post on "disruption and my next startup"