Oct 14
Startup blogging - Do venture capitalists care?
icon1 Healy Jones | icon2 Branding, Execution, Marketing strategies, Startable | icon4 10 14th, 2008| icon3Comments

To Blog or Not To Blog, by PrasadIn an earlier post Prasad Thammineni makes a thesis for why startups should blog. He also asks the question, “Do VCs care if startups have a blog?” As a venture capitalist, I would say, “yes, a startup blog is not a bad idea.”

I will ignore the obvious reasons to blog, such as search engine goodness, brand building, etc. Instead, I’ll focus on why your startup blog matters to a VC.

If you are trying to raise venture capital, a blog isn’t a bad idea because:

  1. A VC might find YOU via your blog. This is true - VCs just don’t sit on their butts and wait for new investments to walk in the door. In fact, some VCs actually know how to use Google… and during our research into your space might we just might stumble across your thoughts and then contact you.  
  2. Thought leadership/PR. If you are a really well known blogger in your space then you will potentially get quoted in press articles and/or asked to speak at events. Since most VCs can read (and a few can even listen) there is a chance that they will be so intrigued by what you’ve said that they reach out to you. Read the rest of this entry »

Aug 19
Stealth startups: To blog or not to blog?
icon1 Prasad Thammineni | icon2 Branding, E Said, Marketing strategies, Recruiting strategies | icon4 08 19th, 2008| icon3Comments

To blog or not to blogShould a startup blog even before they are ready to tell the world about their idea? By blogging will you be giving away your idea? Is there a real benefit to creating a blog and updating it on a regular basis? These are questions I asked myself when we founded Pixily and in the ensuing months when we were in stealth mode.

Reflecting back on these questions, we at Pixily wish we started blogging within the first couple of months of founding Pixily. It would have helped us in a number of ways including acquiring customers, being perceived as an authority in the market and in recruiting employees. In this post, I will cover the benefits and in a following post I will talk about blogging strategies that a stealth mode startup can employ.

Read the rest of this entry »