Anything with a human connection is great. For example , my wife and I got our app covered in the NYTimes because the reporter liked this narrative we gave her of a husband-wife team writing code on their honeymoon. Every news outlet including TC mentioned that though that is probably the least important thing about our app :)
I wrote an online payroll system that helps Canadian families through the employee tax issues they run into when they hire help around the house.
I ran into the same problems when we hired a nanny for our kids, and wrote some scripts to help me out. When the nanny left for another family she asked if I could write down how to do it all because the new family had no idea what they were supposed to do.
I realized I had a business on my hands and turned my scripts into a web service.
So if your company started out as a way to scratch an itch, or solve a problem, telling the story of how you solved the problem isn't a bad idea.
You're in education, right? Does what you make help overstressed teachers pressured by budget cuts to educate poor kids? Bam, a story. Tie it into a narrative they want to tell and you're just about done.
Eventually I developed stories like the following, each tuned to a certain category of listener. Here's the one for the journalists:
It's always fun to tell a journalist like you that we enable software developers to review each other’s code because your reaction is always: "Wait a minute, you're seriously telling me they don't do this already?" The idea of editing and review is so embedded in your industry you can't imagine life without it, and you're right! You know better than anyone how another set of eyeballs finds important problems.
Of course two heads are better than one, but developers traditionally work in isolation, mainly because there's a dearth of tools which help teams bridge the social gap of an ocean, integrate with incumbent tools, and are lightweight enough to still be fun and relevant.
That's what we do: Bring the benefits of peer review to software development.
Even if you don't have a personal story you should still be able to construct a nice narrative about how your product can help the end user. I think the important thing is to not just list 20 features and expect the user to be awed by your amazing product. Instead, give a description of situations where there are pain points and explain how your product comes in with just the right feature set and pricing to save the day.
Always offer your worst, most embarrassing moment -- the exact time you and your company were nearest death: the board meeting where your lead investor tried to have you deposed, sending you crying and running into the bathroom where you fall down, smash your head on the toilet bowl and end up in the ER for 19 staples and a CAT scan. The next day, an epiphany struck you, allowing you to patch things up with your big investor and send the company sprinting toward fortune.
A lot of people just talk about the epiphany. Don't forget about the tumultuous board meeting and the concussion in the bathroom. The bad times are as interesting--or moreso--as the good times.
Good stories will be told. Boring ones will go wanting.
Great post, but how do you structure a press package in the first place? Is a great landing page, and a good 'about' page enough, or do you look for something more?
If you've built a good web app, you've already done 90% of this work on your main page. All that information you're trying to get across to potential customers is information that will inform the journalist.
A good about page can fill in some of the rest if you write it well. Your greater mission, team history... whatever's interesting. Write about it here.
A media or press page can do the rest if you decide to go with it. If you've done your work elsewhere, this can be as simple as a preferred contact e-mail and a clean, hi-res logo file (and yes, the transparent PNG is best here). Or, just put this stuff onto your about page for the same effect.
I agree with this in spirit, but it's important to realize that a pitch and a press kit aren't the same thing.
Having these things on-hand is great, and on your site even better (perhaps in a /press or /media URL). However, turning a pitch, especially a cold pitch, into a press kit can be seen as presumptuous and a turn-off to some members of the media.
If anyone would like some pointers about press relations for their startup, you can contact me. My email's in my profile. I left the PR industry after several years to pursue a career in development and know a bit. I'm not a superstar or the world's greatest BSer but I know a thing or two.
The thing about these general press relations articles written by a journalist or media outlet is that it's tailored to them. What works for one may not work for another. (Though to be fair this article does have good general principles!)
(edit: I'm obviously not charging for this, just a friendly offer.)
I run a startup news website. I review press-releases and pitches every day. The basics in this post are solid, but the two most important things in a pitch are
1)exclusivity
2)currency (that is a media term for "the story is relevant and current for right now, it has currency")
Here is my guide to getting a write-up about your startups
http://www.scandinavianstartups.com/article/how-get-write-yo...
I've spent the last few weeks trying to brainstorm the story for my biz and just keep drawing a blank.