Hi HN, I'm Paul Hontz (the guy who wrote the article that was linked to) and I'd like to correct some core things that Kapil got wrong.
Kapil's first mistake is that he misses the context of my post and insinuates that I'm always for releasing numbers. That is not the case. The post he linked to was titled "Make your Startup ridiculously easy to write about. Put Together a Great Press Pack". The meat of the article was saying "Sharing numbers with journalists can be a very good way to demonstrate traction and get them interested in you".
It doesn't matter if you have an amazing idea (or product) if no one uses it.
The numbers game works indirectly as well. If I haven't heard of a startup before, but I know a lot of people use it, I'm more inclined to reach out with an interview request.
All that said, with the limited time I've spent with Kapil (in an interview), I believe he's a good guy, he just missed the mark on this post.
Sorry to call you out so publicly. I really like what you're doing with Startup Foundry. I actually think the post overall was great, and as a result of it we put together a set of assets on our press page.
The problem is that most journalists have an interest in sharing how well a startup is doing, because that is inherently interesting information and makes their article better. But in most cases it isn't in the interest of the startup to divulge that information for the reasons I outlined in the article.
Thus, founders who haven't had much experience with press (e.g. me 9 months ago) might make suboptimal decisions in the face of pressure coming from journalists. Some give honest numbers. Some lie. I'm just advocating not giving any numbers at all.
I think the negative responses are trying to tell you what you've missed: If, 9 months ago, you had no serious press or startup experience, you have no idea what the startup should do "in most cases". At best, you have a not-yet-validated idea of what your own startup should do. At worst, you have a mistake you'll reflect upon later.
Kapil's first mistake is that he misses the context of my post and insinuates that I'm always for releasing numbers. That is not the case. The post he linked to was titled "Make your Startup ridiculously easy to write about. Put Together a Great Press Pack". The meat of the article was saying "Sharing numbers with journalists can be a very good way to demonstrate traction and get them interested in you".
It doesn't matter if you have an amazing idea (or product) if no one uses it.
The numbers game works indirectly as well. If I haven't heard of a startup before, but I know a lot of people use it, I'm more inclined to reach out with an interview request.
All that said, with the limited time I've spent with Kapil (in an interview), I believe he's a good guy, he just missed the mark on this post.