Andrew, how about, Should all the cool kids, who have 100,000+ followers/readers (guy kawasaki, louis grey) randomly choose some relatively unknown start up and give them an exposure boost just for the hell of it? What do they have to lose if they promote an up and coming app or site with no expectation of being compensated? Most start-ups need promo as bad as they need cash. I am talking about a real promo, something beyond just a tech crunch or mashable mention. Sort of like Oprah, but in the digital space. Hmmm maybe YOU should do some interviews of someone who has yet to achieve success, every now and then.... I wish I could give you a suggestion of who might---oh, I can! Jeff Wurtz of lymabean.com

Thanks for the suggestion. The problem I have with interviewing startups is that they're full of sh*t. They talk up their product like it's the next Google.

But what I want to get to is the the honest parts of their stories. I want to hear how they're up nights worrying that they'll go out of business.

I want to hear that one of their motivations is that couldn't get laid in high school and business is their way to finally be someone in this world. And they won't take their eyes off that dream for even a second.

Or something like that. But I'm not a good enough interviewer to draw that out of them. Yet.

You must be talking to the wrong startups, then. We've never claimed to be making the next Google. I didn't get laid much in high school, but I quickly made up for lost time afterwards. I already am someone in this world by virtue of existing, so that's covered too.

You seem to want all startups to be depressed and self-loathing. Those stories might be hard to come by since they're two qualities that most entrepreneurs simply do not have, at least not consistently.

You're right.

I meant that I wanted more openness, not self-loathing.

Your problem is Observer Effect: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observer_effect_(physics)

You're trying to get startups to tell you how much life sucks when all they want is the free publicity. Put yourself in their shoes, and be a little less condescending perhaps?

If you can't get that stick out of your ass, then interview startup founders that have already made it, they're usually much happier to talk about what a wild ride it was.

- Arg. I must not have said it right. I didn't mean that entrepreneurs think life sucks. I think we're the most optimistic people out there.

- You're right about the observer effect. I worry about it all the time. That's why I keep asking for feedback.

- Aditya, what I meant in that last comment is that I'm looking for the kind of openness + optimism that you showed here: http://aditya.sublucid.com/2007/11/

Ah, Fair enough.

I was just reacting to The problem I have with interviewing startups is that they're full of sh-t.

But, like I said, opennness is tricky when you're trying to get publicity and the wheels are falling off, right? No one would want to buy from a company that doesn't have enough cash to feed the founders... if they knew that was the case.

This is one of the reasons Venture Voice works, though, much easier to talk about stuff in hindsight, but I hope you can find more startups to profile on your show.

Yeah. Openness is tricky.

I think Founder's At Work is such a good book because it wasn't written after the entrepreneurs' moved on from the projects they founded.

Guys, guys.. You need a workshop on basic PR strategies... As a former VP of a tech PR firm, I would be glad to explain the basics:

1) To get any serious media coverage you need to be newsworthy,

2) What is newsworthy? Any person, company or event that fits into a large economical, social or political picture can be considered newsworthy.

3)Best way to learn and practice being newsworthy is to read the Wall Street Journal (There are other pubs, but if you have only enough time to read one, make it WSJ)

4) Don't just read an article, but read and answer 3 questions. a) What is the trend(big picture) that this article describes? b) How does my company fits into this trend? c) Where can I find statistics that support my point?

4) Once you see a great fit for yourself, write to the author of that article an e-mail. Most of the WSJ reporters are easy to reach. If you do the 3) practice right, sooner or later, you will be included in those WSJ stories. Just think, companies pay $10,000 and up in monthly retainers to PR firms to get their names in WSJ.

5) Similar strategy applies to getting coverage from Guy Kawasaki & other top tech bloggers.

a) join Twitter, follow Kawasaki http://twitter.com/guykawasaki on Twitter b) listen what he is talking about c) join the conversation, d) if your comments(twits) are intelligent, he & others will notice & answer, re-twit your comments. And that is your surest way to get coverage from Kawasaki.

6)One important point to remember.The media(Kawasaki included) always want to post a)educational b) entertaining content.

Give them something new(educate them), be it an idea, a point of view, personal observation & a joke, tie your current work into it for promo benefit. Keep it short and simple. (Twitter is a good way to train yourself in brevity)

P.S. I am here because I a fan of Paul Graham's ideas. Paul, if I can be of any help in your endeavors, you can reach me via my Twitter http://twitter.com/mylifeandart

A lot of people who didn't and have never got mashable/techcrunch/rww mentions didn't get the coverage they deserved.

For example I have been trying to tell people that we now support facebook stream API in FriendBinder and since this is only about a week since facebook released it, it should be semi-interesting, but no one seems interested.

P.S. liked the show, watched it on Friday, live.

Rythie one the things that bothers me is that the "cool kids" can add a stupid little feature to their products and get a ton of coverage in blogs and mainstream media.

But anyone who isn't in the "in crowd" can't get heard.

Yeah that bothers me too. Though I suspect if I was one of those "cool kids" it would bother me less ;-)

As an aside, dailybooth is really a unique idea, it's in this round of ycombinator. I see it has a picture-twitter that suits vloggers (iJustine is on there for example http://dailybooth.com/ijustine )

Andrew,

How about letting the people on here vote for what startup you should talk about each week?

Collectively as a group this bunch is going to be way ahead of the mainstream press as to what's hot.

Saw both shows this weekend and they were strangely compelling.

I should have posted this sooner. Your idea is great, but I didn't leave people enough time to vote.