Last night The Work Crowd and a plethora of other startups, scale-ups and business people met at WeWork’s beautiful co-working space in Moorgate for an evening with Mike Butcher; Editor at Large of Tech Crunch, to hear his story and top tips on how to get your startup’s story out there! Mike is unabashedly honest and outspoken.

As a start-up ourselves, we understand going through that ‘startup grind’ - we all want to get ‘our story’ out there. But how do we pitch it, when the likes of Mike are reported to be bombarded with around 300-400 emails a day, on top of pitches through Facebook, WeChat and even Twitter.

Although we all might ask ‘how does anyone pitch with 140 characters’?

Here are 10 top tips we gleaned from Mike:

1. Don’t pitch on twitter for a start. Asking him to ‘like’ your start-up will only send him bonkers!

2. Don’t ‘press release like a corporate’ when you are still a startup.

3. Think in terms of ‘news’ and not as traditional ‘PR’ and remember ‘news’ is ‘new’. If you can align your story with what is current and topical in the news it will give your story some context. Here at The Work Crowd we use Google Zeistgeist to provide info on key trends.

4. Stand out in some way. Ask ‘what’s my purple cow?’

5. Avoid ‘the world’s greatest’ at all costs, pretending you’re more than you are will only result in your press release ending up in the bin.

6. Articulate your personal story. Your product may not yet be ‘the worlds greatest’ but do you have a genuinely interesting and newsworthy personal story that led you to build your start-up?

7. Be clear and to the point. You need to explain what your product is and what it does succinctly

8. Know your journalist. A personal relationship with your journalist helps. If you don’t have an in, research what they write about and ensure your pitch is relevant.

9. Timing. Getting your timing right is key. Again consider what is newsworthy, the time of the year and what else is currently topical, and how your story fits within this.

10. Get a recommendation. Journalists don’t have time to do ‘due diligence on you’. This is why investment from a major player or VC who has done so always helps, and is newsworthy in its own right.

If you’d like some support in getting your story out there then The Work Crowd can help. Through our trusted network of Marketing, Communications and PR professionals we can connect you to a perfectly matched freelancer who can fine-tune your story and make sure it goes to the right journalists at the right time.

Register now or get in touch with the team on 0207 632 8815