{"id":466333,"date":"2022-06-21T22:07:03","date_gmt":"2022-06-21T19:07:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/how-to-pitch-your-startup-to-an-ai-journalist\/"},"modified":"2022-06-21T22:07:03","modified_gmt":"2022-06-21T19:07:03","slug":"how-to-pitch-your-startup-to-an-ai-journalist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/how-to-pitch-your-startup-to-an-ai-journalist\/","title":{"rendered":"#How to pitch your startup to an AI journalist"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_85 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a37a4d724006\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a37a4d724006\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/how-to-pitch-your-startup-to-an-ai-journalist\/#%E2%80%9CHow_to_pitch_your_startup_to_an_AI_journalist%E2%80%9D\" >&#8220;How to pitch your startup to an AI journalist&#8221;<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-2' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/how-to-pitch-your-startup-to-an-ai-journalist\/#A_day_in_the_life\" >A day in the life<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/how-to-pitch-your-startup-to-an-ai-journalist\/#Make_it_stop\" >Make it stop<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/how-to-pitch-your-startup-to-an-ai-journalist\/#Greetings_humanoids\" >Greetings, humanoids<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/how-to-pitch-your-startup-to-an-ai-journalist\/#Im_not_a_VC\" >I\u2019m not a VC<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-6\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/how-to-pitch-your-startup-to-an-ai-journalist\/#Know_who_youre_pitching\" >Know who you\u2019re pitching<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-7\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/how-to-pitch-your-startup-to-an-ai-journalist\/#Dont_BS_a_BS-er\" >Don\u2019t BS a BS-er<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h1><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"%E2%80%9CHow_to_pitch_your_startup_to_an_AI_journalist%E2%80%9D\"><\/span>&#8220;How to pitch your startup to an AI journalist&#8221;<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<div id=\"article-main-content\">\n                            You\u2019ve brought your team together, built a product you believe in, and spent countless hours massaging your message in accelerators, meetups, and VC pitches. Now you need to tell the world about your hard work. It\u2019s time to start pitching AI journalists. I don\u2019t envy you.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"A_day_in_the_life\"><\/span>A day in the life<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>I just saw your recent marketing email about your AI startup called (company name). And I think you\u2019d be the perfect person to read this article, (person\u2019s name)!<\/p>\n<p>Here at Neural, we\u2019ve invented a new <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/technology\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"4\" title=\"Technology\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">technology<\/a> that will revolutionize everything!\u00a0Can I go ahead and schedule you for a 45-minute call with a C-suite executive who doesn\u2019t specialize in the topic?\u00a0Is today good for you? Why aren\u2019t you responding? Let\u2019s go ahead and hop on a call so we can discuss why you should hop on a call with us. No? Fine. This is the last time I\u2019ll mention it. Your loss.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Make_it_stop\"><\/span>Make it stop<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<div class=\"inarticle-wrapper neural channel-cta hs-embed-tnw\">\n<div id=\"hs-embed-tnw\" class=\"channel-cta-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"channel-cta-img\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads.tnw\/uploads\/neural-newsletter_header-1.gif\"\/><\/div>\n<p><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thenextweb.com\/news\/src=\" https:=\"\"\/><\/noscript><\/p>\n<div class=\"channel-cta-input\">\n<h2 class=\"channel-cta-title\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Greetings_humanoids\"><\/span>Greetings, humanoids<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"channel-cta-tagline\">Subscribe to our <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">news<\/a>letter now for a weekly recap of our favorite AI stories in your inbox.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The above paragraphs demonstrate how most of the emails I receive from AI startups read. They\u2019re usually pointless, almost always a bit desperate, and at least half of them contain unforced errors.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m an AI journalist and the editor here at Neural, TNW\u2019s futurism and AI vertical. I usually receive somewhere between 25-50 pitches a day, the vast majority of which are from AI startups. And most of them are bad.<\/p>\n<p>I try not to let a cr<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>y pitch throw me off of a good idea. If you\u2019re repping a startup that, for example, uses AI to find homes for orphaned puppies, I\u2019m not going to let marketing hyperbole or a poor pitch stand in the way of a good story.<\/p>\n<p>And I\u2019m not here to eat your lunch over little mistakes such as spelling my name wrong (which happens about 10% of the time, despite the fact it\u2019s literally in my email address). I don\u2019t mash the \u2018delete\u2019 key when someone forgets to fill in the blanks properly on their form mail. Pobody\u2019s nerfect, right?<\/p>\n<p>No, the problems I\u2019m talking about go much deeper than just an \u201coops, I missed that,\u201d here and there.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Im_not_a_VC\"><\/span>I\u2019m not a VC<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>The vast majority of pitches I get from AI startups are funding announcements. There are numerous outlets and journalists out there covering startup funding and securing funds is a pretty big deal for a startup.<\/p>\n<p>But I don\u2019t really care. And in this particular context that\u2019s a <i>you<\/i><span> problem. You wouldn\u2019t pitch the editor of Scientific American a fictional slice of life story about baseball. Some stories just don\u2019t make sense for some outlets.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>That\u2019s not the only problem, however. Selling a VC on your startup involves an entirely different methodology than pitching a journo.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>VCs want to be convinced of something you can\u2019t possibly know (how successful your business will be in the future). Journalists typically just want to know which facts about your business are the most interesting. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>That\u2019s why it makes sense to talk about projections, market research, and what your competitors are doing when you\u2019re trying to secure backing. For journalists who don\u2019t specifically cover startups and funding, however, your business plan might not be that useful. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Instead, I\u2019d recommend tossing out your VC pitch deck and getting into the headspace of a writer.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Imagine your startup is a book and you\u2019re trying to write the blurb on the back cover. Are you going to fill the entire space with statistics about how important your book is, how much you\u2019re being paid to write it, and how well the experts predict it will do? <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The tried-and-true formula is to describe the contents of the book and explain what a reader can hope to get out of reading it. <\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Know_who_youre_pitching\"><\/span><span>Know who you\u2019re pitching<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span>You might be pitching 500 journalists at a time. It would be impossible for you to research each one \u2014 even the most prestigious professional agencies can\u2019t get it right every time. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>But you should definitely have a list of specific outlets you\u2019d most like to be covered by. And you can increase your chances of being covered by any given outlet significantly by aligning your pitch with its\u00a0work. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Here at Neural, for example, we cover \u201chuman-centric AI advances and futurism.\u201d Your best bet for securing coverage here is to keep that in mind.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>It\u2019s also important to remember that there\u2019s a difference between pitching AI to a mainstream journalist and one who specifically covers AI\/ML.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Anyone who\u2019s been covering AI for a significant amount of time, for example, has heard every possible hyperbolic joke about AI taking over that you can imagine. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>I\u2019m far more likely to open an email if the first-sentence preview tells me what the company is doing than I am if it\u2019s just something about how \u201cWe all know that <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/watch-movies-tv-seriess\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"8\" title=\"Watch Movies &amp; TV Series\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">movies<\/a> like the Matrix aren\u2019t real, but what if you could actually be friends with the Terminator?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>And, for the same reason, it\u2019s almost always a bad idea to start an email with \u201cI really enjoyed your article on artificial intelligence!\u201d Not only is it usually obvious that you haven\u2019t actually read our work, but about one in five emails I receive start with some variation of that line \u2014 using it ensures yours won\u2019t stand out from the crowd. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The best thing you can do is be honest about what your company is doing, how it\u2019s going to do it, and why it matters. <\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Dont_BS_a_BS-er\"><\/span><span>Don\u2019t BS a BS-er <\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span>Most AI journalists don\u2019t care how deeply you believe the innovations you\u2019re engineering will synergize your client\u2019s upward potential.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>And those of us who are good at our jobs can tell the difference between super-<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/sciencee\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"5\" title=\"Science\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">science<\/a>y-sounding bullshit and something that shows actual innovation. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>At least once or twice a day I stop reading a pitch halfway through out of sheer frustration. If I\u2019ve just read 350 words and I still don\u2019t have the slightest clue what I\u2019m being pitched, that\u2019s probably a bad sign. Get to the point.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The best practice I can recommend here is to make sure the person sending the emails knows exactly what they\u2019re talking about.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>And when you\u2019re pitching AI journalists, that means being able to explain the most basic concepts surrounding your company\u2019s use of AI. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>That almost never happens. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>I\u2019m literally asking for a simple explanation. Something like: \u201cour company uses reinforcement learning and prediction algorithms to parse historical data on parking violations,\u201d or \u201cwe build algorithms that interpret sensor data for waste management facilities.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>What I usually get is something more along the lines of \u201cthese days we all know that AI can write poetry. But that won\u2019t help you on a hot New York day when you\u2019re stuck in traffic! Meet Peter the Parking Buddy, your personal robot friend,\u201d or \u201cour problem-solving technology gives entire cities the power of the human brain.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p>Those last two are useless to me. They contain no real information and, worse, they just blend in with all the other emails I get that also contain no useful at-a-glance information as I\u2019m scrolling my inbox.<\/p>\n<p>As a journalist, I know that the headline of this article will do more to get people to read it than the nearly 1,300 words that follow it. As the person sending a journalist an email, you should know that the subject line and preview sentences (usually the first one or two sentences in the body of your email) are the main deciding factor in how much attention your pitch gets relative to others.<\/p>\n<p><span>Again, this advice is specific to journalists who specialize in covering AI. When it comes to the mainstream <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">media<\/a> all bets are off. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>I can\u2019t guarantee following these tips will get you the coverage you deserve from AI journalists. But making it easier for us to understand what\u2019s actually interesting about your company is probably a good place to start.\u00a0<\/span>\n                        <\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more like this article, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/technology\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Technology category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/thenextweb.com\/news\/how-pitch-your-startup-to-an-ai-journalist\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;How to pitch your startup to an AI journalist&#8221; You\u2019ve brought your team together, built a product you believe in, and spent countless hours massaging your message in accelerators, meetups, and VC pitches. Now you need to tell the world about your hard work. It\u2019s time to start pitching AI journalists. I don\u2019t envy you&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":466334,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/img-cdn.tnwcdn.com\/image\/neural?filter_last=1&fit=1280,640&url=https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/06\/galaxywhiteboard.jpg&signature=d99c7d3f5a9cfbeca7e9f3c9ae5c2f5b","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-466333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=466333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/466334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}