What can startups from Europe do to get more media coverage in USA? | Hacker News Reader

What can startups from Europe do to get more media coverage in USA?

5 pointsarielcamus5 comments

Hi everyone,

I'm feeling downhearted after seeing (several times) that it is very difficult for European companies (with a budget not so great) to obtain coverage of U.S. media (blogs, newspapers, magazines ...)

Of course it is much easier when you are there or if you have a great budget to spend on ads and PR, but... how can be possible that a product that people love in other countries doesn't attract attention of the media on USA?

After releasing the new version of our product, Tourist Eye (http://www.touristeye.com), we have made the impossible to contact with sites like Mashable, Techcrunch or The Next Web, but we only arouse interest of European media (Techcrunch Europe has written about us twice).

People from here has written incredible post about the new version of Tourist Eye. What could we do to awake the interest of the american media? does that means our product is not so good as we thought? (well... I think this always happen hehe, but check yourself).

Thanks for your comments and sorry for the sad tone of my post. I'm usually a very happy person... but I need some answers today to sleep peacefully.

If you cannot just forget it. Tech media is not going to get you a lot of valuable traffic any ways. It's nice to get that extra coverage but it's overrated. Unless of course your goal is to raise capital based on hype in the industry. If not don't waste any time on it. Get some users.

Do people really love it in other countries? Is it users or media in other countries? What are your numbers if it's not a secret? If you do not have a lot of users nor do you have exciting technology nor do you have exciting investors why would anyone cover it?

At it's current state it's somewhat useless, the UI is very unintuitive too. You also seem to make some assumptions about how people explore new places that are far from the truth. Your main and only useful functionality is making those trip plans together with whoever is going to travel with you. There are two problems here. Most people do not really plan trips that way. Most people that travel together do not really need to communicate through a website like that.

In my mind I see no mainstream appeal yet it looks like you have to get really big until you can start making any money.

What is your vision there? What do you think you're helping people with that they couldn't do before?

I don't want to be rude and I can see you spent some time doing that site but I truly don't get it. Maybe I'm missing something.

Move to the Valley, get valley investors. Do deals with American companies, focus your product on the USA more. Try attracting/optimising for American search traffic/users more. Aim to get Americans using your site to find, research, and comment on their travel abroad. America is a test bed for the world and THE BEST at building, then exporting brands. Why make a hard job harder? The above may seem hard, crazy to you even, but the alternative option seems harder and crazier to me.

On a seperate note friend, pick your chin up! I like your site and idea.

First off I wanted to say that you have a great site, and is very easy to use, nice work! It has always been though to get media attention overseas (atleast for me). But why not build your empire in Europe first and get satisfied customers there? As the growth graph starts flattening out you can move on to the US. If it becomes a success in the EU it is easier to expand to the US (already lots of EU press, happy customers etc.). Worked for Spotify.

Well... we don't have the money Spotify had, but that's another problem. The main inconvenience trying to reach Europe first is that our business model requires a minimum number of users (let's say 200k) and it is much easier to reach that cap if we have global coverage than if we are just in Europe with a very limited budget.

It's very difficult for anyone to get into the media, so don't think it's Anti-European feeling. To minimise anything European about your offer, emphasise that you're worldly than Europe-centric.

That said, you seem to try to appeal to mainstream early tech media. What about personal traveller blogs? Ask American travellers where they get their information from. Go from there.

Talk to your potential customers.

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