For those that don't care about the technical blurb and just want the eye candy, here's a link to the demo: http://lab.simurai.com/css/stars/
593 karma · joined April 3, 2007
Oakland, CA
This is just someone middlemaning an affiliate program - something that's really old hat in the ecommerce world.
With enough time in a realistic aerodynamic model + cockpit setup, on a modern aircraft (that has a high degree of automation already), in favorable weather conditions and a long // wide enough runway I think it's probable you could fly the bird to a safe landing.
Also, I know "FAA certification" is an oft-touted feature of XP, but it's not certified as a simulator, only as a "flight training device" and at the level it's certified the bar is pretty low.
If you're looking to get sim time for an instrument rating, it's helpful but it's not as impressive as it sounds. XP's certification level is more about, "if the joystick is unplugged, pause the sim" than accurate aerodynamic modeling or flight model completeness.
Non-techie adults seem to be proficient after <5 min of explaining basic operations and I liken the intuitiveness of its interface to that of an elevator - once you've got the basic concept you're good to go.
I don't think the current iPad is itself a revolution, but I do think it's the first step.
Other than your competition not having you as the designer, or appealing to the tiny budget crowd (though, several did look similarly priced) - how would you stand above the existing options?
Grocery delivery. Not a big fan of Safeway stores but their delivery is awesome. I get overwhelmed in grocery stores, buy things I don't really need, forget to buy others. Grocery shopping at home makes it very easy to compare your items and review your basket before finalizing your purchase. Works really well if you work at home and can schedule their 4hr delivery windows (cheaper).
Legal pads. Great for taking notes, sketching ideas, exploring ideas - lots of startupy tasks. They're high contrast and longer than traditional notepads. I know moleskins are generally the startupper standard, but give the legal pad a try one day.
Phonetag (http://www.phonetag.com/) I hated voicemail. Phonetag now handles all my voicemail, emailing me the transcription and MP3 of the audio. Now I can organize, sort and search my voicemail just as I do with the other items in my inbox.
Plus, MailChimp automatically filtered out a lot of valid addresses and I couldn't find any way to override that (for instance admin@site.com would cause an error because of "admin").
And to the parent: If you like your Aeron, you should seriously consider the Embody - lots of time and money went into making it a significant upgrade worthy (imho) of the premium price.
If you're not comfortable being a sysadmin and your webapp doesn't require a dedicated host, then go with a shared host that can easily scale your allocated resources. If you really need something more demanding, look elsewhere for managed hosting.
Second, you should take a hard look at how news-worthy your release is to the general public. If you're announcing a rewrite of your webapp into scala, then you should skip a press release and just target the handful of outlets in your niche. This can be a hard one to do since you may have spent the last 10mo tirelessly devoted to feature x and it's all you and everyone at your company talk about. Strive to regain focus and take a critical look at how exciting the mass media is going to find your announcement.
I've never just used a wire service and expected results. If you are a small startup and are really announcing something that meets the criteria of the paragraph above you'll probably land a few hits - small blogs, regional print, maybe a trade pub. Wire services should only be a small part of your strategy for announcing a new release.
The direct outreach is the most important for real results. Hopefully you've been building a list of media contacts that communicate relevant information about your industry, if not start now. If you haven't already, sign up for HARO (http://helpareporter.com) and look for reporters who are actually looking to write about things your company does//makes//gives away.
On the day you release your update, I would send an email individually to those people on your list. Write them a short, personal message explaining what you've announced and why it's interesting. Add the text of your press release below your email and make sure to include ample ways for them to contact you (cellphone, aim, etc) if they're interested in any followup.
As for writing a press release: very few PR people will understand what you're doing as well as you. On the other hand, those people spend all day interfacing with the press you're after, so they have an idea of how to effectively communicate with them. I would suggest the best writer on your team takes a stab at writing the press release. Then pass it around for folks peer-review it (friends, girlfriends, english lit majors, whatever). Don't be afraid to cut down the verbage. Don't over-inflate your accomplishment(s). Don't use geeky terms.
One thing I've had great success with is teaming up with a college student who wants to get into PR. It's a great opportunity to cut their teeth on something real, and for you to have someone else obsess about the wording in the release while you manage the 500-or-so pre-release emergencies that tend to crop up.
Lastly, you should also take a look at marketwire. I've had experience w/ most of the wires you mention and mw was my fav for tech.
Emeryville has a couple neat pockets, but those areas are in high demand and command a higher price. Berkeley can be especially great for the fresh-out-of-college type, but it's expensive. SF is generally expensive & overrated to live in.
I've never lived in the south bay, but from my experience it's somewhat its own world and not as inter-connected as SF & the East Bay are.
Essentially: commuting from Oakland to SF can be quicker than commuting from one end of SF to another. It's much cheaper, and I've found it to be more accepting of the self-employeed.
Great (safe + cool) Oakland neighborhoods: Temescal, Rockridge, Piedmont Ave, Lakeshore, Lake Merritt, Uptown, Old Town, and Jack London//produce & waterfront.
In my experience, bringing on a PR intern was exponentially better than hiring a firm. The interns are thrilled to have the opportunity to work on a real project, and they'll spend hours digging, searching, reaching out and just trying different things. Your PR firm is going to do the bare minimum to keep you on as a client for the next month.
Of course, if you have tens of thousands/mo to retain a top-tier PR firm, things will obviously change, but a 5-10k is not going to cover that.