Startups Stack Exchange Archive

Releasing a .org Project

We’re a team of three programmers who are about to release a lost pet database for North America in our beta-testing region of Vancouver. Any tips?

Specifically what I need is contacting media and driving interest in the project. To help you answering, here are a list of points you should probably known about our project and us:

  1. We’ve got two graphics artists on our team
  2. We’ve got one/two writers on our team
  3. We’re better with Twitter than Google+ and better with Google+ than Facebook. Though we can post on the last two networks, it may be more difficult to sustain that
  4. All our team members are in their early teens
  5. Our project is completely not-for-profit but is unregistered. It’s a .org and does not run ads.
  6. We plan to beta test in Vancouver for three months, then move on to either all of British Columbia, Canada or North America
  7. We have our own email server so official looking email address are not a problem
  8. We do not have a phone but we can make calls through Google Hangouts. We do not have a phone number.
  9. Our school allows us to use their address for mail
  10. We have two contacts in the local media. One of them is a reporter for a city newspaper, the other is a producer on a radio show. Of the two, we know the reporter more.
  11. Our project is solely a website but we plan to release an app for iOS in the coming weeks and an Android app in the new year.
  12. We have no contacts in the technology industries and our emails to local pet shelters have been ignored.

If you have any suggestions or tips for raising media interest and finding users, please answer.

Thanks in advance!

Answer 7970

First off:

our emails to local pet shelters have been ignored

Did you follow-up and maybe phone them to find out if that’s the case and why if it is? If often takes more than one email to get someone’s attention. And something like that might exist already.

A few tips on cold emailing here as an aside:

https://startups.stackexchange.com/questions/7301/how-to-send-an-email-to-thousands-of-potential-customers-and-customize-its-conte/7313#7313

Be considerate and don’t be too pushy. Especially with journalists. Look up how to pitch a journalist (and how to not pitch them) before moving forward.

Secondly, expand and reach out to your future audience. As one who lost my cat last year, lost pet databases were of no interest to me until I was actively looking for my cat. Had I noticed your site on a cat caring tip website, however, I’d have at least taken note enough to remember. Assuming so, I’d have used it and highlighted it to the vets and shelters we got in touch with. Methinks try to locate websites that (not lost) pet owners might visit, and come prepared with how-to’s and such related to “what to do when you lose your pet” types of content that they can post directly on their own site.

Answer 7969

I believe that your website should raise interest with success stories. If a pet has been returned to his owner, ask him whether he agrees to be part of an article. Then let pet magazines write a story about it. A nice picture of the owner with his cute pet telling everyone how happy he is to have his pet back will be the best and cheapest advertisement you can get.

The difficult part will be to get the first few successes.

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