En av de mest hypade nya tjänsterna nu i sommar är iPad-appen Flipboard, mycket tack vare Robert Scobles ihärdiga hyllande. Hur fick de Scoble att älska dem? Genom en välskriven, kort och attraktiv mailpitch. En pitch som var attraktiv pga:

1. den var skickad tidigt, minst en månad före lansering
2. de erbjöd Robert att vara en av få exklusiva betatestare
3. de förklarade inte vad produkten var för något, men de skrev tydligt att det handlade om iPad och social media – två av ämnena Robert nyligen varit mest förälskad i, vilket de också säger att de förstått och därför vill de prata just med honom
4. de inleder inte med, ”vi har en ny produkt”, utan börjar med att förklara storyn bakom att de kontaktar just honom. Och är oerhört positiva med ord som ”enjoyed”, ”that was such fun” och ”inspired”.

Hi Robert,
I’ve read your stories over the years, but I really enjoyed seeing you
emerge from the Apple store with the first iPad a few weeks ago. That was
such fun. Which leads me to the reason for this email. I was inspired by
your iPad enthusiasm and I always enjoy your perspective… So we’re hoping
you’ll take an early look at a new product we’re building. The product is at
the intersection of two things you know intimately – the iPad and social
media. Our very short closed beta testing will start May 7. We’re only
asking a few people on the outside to take a look and we’re hoping you’d be
willing to be one of those people.

We are in downtown Palo Alto, is there any chance we could bring you in
early and show you what we’re building (under NDA until launch)? We are huge
fans and we’d be grateful for your time.

What do you think?
Kindest regards,
Marci

Ett annat exempel är Rule.fm som pitchade Techcrunch med en i mina ögon klassisk startup-story á la ”vi har suttit och jobbat som galningar i ett garage nu i 6 månader, här får du scoopet”. Deras pitchmail innehöll också ett par godbitar, bland annat:

1. de förklarar att de varken har riskkapital i ryggen eller någon PR-byrå som hjälper till, vilket skapar trovärdighet till deras story
2. ”Virtually completely unknown to the blogosphere”, dvs de ger Techcrunch möjligheten att vara först med något som inte blivit uppmärksammat än
3. de inleder med en story utan krusiduller, ärlig och personlig, och säger t.o.m. ”We are literally in a garage right now (see attached picture)”.
4. de skickar med screenshots, det är enklare att få någon att bli intresserad om de även sett produkten
5. de är tydliga med datum och skickar med en tydlig lista på vad som händer vad vilket datum. Bloggare har ofta få möjligheter att vara välplanerade men uppskattar de få saker de kan planera in.

On Jul 29, 2010, at 11:00 PM, Mark Nielsen wrote:

TechCruch Team,

Another late night, we’re tired, hopped up on caffeine, malnourished and could probably use a shower…but man do we love this startup S#!T. We are sitting here with the launch of our productivity tool rule.fm ( http://rule.fm – screenshots attached) around the corner and we figured hey, we dig a good read on the CRUNCH, wonder if they’d be interested in what’s been brewing in a garage somewhere in So-Cal. 6 months ago we were code heavy, experience freaks that just weren’t satisfied having to use Basecamp (or any other productivity tool) to manage our client projects. We decided we’d rather not see the light of day for awhile than have to live with knowing that with just a little bit of creative (ok, maybe a lot), a pinch of logic (more like a boat-load) and a dash of sexy (we’ll leave that one to your imagination), we could revive the productivity software world with a tool that would even make Apple cry. What’s happening — people, projects, documents, and more…under one rule. What’s brewing — wikis, CRM/opportunities and Money (intense accounting with style).

We are not

* Funded
* Backed by a PR firm

We are

* Virtually completely unknown to the blogosphere
* Literally in a garage right now (see attached picture)
* Underpaid
* Overworked
* Chomping at the bit to show the world what RULE is made of

What we want

* To give you the first taste. The only thing out there is our splash page and we want you to have the first peak at our product before we release the tour this week just prior to going live on Aug 3rd. This is last minute, so you guys may not be able to move on this before the tour, but we wanted you to have it anyways.
* To be notified before you release anything to the public

What’s on tap

* Friday July 30th, our tour goes live on our website still able to request an invite
* Tuesday August 3rd, we would like to give the public access to RULE unless someone gives us a better idea

Thank you for your time and dedication.

Cheers,

Mark Nielsen and Patrick Carmitchel