advice – LIVEdigitally

11 Tips for Startups Pitching Big Companies

Posted on April 28, 2016 by Jeremy Toeman

pitch Pitching – it’s an art and a science, a love and a hate, an up and a down (wait, what? get on with it? oh, okay, sorry)…

I spent most of the past 20 years on the sell-side of things, whether to VCs, partners, customers, etc. I learned a lot. As I near my 1-year anniversary at CNET/CBS, I’m getting pitched a lot. And I’m seeing startup after startup making the same mistakes. So I wanted to reflect on and share some of the experiences I’ve had being on the “other side” of the pitch.

So, to my friends and colleagues at startups, in no particular order, here are thoughts, tips, and suggestions on how you can get better results from your efforts:

Know. Your. Target.
We had a startup in here the other day who clearly had not researched CNET. In fact, I’d wager they hadn’t even visited the site for 5 minutes. So we wasted at least 1/4 of the time with their founder taking us down utterly irrelevant paths. If you cannot tell me why you are a fit for my needs, you are wasting both of our time.
Learn the basics of how my business works
Same startup as above, literally had no idea how we make money. No idea. It’s fine if you don’t know all the nuances of my business, but at least have a rough guess. If unclear, then ask me via email before you show up, so you are ready to fit by the time we are chatting.
Understand our time, use it well
You have 30 minutes (occasionally 60) to get me hooked on whatever you’ve got. And there’s decent odds that, no matter how much I philosophically hate being late for things, I may be showing up late (apologies in advance). So you should come into the meeting knowing exactly how we’ll spend that time, what you hope to get out of it, what you hope I get out of it, etc. Granted this should be de rigeur for all meetings, but I’d recommend getting it to perfection before you show up. If we’re 8 minutes into our time and I still don’t know what you do, at all, it ain’t good.
Don’t re-use your fundraising pitch/story
I understand that having so-and-so on your board is great when you hit Sand Hill Road. Or that your CTO collaborated with whatshername on that last venture of theirs. But that’s 100% utterly irrelevant to my business needs. Further, I don’t necessarily care that the market opportunity for you is unicorn-like. Fundraising and sales/BD are similar, in that you pitch, but different, in that our needs and motivation are not shared. Bottom line: drop the SV jargon when pitching business opportunities.
Skip the Jargon; Use vocabulary that I’ll understand
And while we’re at it, think very carefully about the terminology you are using. The reality check is most business professionals are paying little-to-no attention on the nuances that impact startups, modern tech, or Silicon Valley trends. We also might not know all the acronyms related to your particular niche/industry. One of your key goals is that I can go tell your story the moment you leave my office. You want me going to my team/peers/boss explaining how much we’ll benefit because of you. So if you confuse/bewilder me with insider talk, rest assured I’ll leave the meeting confused and unable to share your vision.
Also, skip the “tech basics”
We had someone in a recent demo show us how QR codes worked. Literally pulled out their phone, took a picture, showed a website. Unless you are the QR app company, you don’t need to show us this (nor how email works, browsers, etc). Not only are you wasting your time, and effectively talking down to us, you are also creating additional risk in case something doesn’t work (because it’s a demo, something will not work). If I want to see the demo of the QR scan, I’ll ask for it. Again, don’t confuse this with not showing me your core benefits, just we can take for granted the basics of it.
Something won’t work. Be ready.
It’s awful, for both sides, when demos break. First, keep in mind that we want your demo to work out great. We want to be impressed with your tech/app/service. We might be skeptical, but are actually hoping you will help us save time/money/whatever. So if your demo craps out in the middle, that’s fine, but be instantly ready to go with either a slide/diagram/video or just even talking us through what would happen in a successful demo.
Don’t ask Mom if Dad says no!
Had someone come in, pitch, and I politely declined. A week later, one of my peers emails me about the same company. So now we’ve had oodles of wasted time, and you still are not a fit for my needs. Only now, I’m about 1000% less open to you coming back in in a few months with a new option/service. We may be a big company, but we do talk. You are welcome to ask me if I think a different department would be interested – because if I think so, I’d happily send you on that way. Remember, if you are truly solving our problems, we are truly interested in you.
Keep your videos short and/or email me videos separate to our meeting
I watched a founder push play on a YouTube demo of their tech. It was a 9 minute video. I lasted 90 seconds before I asked them to cut to the chase and email it to me later. Remember the part about using time wisely? Send me your 9 minute video to watch later, or share internally with other decision-makers. But use our in-person time for interactive discussion and to understand the opportunity. “Netflix and chill” doesn’t work out so well in the office.
Don’t Multitask
While one of the founders was sharing the vision, I was listening to the cofounder clickety-clacking on their keyboard – and rest assured they were not taking notes. I don’t think I need to say any more on this one.
Most Importantly: Be a square peg in a square hole.
Every time I hear a startup founder complain about how they keep getting bounced around departments. While its fair that sometimes this is BigCo’s fault – it’s just as much your fault. What your lesson should be from the bouncing is “you are not fitting into their process” which can easily kill a great potential deal. Some products/technologies are easy and obvious fits. Some are not. It’s your job to make your solution an obvious fit.

Easy tip here: the very first time someone bounces you, take 5 more minutes to understand the wider organization.It may well be that at company X its a marketing decision and at company Y its a product decision. But that’s a solvable problem. When I was running Dijit, it was “obvious” that TV companies could benefit from having audiences get automatic reminders to watch their shows. But it was far from obvious as to which department at each network was in charge of something like this. Social? Marketing? Reach? Audience Development? So we put in a process that had us uncover this information prior to any in-person meetings. No more bouncing.

I hope these are helpful to any startup trying to get traction – I know it’s hard. Remember to focus on the audience, share your passion, and hopefully great things will happen!

Advice to Mentors: Stop Giving Non-Advice!

Posted on November 21, 2014 by Jeremy Toeman

As a mentor to both 500 Startups and Montreal’s FounderFuel, I’ve met a lot of founders, read a lot of business plans, and given a lot of feedback. And I use the same two disclaimers with every founder I meet:

My feedback will be brutal and honest.
Feel free to ignore any of it.

I’ve looked founders in the eyes and questioned the very core of their product, strategy, business model, etc. And to this day, I’ve heard nothing but thank-you’s. In fact, the most consistent statement I hear back from founders is “I wish others had told me this earlier!” For example, here’s a reply to an email I sent someone, in which I apologized if my feedback was only critical:

Please do not apologize, I need this perspective desperately! Everyone I have sent it to says it reads well and I know it needs to be ripped apart…

Mentors – you are there to help improve businesses, not be buddies. It’s almost like parenting – sure I want to be “friends” with my kids, but not if it gets in the way of being their father, which must always come first. There’s plenty of time and room for nurturing – and also time to call out problems when they arise.

The comment above is not the first time I’ve heard something like it. Founders know they have problems and need help, and when mentors give nothing but praise and head-nodding, it hurts the company’s chances of success. I tell all founders “you have friends and family, right? their role is to pat you on the back, tell you you’ll be a billionaire, and lift you up any time you need it.” And it’s not to say that my role is to tear someone apart – it’s to help them think critically, challenge their own assumptions, and get refreshing input and worldview onto their initiatives.

Additionally, I have a strong tendency to avoid giving specific feedback on areas where I have no expertise. I don’t know much about SEO, so I don’t comment. But when it comes to product, marketing strategy, communications and messaging, and fundraising, I am ready to dive into the weeds with any entrepreneur, and help get to the core “why?” of whatever they are doing.

A mentor of mine has a big thing about asking “why?” – basically he won’t stop asking it until all assumptions are challenged and taken down to their core. It’s almost excruciating to go through, and unquestionably has made any session I’ve ever had one that improved my strategies, plans, visions, etc. Try it sometime – work with a trusted advisor/mentor/friend and push yourselves to the very limit of “WHY?” until you truly can’t go any further. By that I mean, both parties agree that the answer is fully rational AND cannot be dissected into a smaller question.

It’s great to support entrepreneurs, and never want to discourage them. But if you leave a meeting with some founder, and you are thinking to yourself “that distribution strategy makes no sense” and you didn’t say it out loud? That’s the same as me telling my kids they’ll be great swimmers, and never taking them for lessons.

CES Tips: CES 2012 Edition

Posted on January 2, 2012 by Jeremy Toeman

One of my favorite CES moments. I'm 1/4 of the way to winning an EGOT!

Over a dozen CESes later (is that how you pluralize CES?), my tips for attending CES have shifted a bit, but not too much. But for a personal first, my tips aren’t changing at all since 2011’s CES Tips list. So, here’s that list, copied and pasted for your convenience.

Wear Comfy Shoes!
Of all the feedback I get on these lists, this is the one people appreciate the most. CES isn’t supersized like it was back in ’08, but it’s still big, and tired feet equals sore back equals unhappy attendee. Freebie bonus tip: while walking the show floor, try to walk on the booths as they tend to have better padding than the walkways between booths.
Stay Clean
I’m not a purel fan in general, but for a show like CES with over a hundred thousand people visiting from every continent, you are guaranteed to bump into someone who has exposure to some bizarre strain of something that’s going to make your next few days pretty miserable. Keep your hands clean, wash before every meal and snack, and you’ll at least up your odds of avoiding the CES Flu next week. Good luck.
Pack Light
My recommendation is to walk the floor with either nothing or a near-empty backpack. Forget shoulder straps, you’ll be aching by the end of the day. Bring nothing you do not need during the day. Also, try to dump your bag prior to dinner, so you can spend the night on the town without having to remember anything later. What happens in Vegas…
Be Nice to the Staff
Booth workers have likely sacrificed their entire holiday season to prep for CES. They have to answer a thousand questions or so an hour. Their demos are probably going to go awry as they are probably dealing with brand new gadgetry that doesn’t really work so great. Treat them nice – don’t pester them as if they are tech support – they aren’t. Don’t ask them hour-long questions on some weird technology nuance. Don’t badger. And don’t suck up all their time considering there are folks standing right behind you with questions to ask too. Just be nice, they could use a little break from time to time.
Plan Everything
Figure out which booths in which halls you are going to prior to getting there. Figure out where your dinner is, and book enough time to get a taxi. Figure out where to get your badge before going there. Figure out where your parties are, and plan that properly. ”Winging it” utterly sucks when it comes to CES and Las Vegas. Traveling between any two destinations could easily take an hour, even as early as 8am. If you try to leave the show, go to a hotel, then come back, your day is done.
Skip the Swag
Do you really want a Panasonic pen, or a Sony plastic bag, or a brochure from TiVo? Really? My wife has actually forbidden me from bringing home anything, period. Also, for those of you into conservation (which should be, you know, everyone), no better way to send a message than to leave Vizo with an extra truckfull of mints (note that for the 2012 edition I changed Samsung to Vizio, just for funsies – yet I kept the same gag in from 2011 #lazy).
Stay Hydrated
If you carry only one thing (a simple backpack, remember? no? back to #3 for you!), it should be a bottle of water. Also, since your hotel room will be quite dry, leave the bathtub 1/4 full of water overnight, you’ll feel better in the morning.
Get Connected
Since about 80% of everyone at CES will be using an iPhone, odds are y’all won’t have much of a signal. Further, wifi is going to be spotty at best. I recommend relying on texting as your go-to method of staying in touch with folks. Either that or grab a MiFi for the week.
Share Cabs!
When you get to your hotel taxi line in the morning, and it’s huge, here’s a simple trick to save yourself 30 minutes per day(or more). Walk to the front, ask if anyone’s going to the convention center, if they say yes, offer to pay for their cab. You aren’t actually “cutting” in line, because the person who was 2nd in line remains 2nd in line and you have no impact on their wait. Easy one, eh? By the way, you should be sure to tip a little extra when you do this, since you’ve taken away a full fare. Plus, sharing is caring (I don’t know how that fits in here, but it sounds so nice to say). Oh, and don’t forget – you can’t hail a taxi in Las Vegas, so grab them at hotels, restaurants, or the LVCC.
Layer Up
Vegas is in the middle of a big desert, and while it may be warm during the day, the nights are very cold in January. Bring a jacket or a sweater when you go out. But don’t forget to leave your CES badge in your hotel room before you leave for the night!
Bring Business Cards
I would say roughly 97% of the people that I’ve met at CES over the years who don’t have cards regret not having them. Maybe it seems cool now not to carry them. Maybe you think they are so 1990s. The truth is, there’s almost no reason not to carry cards, and even looking at it from a potential loss vs potential gain perspective says: carry the darn things! And Moo cards don’t count, people. Updated for 2009201020112012: Still true.
Follow Live Online
Engadget puts up a post every 3.8 seconds during CES (this is not a fact, I am just guessing – it’s probably more frequent than that). Make sure you tap into theirs (or Gizmodos or your own favorite gadget blog) during the course of the show. If you are AT the show, you might find out about something cool to see; if you are stuck in your office, it’ll be kinda like being there, except you are stuck in your office and they’re in Vegas. Loser.

Oh, and if you missed it, here’s a video of myself and Robert Scoble talking about whats in store this year. Have fun at the show!

How to be a Great Mentor

Posted on December 27, 2011 by Jeremy Toeman

Let’s face it, running companies is tough. Really tough. We all need a little help from time to time, whether this is our first startup or our tenth. Unlike when I started my first company back in the mid-90’s, there’s free flowing advice all over the Internet. But not all advice is appropriate for all companies, and that’s where industry knowledge, experience, and expertise matter, and I’d make the claim that there’s not a business leader on the planet who couldn’t use some form of mentor from time to time.

Personally, in my roles at Stage Two, 500Startups, the C100, and Founder Fuel, I’ve acted as a mentor for literally dozens of companies, both big and small. I really enjoy the process of getting to know the team behind a new venture, learn about their goals, their ambition, and their vision. It’s the latter that makes up a key starting point in any mentoring session – understanding vision. I feel most startups are clear on their business, their tech, their product, their market, but can rarely clearly articulate vision. My #1 tip to all entrepreneurs (first time or tenth time) is to watchthis TEDtalk by Simon Sinek. To mentors – think about your role, your process, your learnings over the years and figure out your own “must-do” items for the companies and teams you meet.

Whether formal or informally structured, I think another key thing entrepreneurs and mentors need to figure out is what they want to get out of the relationship. Oftentimes I get brought into some strategy or brainstorming session, but nobody in the room has any goal or desired outcome. The best way to get the most out of these structures is to know in advance what the targets are. Then you can get right to work, dive into the product, the pitch deck, the business model, the marketing strategy, etc, and also have some form of expectation management. This burden falls equally on the mentor to help guide the entrepreneurs as to what they *could* get out of the relationship.

It’s important to know one’s strengths. I’m known for creating great product experiences, marketing strategy, etc, but also more specifically in the consumer technology field. Sure, my experience and knowledge can lend itself to helping an enterprise company navigate some issue, but I’m sure I’d be better off finding that company someone with more pertinent advice. There’s tons of smart people out there, so try to find the ones who have directly tangible experience to what it is you are doing. And to the mentors, ditto – yes, you can probably help lots of companies, but you as well should try to focus your energy on the companies you are best suited for.

It’s just as important to know one’s resources. I’m a father of young children and work at a startup. I don’t have much time on my hands. So when a company asks for my help, I’m typically pretty clear about my availability with them. Everyone has constraints, so both to entrepreneurs and potential mentors – make sure these are well communicated.

Lastly, and probably most importantly: expect brutal honesty. I open every new relationship by saying “I trust you have friends and family to tell you how amazing you are and how this startup will change the world. That’s not my job.” There’s a great blog post on “stop being so nice” here, and I agree with it all the way. I’m not mentoring when I’m ignoring flaws in the business model, or go-to-market strategy. I’m not being helpful when I say the app “has potential.” It’s when I help dive into these issues, and keep asking the “why is that true?” or “and how exactly will you do that?” questions that I’m being a good mentor.

Now, be careful not to berate. Startups have their boards to be on their ass about whatever mistakes they are making. The mentor’s the coach, the “go give em hell, tiger” person – once the path is clear, that is. I make sure to toe the line well between finding (and attempting to fix) problems before they happen, then help right the course when the problems do happen. You never want to feel bad leaving a mentoring session, but as I said earlier, you aren’t the cheerleader either.

Finding and/or being a great mentor is a challenge. But it’s one well-worth taking.

note: originally posted on the c100 blog

How To Fix CES in 2010

Posted on January 19, 2009 by Jeremy Toeman

I agree with my friend Harry McCracken that CES 2009 was definitely smaller than past years. But I vehemently disagree with Dean Takahashi’s assesment that this is a “grim” stat. In my opinion, the show had swelled well past the breaking point over the past few years. This is what killed shows like Comdex and E3 (though for differing reasons of course). Any industry dealing with excess bloat must find a way to trim its own fat or it will sooner or later get overtaken by it. I think the smaller show, you know, with only 110,000 attendees (that was meant to be read aloud with a highly sarcastic tone and some eye-rolling) is a good thing, and I think there are a few other changes that should come with it.

In no particular order…

Make a limit on booth sizes. The biggest booths (and I use the term lightly) are over 20,000 square feet (Samsung, Sony, Panasonic, etc). From some fairly reliable sources I’ve been told these companies are spending over $15,000,000 each on the show (I was told over $20MM for one of them). This is not money well spent. While I’m all for capitalism, if the CEA takes proactive measures to help curb these kinds of spending, they will be less likely to have these budgets questioned in future years (think about it – would you rather see a downsized Panasonic, or no Panasonic???). Also, it’d be hard to argue that anyone is really “losing” anything by being “constrained” to a 100’x100′ booth.
Get rid of the Sands. As much as I’ve enjoyed demoing from the Sands over the past few years for various companies, it’s unquestionably the poorly cared for stepchild of the show. The hours are worse, and so is the traffic. There’s plenty of room in the LVCC for everyone, and if my predictions on a smaller ’10 show are right, a fully packed show will “feel” a lot better than trying to do a little “combover” to hide the thinner regions (trust me on that one).
Move the event back two weeks. I’m filing this one in the “I’m right, but it’ll never ever happen” category. The current schedule is utterly painful for everyone involved in the show, and causes strains on personal lives for the tens of thousands of families who don’t get to enjoy December vacation times because they are prepping for this show. Also, it always overlaps with other events, such as Macworld and the NFL playoffs.
Embrace Showstoppers (and Pepcom too, I guess). The CEA treats these media events as if they are parasitic, but they are not, they are symbiotic. As a guy who has successfully brought multiple no-name companies to the forefront of the show, I can tell you even the best contacts in the world still won’t guarantee decent press coverage with all the surrounding noise. This year alone, the 4 clients my firm brought to Showstoppers generated literally dozens of extra articles written, all of which reflect CES in a good light. It’s a clear win-win, and even if it’s not a direct profit generator, it should be welcomed.
Improve the press list process. I wrote a guest post over at Technosailor trying to share my insights into “the CES pitch” from both perspectives. The process from both the pitch-or and pitch-ee is terrible. I received hundreds of pitches, of which at least 1/2 were about products that I’d never write about, ever. On the other hand we pitched about 400 writers, of which I’d assume no more than 1/10 (probably more like 1/20) would’ve found our clients uninteresting (which I can say with confidence based on the coverage they did receive at the show). The problem was many of those 400 had already received so many other pitches, their “CES” filter was in high gear. The press list needs more “rules” about how it is used, specifically to help the right stories find the right audiences. I’d suggest that both exhibitors and press must pick specific categories to send/receive pitches, and the list be database-controlled by CEA. If anyone is listening at all, get in touch and I can outline my thoughts in much more constructive detail.
Clean up your database and registration system. My fellow Canadian Saleem Khan reminded me of this one. Even though I pre-registered with my media credentials in August (or so), somehow my email address continued to receive biweekly reminders that I needed to sign up to attend CES 2009. Further, once I had registered, I needed another account for the MyCES portal, and I think a third account for another subsection of the site. While the first step was clean and flawless, the entire rest was messy.
Prep the net. By 2010, I’d wager a strong majority of the “interesting” demonstrations will show fully connected devices. We already saw the Yahoo TV widget system on numerous sets (my prediction: nice try, but no adoption – more some other time), and that’s just the beginning. The topic of my session during Jeff Pulver’s Social Media Jungle was “The Convergence of CE and Social Media” and it’s all about IP-enabled consumer electronics. Internet connectivity in booths and at the show in general was spotty. That was okay for CES ’99, but was disappointing during ’09. Fix it (and the WiFi) for ’10.
Figure out the social media integration. There were a lot of “social media folks” hanging out at the show, or more to the point, kinda near the show. I’m not exactly sure where the integration was, but it’s weird to me that the “famous social media video wine guy” was a sought-out “internelebrity” for the show. No offense to Mr Vee (or any other of my colleagues from the social media scene), but considering the founders of Engadget and Gizmodo were there, not to mention all the rest of us whose actual jobs sit at the intersection of the gadget world and the social media world, it seemed a bit… forced. This should be spearheaded by CEA, and built from the CE-side up, not from the social media side down. As a result, the grand majority of the 110,000 attendees and millions who followed the event online had no awareness of things like The Ultimate Blogger Dinner, the miscellaneous TweetUps, and other endeavours which had potential, but just poorly integrated to the show.
Fix up the Innovations Awards system. While the judges do a dandy job every year, there are way too many awards being handed out. For awards to have merit, they need to be limited, it’s simple supply and demand. Modernize and reduce the categories from 34 (yes, 34) to 20 or less. Integrate some method of public voting and commenting (you could use uservoice.com to do it) to complement the judges (definitely don’t do away with the judges. for reference, check out what happened to this year’s NHL All-Star voting!). And less finalists per category – five would be plenty.
More Monoliths.

Well, I’m sure I’ll come up with more 15 minutes from now, but I think that’s a healthy start. If anyone from CEA would like more details, I’ll happily provide. I’m looking forward to next year’s show, though hopefully I won’t get sick this time. Yes, even after all my own advice, I somehow picked up the CES Flu this year, and it was a doozy. I guess some things don’t stay in Vegas after all.

How to Use Social Media to Get Hired

Posted on November 23, 2008 by Jeremy Toeman

I hate the term “social media”, but I didn’t really want to write a post entitled “How to Use Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, social networking, Google Search, Craigslist, and other Web sites to Get Hired.” It just didn’t have a good ring to it.

The last time my consulting firm put out a job opening (on Craigslist and LinkedIn) we received a few hundred emailed resumes. We phone-screened about 25 of these resumes (and I left some advice for the other 375), met 8 people in person, and hired none of them.

As the firm is hiring again (haven’t listed it yet, but similar to this description), I thought I’d give some tips to anyone out there in need of a job. First, pay more attention to the Jobwire from RWW and WebWare “spreadsheet of sunshine” (as opposed to the doom-and-gloom purveyors, who aren’t really helping anybody with their efforts). Second, look for jobs on craigslist and LinkedIn, they are excellent resources.

Braindead Easy Stuff
These are the things you’re supposed to be doing. In other words, if you come in my office and haven’t done all of this, you will not get hired.

Read the last 2-5 entries of the company blog and/or press releases.
Do a Google Search, Google News Search, and Google Blog Search for the company.
If the company makes a product, read reviews of that product, and be familiar with its current prices, offerings, etc. If the company makes many products, be generally familiar with them. Use Amazon to see user ratings of product(s).
Check to see if the company uses any social networking services (e.g. MySpace or Facebook Fan page), communities, twitters, etc. If so, read through some recent content.
If the company has a page that profiles employees, read about them. Ditto for a “clients” page.
Be very ready to talk about what the company specifically does as a business! One of my first questions tends to be “so what do you think we do here?”, and while I don’t expect anyone to say it as well as I would, I expect them to roughly get it.
Make sure all your “social profiles” are job-ready. Get the photos of you throwing up at the frat party off your MySpace page, and make sure your last few blog posts, twitters, and status updates aren’t embarassing. While you should always “be yourself”, you don’t necessarily need to be all of yourself all the time (hint: it’s like dating – I didn’t tell my wife-to-be that I waited in line for 7 hours to see LOTR the first midnight showing on our first date).

Smart Moves
Here are some simple things you can do that will probably help your chances with any interviewer. None are mandatory, but help a good candidate stand out from the dreck.

Comment (thoughtfully – don’t just suck up) on a recent blog post. No need to leave a comment on all the blog posts, but one or two is a good move.
Try to get a list of who you might be meeting with before you come in. Read their Facebook and LinkedIn pages before the interview. Caution: don’t be stalkery, and if you don’t know the difference, you probably should skip this one.
Figure out if any of the people you are interviewing with blog, and if so, read it too!
If the company has a Web service, use it before you come in (that one’s probably a given). Have some feedback to share (and it doesn’t have to be all rosy and good either).

Double Ninja Maneuvers
These are the things that I think can make a difference, but must be handled differently for every situation.

Send a Tweet to the company’s twitter account (or individual’s) before/after your interview. There’s no “rule” to the content, but a cleverly handled message can be impactful.
Thank everyone you met by email. You could send written cards too, depending on the length of interviews (I wouldn’t do it for someone you only spent 10-15 minutes with). If you go down this path, your window of opportunity is 1 day, anything later is a big procrastiFAILnation.
Write a blog post about the interview. Again, proceed with major caution, as any misstep here can cost you an opportunity. That said, if you handle it right, it could also bring you the attention you want to show why you deserve the job.
“Follow” someone on any business or pseudo-business social sites. Good ones: Twitter (and other microblogging sites, even though nobody else actually uses them), FriendFeed, Digg, Upcoming, Google Reader. Bad ones (more explanation below): Facebook, Last.FM (unless, of course, you are interviewing at a music-oriented startup), Flickr (ditto), etc.

Oh No You Didn’t!
Here are a couple of things you really shouldn’t do, either due to inappropriateness or other potential backlash.

Don’t “friend” someone. It’s perfectly fine to add anyone you meet as a LinkedIn contact, but unless you know, for sure, that someone treats Facebook “friends” as a list of anyone/everyone they’ve ever encountered, don’t cross this potentially bad line. By the way, sending a message via Facebook isn’t a bad thing – but then again, you do have their email address…
Make any negative remarks about the company/employees, in any digital environment, anywhere (and yeah, that includes email and IM). If you felt the guy/gal you interviewed with was “a total tool”, that’s just fine, and you can tell your buddies in person and out loud, as opposed to in writing. You’d be amazed how easily an email can get forwarded. By the way, I’d also advise against ranting in public, this town of technology companies is really, really small, and you never know who you’re sharing a bus ride with.

I hope this is helpful. For those who didn’t pick up on the recurring theme, it goes something like this: use the Internet to thoroughly research companies and individuals you are going to interview with, and mildly engage with them before and after the interview. Then again, if that wasn’t obvious by now, you probably don’t want to interview with me.

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: