Pressish: Instant Press Coverage for your startup

After launching on Product Hunt, I received an email from these guys letting me know that they can help by "giving [us] automated access to over 2500 tech bloggers and journalists and a free customized press pitch. "

Unfortunately, what they failed to mention was that they have no relationships with these journalists; furthermore, they are not reaching out on your behalf--instead, they are using your direct email, and you're responsible for dealing with the aftermath of upset journalists asking how you received their email.

I think the only thing this product has done is damage our reputation with journalists. If they had a clearly outlined methodology of exactly how the process worked, we would not have gone with their service. This was, ultimately, my fault, for being naive and trusting of a stranger's friendly email.

This an email-blast service wrapped in nice gift-wrap website.

Email responses from journalists include:

- questions about how we got their email

- unsubscribe requests

- mentions about how they don't even cover our topic

This is not reflective of the culture we want to grow and has taught me an important lesson on how quickly a wrong decision can impact everything you're working so hard to build.

Pros:

- Learned a tough lesson

Cons:

- Canned, generic pitches

- Spamming Journalists and News Outlets

- Tons of upsetting responses

- Tarnished reputation