Get Known podcast: Get inside the journalists’ mindset.
In this episode, we had the pleasure of talking live from Slush with Mimi Billing from Sifted, who started by giving us an understanding of where the name of the publication comes from. Mimi is a Swede who found her love for journalism on a trip to Israel. Her main beat is health tech, but she is most recently interested in new tech like nuclear power.
Startups are doing so many great things, but she tells us that it’s so important to go deeper into a story if you want to make something people really want to read. Throughout the interview, she provides interesting insight into how she works with editors at Sifted and how she chooses the stories to write about.
Key takeaways:
- Most people don’t understand that she has to pitch to editors. Editors have a critical role in the process to turn a story into something people want to read.
- The way PR works in different countries is interesting. Mimi makes an interesting comparison between PR in Sweden and the UK.
- It’s critical to understand what the journalist wants when you pitch.
- The key to a good pitch has something that is a topic that is something she has not heard before with good names behind the company.
- The threshold for Sifted to report on funding has gone up a lot over the years. In general, now, 10 million Euros makes a company worth considering to be covered. But that is not a hard and fast rule. It should be understood that the size of the round is not everything and the fact that the company is doing something very interesting and unique is also just as important. So just because they have raised 20 million Euros doesn’t mean they are worth covering either.
- Sometimes being a little bit mysterious is good to get journalists interested in you. Are you doing something interesting that is not ready yet? Hmmm… Interesting…!
- It’s always good to be in touch, but you don’t always have to sell yourself in every meeting.
Listen to the newest episode of the Get Known podcast with Mimi Billing to learn more!
We hope you enjoy the podcast! Please feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions to steve@sanfrancisco.fi or tweet us at @SF_Agency!
