Do Startups Need Launch PR?
Earlier, I wrote about how much great PR Finnish travel startup Tripsay got when It launched. There is a great post in Vierityspalkki (in Finnish, sorry) about how Tripsay worked to get all that PR.
I thought what they accomplished was great and must have done wonders for the company. Until I just read Seth Godins post: the myth of launch PR, in which he reminds that great companies do not need big launch PR. He list such companies: Apple, Nike, Wikipedia, Google and Microsoft. In fact, chasing after PR might distract a startup from more important matters.
I think Godin has a good point: in the long run, startups don’t need big launch PR. But in the short term it might help in getting investors and new people to try a new service.
TripSay Launches - Gets Good PR
TripSay, the Finnish social travel startup, that I’ve covered a few times before has opened up to public beta. The company has done good PR work, since the launch is covered - among others - in two of the biggest startup blogs TechCrunch and Mashable. The launch story also made it onto Techmeme.
Overall the launch has gotten quite a lot of nice publicity. Most of the reviews have been positive, although some have questioned the business models of social travel sites in general, which was not a problem back in January when I did in my first post about Tripsay (It was called Vailoma back then).
Anyway, Congratulations to Leo and Juha and the rest of the TripSay team for the launch. Too bad I’ll miss the launch party tomorrow. Also remember that the work has just started.
See what other people are talking about the Tripsay launch:
Techmeme discussion
Discussion on Friendfeed
Google Blog search
Vailoma Is Now TripSay, Gets A Facelift
Finnish travel startup Vailoma is now called TripSay. The service itself hasn’t changed much besides new fancier web2.0 graphics, which are probably the outcome of the investment by Valve Branding in January. (Valve is one of the leading digital agencies in Finland who also contributed to the success of Jaiku.) TripSay is still a travel planning tool that helps to organize information related to to trips. The information is both aggregated from around the web and user generated.
The new name and graphics will surely help Tripsay, which is currently in private beta, in their efforts to create a successful travel service.
Battle of the Finnish Travel Startups: Dopplr vs. Vailoma
Two notable startups from Finland are built around travel. Dopplr is a niche social networking service where you post and share your travels, and the newcomer Vailoma is a tool for organizing information about your trips.
Here is a comparison of the two travel-related Finnish startups.
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