Getting coverage in the press can be critical for many startups when they’ve just launched. It’s one of the most effective ways to acquire that all important “early adopter” cohort.

As these are the people that go on to evangelise your brand to their friends and family network and enable you to scale faster. All the big players in startup land understand the value of effective PR early on. Airbnb, Uber, Netflix. They all did it.

The trouble these days is that startup PR has become rather elitist. Leading tech publications like Techcrunch only tend to cover startup funding rounds, and large ones at that. You can see the last 3 Africa-focussed stories on Techcrunch were all related to funding with the minimum round being $9 million.

Far larger than the average funding round on the continent which in 2020 was around $1.7 million. It’s almost impossible to get your startup a mention on Techcrunch without having closed a mega round from Sandhill Road’s finest.

And people are starting to call it out. Last month, startup stalwart and founder of Microacquire, Andrew Gazdecki made the following tongue-in-cheek tweet.

Andrew Gazdecki @agazdecki

TechCrunch is really good PR agency for venture capital firms. I highly recommend them.

August 21st 2021

54 Retweets814 Likes

He followed up with a few more tweets like this one:

Andrew Gazdecki @agazdecki

TechCrunch celebrates funding rounds better than Vanity Fair covers the cost of a celebrity’s wedding.

August 26th 2021

4 Retweets63 Likes

And this one:

Andrew Gazdecki @agazdecki

TechCrunch is like that dude in high school who was cool 5-10 years ago and tells you the same story every time you see them.

August 25th 2021

38 Retweets693 Likes

TechCrunch didn't respond and rather than continuing to share what the entire startup community is thinking Andrew took action and actually did something about it. He launched his own publication called Bootstrappers.

Andrew Gazdecki @agazdecki

Bootstrappers by @microacquire launching Sept 7th! Major media shouldn't be reserved for VC backed companies. The startup community deserves better. Expect the opposite of @TechCrunch, TMZ of funding rounds & premier PR agency of venture capital. For the love of startups! 🤘

August 24th 2021

82 Retweets963 Likes

Bootstrapped startups are undoubtedly an under-represented startup category in today’s media. They most certainly deserve a larger share-of-voice. These are self-funded companies which have to turn a profit from very early on if they are to survive - a stark contrast to some modern tech unicorns who have raised hundreds of millions of dollars but are yet to be profitable.

Thankfully, on the African continent we still have tech publisher sites like Disrupt Africa and Techpoint Africa which cover startups of all sizes, both bootstrapped and funded. Long may this continue, otherwise Africa may have to launch its own version of Bootstrappers in years to come.

In the news 🚀

🇲🇦 Moroccan B2B e-commerce app, Chari.ma, has closed a round of funding and announced the acquisition of mobile credit book application Karny.ma.

🇳🇬 Nigerian B2B marketplace startup, Sabi, has secured a seed funding round as it surpasses the milestone of over 150K SMB’s on its platform. 

🇸🇳 Ride-hailing service Kai Senegal has secured seed funding from Mobility 54, the corporate venture capital arm of Toyota Tsusho Corporation, to help it scale.

🇷🇼 Rwandan medtech startup, Viebeg, has raised a pre-seed round funding to help it expand across the continent.