What does it take for a startup to be featured on TechCabal?

Does The Cabal have some favourite set of startups or a softspot for some set of founders???

An exposure to 82,000 readers on a single day.

No, we don’t.

Now that I have answered your real question, I will answer the faux question, which is ā€œhow do you get featured on TechCabalā€. Easy. The answer is here.

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82,000 ā€˜reads’ or readers? As in uniques vs visits?

Maybe @BalogunDanjuma should explain what he means. Any particular reason you considered this?

TechCabal is the NotJustOk of Startups? OMG!

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@nosaaaa I’m sorry, I don’t get it. http://gph.is/XGSxa4

NotJustOk has been accused of payola, which is what OP is insinuating with TechCabal.

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People usually aren’t kind enough to accuse us of payola. The usual one is profit-less favouritism. :blush:

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Most times I read stuffs on TC and it feels as if you guys are delibrately pushing some startups to make them seem more relevant or bigger than their peers… I later started seeing your posts for startups as an advert… Probably this startup paid better than that startup… Some quality of startups are even very low… Some even are in beta… It baffles me atimes

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Good info… Nice one banky…

Interesting. Well, maybe you can give specific examples where you felt this happened. @lordbanks has tried to explain the process but hey…

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Have also treid to get my startup to TC since about 6 month ago, I hope there is an headway this time.

@olaitanmayowa @balogundanjuma To be clear, startups don’t pay for coverage. There is a ā€œsponsored postā€ product, which is clearly marked ā€œsponsoredā€. The fact is startups hardly ever use it; it’s usually paid for by larger firms.

There are many reasons startups get press - and @lordbanks has tried to explain ā€œhow to get press on TechCabalā€. It’s even a page on the site. However, I’m always worried when startups seem to prioritize press over traction. If you have traction, you will get press. However, press doesn’t guarantee traction; and traction is what matters. If you ask me which one I want, 11 out of 10 times, I’ll choose traction.

Some have suggested that TechCabal tries to promote its ā€œfriendsā€; I will say, yes, we have relationships and friendships in the ecosystem; many preceding TC. But we try not to let that get in the way. One story we often don’t tell is that we disqualified @iaboyeji’s old startup - Fora.com - from Battlefield 2014 because he and @Lordbanks were housemates at the time. E is my friend; and he was very upset but we try to be fair to the general public.

TC prides itself in being good at spotting success early. Last year, I wrote a piece called 8 Nigerian startups to watch in 2015 - http://techcabal.com/2014/11/11/8-nigerian-startups-to-watch-in-2015/. Apart from Printivo, all the startups on that list have raised funding from serious investors in the past 12 months; and I won’t be surprised if @OluyomiOjo’s Printivo joins that list soon. Perhaps, investors see what we see - startups that are solving an interesting problem and getting traction while doing it. We don’t spot all of them; and we’re not always right.

This is why I say traction is more important than press. In all thy getting, get traction.

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@seyitaylor I love your honestly that TC support their closest pals. If a startup do not get attention how do they get funding? many startup I see on TC dont make it to the lime light. so what is the point?

You made reference to some 8 Nigerian startups to watch in 2015,
You have given them an exposure that will surely attract investors to them.

example (make we talk football small)
Ayoze perez won Best Attacking Midfielder 2013/14 season in LALIGA B then in the following year he joined Newcastle for around €2 million, Many football lover including me did not see ayooza in action but the Adelante Breakthrough help him sealed the newcastle move.

I dont live in Lagos and most nigerian startup ceo in Lagos have the opportunity to meet alot of people through hub e.t.c, but for for startup outside Lagos & Abuja (na another thing entirely), We look up to site like TC, TECHLOY for people to look our side say we dey do something, but what do we get in return? Silient.

WOW! Please read what I said well!

I did not say we support our closest pals! I said we have friends in the ecosystem. That does not mean TC only writes about their friends. Please correct that impression. We also are not saying that investors are investing because of what we wrote. We are saying that they are seeing some of the things we are also seeing. I hope I’m clearer now.

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@seyitaylor Okay.

I totally undertand you and i appreciate the fact that you can even sit up and type this… (dude, choi)… When i launched my startup, i was looking for platforms that could atleast make people know we are in the market… I used the ''Pitch Startup" avenue available on TC… Nothing happened… Then we stopped trying to get you guys attention… We got acquired by Akin Alabi (Nairabet CEO) 2 months after launch… We used that as a leverage again… I reapplied… Nothing still happened… Then Paul Adepoju contacted us from HumanIpo then… We organised our first interview with him… and this was the result ( http://www.humanipo.com/news/47422/qa-danjuma-balogun-founder-9jabookings-com-2/ )… and another call came through from Sam Wakoba of TechMoran, Soo, Kenya don dey feel us… and another result ( http://techmoran.com/nairabet-backed-9jabookings-wants-simplify-booking-nigerian-artists-2/#sthash.dc9PoKMs.dpbs )… I am an avid reader of TC… After a year of operation and over 50 succesful celebrity bookings… We have booked a total of 36 Nigerian celebrities for events… Why TechCabal wey we dey the same Lagos no notice us. I even went as far as contacting Muyiwa Coker on FB. He listened patiently and asked me to even re apply that probably maybe it didnt fell through when i applied… This is the reply that i got : (Wait a week for me to vet it, talk to my boss about it and see what comes up)… The boss never came up with anything… Then i started seeing startups a month old, startups that are still in beta kingin on TC… I did my findings… went to the glorified CCHUB which has the highest number of hyper-startups… I be like soo this is the prepclass and co… They aint better than us… They just got more featured on more blogs than we do… This actually gave me the raise to start this thread on radar…

There’s an application process to be on TechCabal?

Yeah "Pitch Your Startup’’…