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Pitching VC Trend Reporters? A Data Storm Is Brewing.

Until now at least, PR pros never had to pay much attention to tech analytics platforms such as CrunchBase, PitchBook and CB Insights. Sure, they might have had a blog. But PR was built to pitch publications. The worlds of tech data and tech edit really didn’t intersect.

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SWMS Service Resumes Today

SWMS service resumes today. Thank you for your patience. On Jun. 20, six days after losing Christy, I tested positive for COVID-19 and remained positive

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How To Crack Tier 1 With ‘Can They Do It?’

It’s been true for years: Tier 1 loves to craft “can they do it?” stories. Some PR pros avoid pitching “can they do it” stories because “what if they can’t?” Why encourage a reporter to think that the company might come up short?

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The Elements of Jane Thier’s CEO Profiles

It’s one thing to know that Fortune reporter Jane Thier writes CEO profiles, and quite another to know the ingredients. We analyzed the 12 CEO/founder profiles Jane produced so far this year — and asked Anthropic’s Claude 3 to do the same.

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Test Your Pitch With AI

Ever use AI to test pitches before sending them to reporters? Try it sometime. It’s a fun way to improve them. For the proper horsepower, you’ll need a paid subscription to a Gen AI service such as GPT-4 or Claude 3.

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Applications Open: Forbes Cloud 100

Forbes this week began accepting applications for this year’s Cloud 100 List as well as the accompanying Cloud 100 Rising Stars list, which focuses on private cloud startups with less than $25 million in funding.

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FRIDGE NOTES

SWMS Predictions for 2025

No “predictions” post will appear on this site. That said, quite a number of subscribers have asked for a Zoom/MS Teams presentation on what 2025 will bring. A conversation is precisely the right tool for the job. After the election — and with AI transforming publishing and life — “2025” is best discussed among peers, not predicted. So if you’d like to have a confidential group exchange on what stands to unfold, and why, and how comms pros can come out on top in spite of it all, drop a line and we shall schedule something.

Talk About Confidentiality…

According to Adweek, Omnicom CEO John Wren and IPG CEO Philippe Krakowsky were in merger talks for eleven and a half months before the transaction was announced this week. Amazing that it didn’t leak.

Introducing ‘SWMS Sound Thinking’

Should PR pros stop visiting X, with all its lies and hate? It’s only going to get worse. Or are tidbits from targets too important to walk away from? Click here to watch tech edit vet David Strom and I disagree (at high speed) about this, as one compelling visual after another pops up on your screen. In 2025, SWMS will officially launch “SWMS Sound Thinking,” designed to be “argumentative insight in six minutes or less.” Each segment will explore a timely and controversial topic of interest to tech comms pros. This prototype runs 5:25. Hope you enjoy it — feedback vital and welcome! –Sam

The ‘AI Fantasy Draft’ From Eric Newcomer

At this time last year, Eric Newcomer and his two podcast co-hosts — Max Child and James Wilsterman — each formed an “AI startup fantasy team” and picked five AI startups to seed their rosters. We’re now in year 2 and it’s time to draft again. The podcasters wonder… which startups do they dump? Which do they add? The player whose startups accumulate the most total value by Nov. 1, 2028 is the winner, so there’s plenty of time to make adjustments. Here’s a link to the AI fantasy team podcast — you may need a password. Not sure.

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For subscriptions and other inquiries, please Contact Sam.