Why TechCrunch is different
Forbes has a contributor apparatus, council memberships and a native advertising programme. Entrepreneur has a paid leadership network with a published price. USA Today has a contributor-content section. Each of those is a door that outside content can walk through, which is why placement services can sell them.
TechCrunch is written by its own staff and commissioned writers, and it does not operate the kind of contributor or membership programme that lets an outside company publish under its own byline in exchange for a fee. There is nothing to resell.
Ask a placement service for a guaranteed TechCrunch article. An honest one tells you it is not available and explains why. A dishonest one quotes you a price, and what arrives is something else: a syndication network, an adjacent tech site with a similar name, or a piece in a publication you have never heard of that mentions TechCrunch in the pitch deck.
It costs you one email and it sorts the market faster than any price comparison.
Our own catalogue works the same way. If a title cannot be guaranteed, we say so and charge nothing for saying it. That rule is worth more to us than the orders it loses.
What TechCrunch actually covers
Before pitching, be honest about whether you have a story that fits. TechCrunch is a news operation covering technology companies, and its desks are built around a fairly narrow set of events:
- Funding rounds, with real numbers, named investors, and ideally something non-obvious about the round or the company.
- Acquisitions, shutdowns and layoffs, particularly where the story is not the announcement but what it reveals.
- Product launches from companies that already matter to the reader, or that do something genuinely new rather than incrementally better.
- Proprietary data and documents nobody else has, especially where they contradict a widely held assumption.
- Founder stories with real conflict: the pivot that nearly killed the company, the co-founder split, the decision that cost something.
What almost never lands: a feature update, a partnership announcement, a rebrand, a report your marketing team commissioned, or an executive available to comment on trends. Those are not stories, they are announcements, and the difference is whether a reader who has never heard of you would care.
How to pitch, concretely
The mechanics matter more than most founders think, and they are simple enough to get right.
- Pick one journalist, not a list. Find the specific reporter who has covered your category in the last two months. Read three of their pieces. A list of thirty names guarantees thirty non-answers.
- Subject line: the headline you would want to read. Under ten words, containing the news. Not "Introduction" and not your company name alone.
- First paragraph: the story in three sentences, with the number in it. The amount raised, the percentage change, the count. A reporter decides in one screen.
- Second paragraph: why you can tell it. Who you are, what access or data you have.
- Third: one line offering the call. Nothing attached. No deck, no PDF, no embargo you have not agreed.
- One follow-up after about a week, then move on. Persistence past that point costs you the next pitch as well.
Fundraise news travels best when it is genuinely new, so the pitch goes out before anyone else has it, not after your LinkedIn post. Attach yourself to a story already moving in your category and your odds multiply. The last two weeks of December produce almost nothing but year-ahead pieces commissioned in November.
If TechCrunch is not available, what does the same job?
Work backwards from the outcome rather than the masthead. People ask for TechCrunch because they want one of four things, and three of them have cheaper, more reliable routes.
| What you actually want | A better instrument than TechCrunch |
|---|---|
| Investors to take the meeting | A tier-one business or finance title, plus a data-led story |
| Enterprise buyers to trust you | The trade publication their team reads every morning |
| To be named by AI assistants | Several corroborating sources with real numbers, not one prestige mention |
| Developer or technical credibility | The technical publications and communities your users already read |
| A logo for the fundraise deck | TechCrunch, honestly, and it has to be earned |
That last row is not a joke. If the goal is the logo, say so out loud, and accept that the only route is a story good enough to earn it. Everything else is available faster and cheaper elsewhere, and we would rather point you there than sell you an adjacent title with a similar-sounding name.
If a reporter replies, do not waste it
Founders spend months trying to get a reply and then mishandle the one they get. The rules are simple and almost nobody follows them.
- Answer within the hour. Reporters work against deadlines measured in hours. A thoughtful reply tomorrow is worth less than a rough one today.
- Do not route it through legal or marketing. An approval chain that takes three days kills the story and, worse, teaches the reporter not to come back.
- Give the number, including the one that is uncomfortable. A founder who shares churn or burn honestly becomes a source. One who deflects becomes a company that gets quoted once.
- Do not ask for copy approval. It is not offered in editorial journalism and asking marks you as someone who does not understand the medium. You may correct facts, not tone.
- Do not ask when it will run. Once is acceptable. Twice is not.
The prize for handling one reply well is not the article. It is that the reporter has you in their contacts for the next story in your category, which is how companies end up quoted repeatedly without buying anything. That relationship is exactly what a retainer is meant to build, and we compare that model with buying placements in traditional PR versus guaranteed placement.
The pattern to take away
Every title in this market sits somewhere on a spectrum between fully earned and fully purchasable, and the honest question is never "can I get into X" but "what exactly is on offer at X, and is it the thing I need?"
TechCrunch sits at the earned end, which makes it expensive in effort and free in money. Entrepreneur's leadership network sits in the middle, with a published price. A syndication network sits at the other end, cheap and abundant and worth roughly what it costs. All three are legitimate. The only illegitimate thing is a vendor letting you believe you bought one when you bought another.
Frequently asked
Can you pay to get featured in TechCrunch?
No. TechCrunch is written by its own staff and commissioned writers and does not run the kind of contributor or paid membership programme that lets outside companies publish under their own byline. Any vendor quoting a price for a guaranteed TechCrunch article is selling something else, and asking for one is a fast way to find out how honest a service is.
Does TechCrunch accept guest posts?
Not in the sense the SEO industry means: an unsolicited article with links in it, placed for a fee. Coverage comes from reporters deciding a story is worth writing. The route in is a pitch to a specific journalist about something that is genuinely news.
What kind of story does TechCrunch actually cover?
Funding rounds with real numbers and named investors, acquisitions and shutdowns, launches from companies that already matter or that do something genuinely new, proprietary data that contradicts a common assumption, and founder stories with real conflict. Feature updates, partnerships, rebrands and commissioned reports almost never land.
How long does it take to get covered by TechCrunch?
There is no timeline, because you are pitching rather than buying. Assume six to twelve weeks from first contact if it works at all, and assume most pitches get no reply. If you need coverage by a fixed date, pitching is the wrong instrument and you should buy a placement in a title where publication can be guaranteed.
What is a realistic alternative to TechCrunch?
Work backwards from the goal. For investor credibility, a tier-one business or finance title with a data-led story. For enterprise buyers, the trade publication they read daily. For AI visibility, several corroborating sources with real numbers rather than one prestige mention. Each is faster and cheaper, and usually more effective for anything other than a fundraise deck.
Tech coverage that is actually available
We will tell you plainly if a title cannot be delivered, and we charge nothing for saying so. Send us your category and we will come back with the tech titles we can guarantee, their status and their timeline.
Or write to contact@rublovkamedia.com. We answer with the outlet list, the status of each title and a timeline.