As startup founders, co-founders we always wonder that we are building such a cool product, and yet we are not getting any press and as much as we had hoped that our idea would be all over TechCrunch and CNN – no one is talking about us. I have always been wondering about this myth as well. We all need help to get published somewhere in order to get the word out and especially as a startup it really helps to get come VC love as well.

We all think that tech bloggers are the people with a lot of technical background, to your surprise some are not technical at all and they really don’t care about what cool technologies you have used to make your product sexy. One thing they want to know is that what problems have you solved by bringing this product to life – and above all what’s your story?

What we have always been taught about press releases, they are boring and dull; often people don’t even care to read them but most of us love to hear/read a good story because we can relate to it. In the startup world, you need to sell the experience not the technology because people can relate to that. Start crafting a story, whether it is about your company or the product. It will catch people attention and don’t use all the technical buzz words in your story that your grandma cannot understand, and same goes for your pitch.

Often people ask the question when to contact the press.

It’s not about contacting the press; it’s about building relations with them. PR is simply branding and branding is about relationships whether it is with your customers or the media. Ask yourself, how many bloggers/influencers do you know in your industry? If answer is none, then you got some serious work to do.

Social media is a powerful tool if used correctly and efficiently. Use it to your advantage and build relationships with the influencers in your industry.

Here is a list of things you can do on twitter, we have actually used these methodologies at Qurtaba for one of our mobile app Urdu Writer and in a niche market we have had 10,000 downloads within a span of 90 days without any Press Release.

• Put your twitter/Facebook on your site in the “contact us” section
• Market the marketers – write stuff that they value but don’t spam
• Create a list of people (bloggers/influencers) in your industry and interact with them often – RT their tweets with comments
• Put your twitter handler everywhere (email signatures, personal blog, company blog etc.)
• Share interesting articles/blog posts and cc the specific bloggers, journalists in your industry – This will catch their attention and is a part of building relations with them

Here is how an ideal app should operate:

1. Tap 1: Launch the app
2. Tap 2: Press the play button
3. Tap 3: Engage in the content, or in a game, make your superhero jump around

You can read rest of the article here   http://bayarea.startupweekend.org/2012/02/06/the-three-tap-rule/

“How much it will cost to build an iPhone App?”

The mystery demystified by Kent Nguyen in a very detailed blog. Go read it and let us know if the question still valid to ask in our first meeting?

http://kentnguyen.com/ios/what-does-it-take-to-make-an-ios-app/

Here in this article he discussed about Pie Chart and why they are not so great for representing the data. Read it here

That responsibility being: how to keep our kids connected with our culture, while keeping American values. If
you are living abroad and away from your country, it is really challenging to keep your family and cultural values intact. In fact, I have witnessed many Pakistanis who are Pakistanis by name only. After living in the Unites States for some time, they have lost their Eastern cultural values, and they often complain about their kids as to why they are so “out of control.” I believe that it is not about “controlling,” rather, it is more of a communication problem that they have with this generation. They speak a different language their kids speak a different language, literally and figuratively.

I met Mudassir Azeemi in 2004 when he was working as a Software Architect and I was working as a Network Engineer. In 2008 he was blessed with a beautiful daughter. I remember he came to me to share his experience and thoughts and discuss his own concerns about our language and cultural values. After hearing his thoughts and concerns I felt relief and at the same time was happy that my friend was also thinking along the same lines as me. We then embarked on a journey together, which we named “Qurtaba.” The name is inspired from Masjid-e-Qurtaba in Spain, a symbol of innovation and excellence amongst Muslims. We wanted to rekindle the passion of research and innovation among our young generation.

Now fast forward to 2010 when I noticed that my son really loved using the iPhone. I downloaded a lot of learning apps for him, mainly in English, even though my wife and I encouraged him to speak Urdu at home. I remember my son would often ask us a question, “papa is ko (iPhone ko) Urdu kyu nahi ati?” (Papa why does this (iPhone) not know how to speak Urdu?). That was the time we started to focus on iPhone and iPad application development for kids specifically for Urdu speakers. You may ask why not try to build the app for young adults? Our primary reason for keeping focus on kids is that they adapt to new tools and language more rapidly as compared to Adults.

Our first app was Alif Bay Pay. Purpose of this app is to familiarize kids with Urdu alphabets. After the launch of our second app Urdu Nursery Rhymes, my son is singing the rhymes, and he loves it now since his iPhone can speaks Urdu.

At Qurtaba, we believe that it is just another way to increase cultural awareness in young children with the use of technology that they love. Qurtaba is a pioneer in this industry, as there were no Urdu apps in the iTunes app store until Qurtaba decided to develop the Urdu apps. We will be launching more Urdu apps this fall rekindling the love for Urdu among children and their parents.