How to get your startup featured on Boing Boing
TL;DR
Boing Boing calls itself "a directory of mostly wonderful things": short, opinionated posts on technology, culture, makers, civil liberties, art and weird internet finds. Coverage is free and editorial, and tips go to help@boingboing.net. It suits startups with a product that is strange, clever, playful or pro-privacy, and it ignores corporate news.
What is Boing Boing?
Boing Boing started as a print zine in 1988, co-founded by Mark Frauenfelder and Carla Sinclair, and has published on the web since 1995, which makes it one of the longest-running blogs on the internet. The current editors are Mark Frauenfelder, Rob Beschizza and Jason Weisberger, with a rotating roster of contributors. It is owned by Happy Mutants, LLC, which has no outside investors.
Most posts are short: a link, an image and a thought in the author's own voice. The site is open about its views. It supports civil liberties, privacy, free expression, open culture, makers and DIY, and it is skeptical of concentrated corporate and state power.
Who should pitch Boing Boing?
- Hardware and maker startups: kits, gadgets, open hardware, tools for tinkerers.
- Privacy tools, open-source projects and products that give users control over their data.
- Creative web toys, art projects, indie games, odd apps and anything with a story behind it.
- Founders with a surprising finding, a funny hack or a piece of internet history.
- Skip it for enterprise software, funding announcements, adtech and anything that tracks users. Those clash with the views the site states on its About page.
How much does Boing Boing coverage cost?
Editorial posts are free and cannot be bought. The site earns money from display advertising, affiliate commissions from Boing Boing's Shop (deals on hardware, software and online courses run with partner StackSocial) and clearly labelled sponsored content. It discloses material relationships in line with the FTC's Endorsement Guides. No advertising prices are published.
How do you pitch your startup to Boing Boing?
- Read the About Boing Boing page. It lists help@boingboing.net for editorial inquiries, corrections and tips, plus a direct email for each editor.
- Read a week of posts on Boing Boing to see what each editor picks. Every post carries a byline and each writer has an archive page.
- Write a short email: one line on what the thing is, one link where an editor can see or try it right away, and one sentence on why it is odd, delightful or important.
- Send it to help@boingboing.net, or to the one editor whose posts match your product.
- Send it once and do not chase. If an editor likes it, it becomes a post, with a link to your site.
Tips to get more out of a Boing Boing pitch
- Write like a reader sharing a find, in plain words, with no press release language.
- Lead with the visual: a GIF, a short video or a photo of the device on someone's desk.
- Make the link work without a sign-up wall, so an editor sees the product in one click.
- Tell the origin story in two sentences if it is weird: the garage, the failed first version, the accidental discovery.
- Credit the open-source tools or artists you built on. Open culture is one of the causes the site supports.
Our verdict
Boing Boing is a long shot for most startups and a great one for makers, privacy tools and playful web projects. Coverage is free and entirely editorial, and the editors write what they find interesting. Send one honest, short email with a link that works, and let the product speak.
More options: see all tech media, blogs and newsletters. Planning a launch around press coverage? The Fe/male Switch startup game walks women founders from idea to first customers.