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Module 04 / Lesson 13 · Read, apply, check
Choose a technology reporting angle that explains what changed and why the change matters.
TechCrunch covers technology and startups. For agency planning, the useful question is what a development changes for users, competitors, investors or the way a market works. A company describing itself as innovative has not answered that question. Identify a concrete capability, constraint, business model or market development and the evidence available to examine it. A demonstration can help, but technology reporting is not limited to product features. The company’s economics, adoption, execution challenges and consequences for people can also matter when they connect to the actual reporter’s current work.
Use the same evidence to explore different questions rather than copying one pitch across brands. A Forbes-oriented hypothesis might examine the wider business or capital implications. An Inc.-oriented version might explore the founder’s operating decision and its transferable lesson. A TechCrunch-oriented version might examine the technology, startup development or market change itself. These are agency planning lenses, not rigid publication rules. Confirm them through recent articles and writer biographies. The pitch should explain why this particular development belongs in this particular reporting conversation, rather than relying on a broad assumption about the publication’s reputation.
Ask the technical lead to explain what the product does, who can use it today, what it replaces and where it fails. Separate a working release from a prototype, a planned feature and a staged demonstration. Define technical terms in plain language without stripping away the conditions that make a claim accurate. If performance depends on selected hardware or a curated dataset, disclose that context. A reporter needs enough information to investigate the claimed advance and compare it with alternatives. The agency should be able to explain the product’s limitations as clearly as its promise.
Read current work to identify the appropriate beat and a specific information gap. Check whether the news is genuinely new, already public or merely repackaged for outreach. Build a small shortlist with distinct reasons for each match. Offer a founder or technical source who can answer substantive questions, and prepare evidence of actual use when relevant. A general technology label is too broad to establish fit. If the development is useful but narrow, consider a specialist audience rather than forcing it into a wider startup narrative that the available facts do not support.
Fictional factory-software briefing board; this is not a product endorsement.
Manual conversion needed before this pilot analysis.
Explain the formats and the cost of handling exceptions.
Show the actual compatible record.
Provide a demonstration the reporter can inspect.
| Evidence slot | What belongs here |
|---|---|
| Capability | Supported formats and a repeatable demonstration |
| Commercial relevance | Who needs this and what existing workflow it changes |
| Limitations | Unsupported formats, failure cases and pilot scope |
What new capability or market development exists now?
Who is affected and what becomes possible or difficult?
Working status, comparison, limitations and real use.
A current reporter whose questions the evidence can advance.
A fictional software startup has developed a tool that helps small factories detect equipment faults from existing sensor records. A generic pitch calls it an AI revolution. The agency instead identifies the practical difference: the product works with certain older sensor formats that required manual conversion in the pilot customers’ previous workflow. It prepares a demonstration, defines which formats are supported and documents cases where the model still fails. For a technology reporter, the proposition concerns that capability and its commercial viability. For an entrepreneurial operating story, the same evidence could support a founder decision about serving an overlooked customer group. The agency does not pretend these are mutually exclusive categories, but it changes the question and supporting material to match each reporting purpose.
A weaker approach sends the same founder biography to technology, finance and workplace reporters, changing only the greeting. It describes planned features as released, treats a staged demo as broad customer adoption and provides no technical source. The pitch is ambitious but difficult to investigate. A more prominent publication name cannot compensate for unclear product status, missing comparison or a source who cannot explain what actually works today.
Adding AI to a product description does not by itself establish a technology story. Explain the mechanism, practical difference and evidence. A simpler product with a clear user consequence can be more reportable than an elaborate technical claim that nobody outside the company can test or understand.
The outlet comparisons are practical hypotheses to validate, not official selection criteria. Reporter beats and company developments change. Use current public biographies and recent work, and do not promise that a funding stage, technology label or demonstration automatically qualifies a client for coverage.
Do this today · 30 minutes
Prepare three angle hypotheses for the factory-software startup.
Use a document or spreadsheet and the fictional case in this lesson. Public or synthetic evidence is sufficient; no purchase or real outreach is required.
Before: What new capability or market development exists now?
After: A current reporter whose questions the evidence can advance.
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Have a colleague review your decision and evidence. Record the unresolved question, its owner and the next review date before using the plan with a client.
Before you move on
A startup wants a TechCrunch pitch built around its planned AI features, but the working product solves a narrower sensor-format problem for three pilot factories. The founder can demonstrate that workflow and explain its limits. Which proposition is strongest?
Next lesson →TechCrunch: newsroom and reporter biographies
Lesson edition 1.0 · References reviewed 16 October 2026 · Practical exercise reviewed 16 October 2026. Examples are illustrative teaching scenarios.
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