The startup community is great because it’s both tight-nit and inviting. Every year a handful of startups break out of the noise and become the pretty startup at the party with heaps of attention pilled on. It’s an amazing feeling to be recognized, especially after all the hard work necessary to get things off the ground.
As an entrepreneur there are a few things to remember when you hit the limelight:
- External validation is great for PR and should magnified through social media, SEO, etc
- Winning an award does not equal more revenue from customers
- Requests for your time for coffees, lunches, etc will go up and can take away your most precious asset — time
- Don’t get a false sense of progress from recognition when happy customers are the true measure
Being the pretty startup at the party is great fun but be cognizant of the demands on time and what’s truly necessary to be successful.
What else? What are your thoughts on being the pretty startup at the party?
David Cummings on Startups 
If you’re past product-market fit, press and awareness with the right audience is invaluable.
If you haven’t found product-market fit and aren’t ready to scale, you’re probably creating press for the wrong product. This will make it even more difficult to make the necessary changes to your business to eventually find p/m fit.
Often, press is an easy distraction that takes away from the really hard work of sales and product.