The Called Shot

I've been amused for weeks by 37signals marketing for their upcoming micro-CRM app Highrise because of the example contacts they've been using.

highrise-person.png

Every single screenshot has a list of contacts including the Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg, Apple's Steve Jobs, Amazon founder (and 37signals investor) Jeff Bezos, and Newsweek scribe Steven Levy. The big product shot is a full-screen profile of Walt Mossberg that has DHH reverently quoting Wired calling Walt a "kingmaker". I'm sure it's gonna be a good product, and I've always been alternately pleased and bemused by the swaggering chutzpah of the Chicago boy band. But the real lesson I'm reminded of here is that you can do a lot worse than name-dropping those whom you want to impress.

This could be considered tending to the blank slate of press coverage.

I'm Anil Dash, and I've been blogging here since 1999, writing about how culture is made. Contact me at anil@dashes.com, at +1 646 833 8659, or at anildash on Twitter or IM. Find out more »

If you're new to the site, check out my Best Of and Most Popular things I've written in the past 10 years, or explore the full archives. Browse by month or year using the calendar below.

Powered by Hunch.com

1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
  Jan Jan Jan Jan Jan Jan Jan Jan Jan Jan
  Feb Feb Feb Feb Feb Feb Feb Feb Feb Feb
  Mar Mar Mar Mar Mar Mar Mar Mar Mar Mar
  Apr Apr Apr Apr Apr Apr Apr Apr Apr Apr
  May May May May May May May May May May
  Jun Jun Jun Jun Jun Jun Jun Jun Jun Jun
Jul Jul Jul Jul Jul Jul Jul Jul Jul Jul Jul
Aug Aug Aug Aug Aug Aug Aug Aug Aug Aug Aug
Sep Sep Sep Sep Sep Sep Sep Sep Sep Sep Sep
Oct Oct Oct Oct Oct Oct Oct Oct Oct Oct Oct
Nov Nov Nov Nov Nov Nov Nov Nov Nov Nov Nov
Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec