Hey munchkins,
This is very exciting as it's been a while since we last interviewed a senior character from an influential tech publication.
This time we sat down to chat with John Koetsier, VP Product and senior writer at my personal favorite tech magazine; VentureBeat. What does he have to say about being approached by startups, and even about the Israeli tech scene?
Discover these and more in the following interview.
What led you to being VentureBeat's VP?
I started off as a staff writer in an education company. As I was more technical than others, I also started developing our learning management systems. When the company was acquired, I started working with VentureBeat and have been so far.
How much time has passed since your first day in VB?
That was about 3 years ago.
Do executives from competitor tech magazines socialize with each other?
No, but writers do. At least when they run into each other.
How many guest post requests do you get from startups?
Probably hundreds, to say the least, of guest posts are submitted to us each month.
How many are accepted?
Maybe only 20 a month out of those few hundreds.
Did Google's guest posting guidelines affect VentureBeat?
No. We have great SEO layout in VentureBeat so we are penalty-safe. As a side note, we've only accepted top notch material from thought leaders, hence the low number of posts we accept from external writers each month.
Is it true that short, cold emails are much more inviting?
Much, much more! ;)
What's your thoughts on the Israeli startup scene?
Israel has some great startups. I love the tech scene over there, some of the most inspiring companies of the past years have started there.
Who are you most in touch with from Israel's tech scene?
Ha. You'd be one of them (Yoav), and Hillel Fuld would be the other.
We thank John and appericiate him taking some time from going over a few hundreds (!) of guest post inquiries a month, as well as developing VentureBeat's next generation. We hope to bring more interesting insights from senior executives @ your favorite tech blogs.
