CoFounder to be Published

ArcticStartup, a startup media company in the Nordic and Baltic region, has decided to start a new project: CoFounder, a print magazine about the European startup industry. The project is a result of cooperation between Dmitri Sarle, CEO of ArcticStartup, Greg Anderson, Editor-In-Chief of ArcticStartup, and Tarmo Virki, a former Reuters journalist and Head of Forbes Estonia. The second issue will be published soon.

Why print?

This seems to be a natural question to ask at the time when there is so much emphasis on becoming more digitally present, interactive and socially-minded. You need to present good reasons why there is a point in getting back to a traditional media format and going against eco fashion, i.e. how you would justify sacrificing some trees for print. In their Indiegogo campaign, CoFounder’s members try to explain their reasons. Tarmo Virki claims that although “the European startup scene is booming”, there is no real journalism to cover it. The startup media landscape lacks coordination and “is fragmented into small regional blogs” and US-centric media. There is no European-oriented media and alternative to the American perspective, which dominates the international startup news agenda. Virki reveals that his team “wanted to create something that would serve the European startup industry”.

The print format was also chosen because it gives solid information that readers could rely on and keep for future reference. In addition, it gives professional fulfilment for journalists: it is a physical reflection of their hard work.

“We love facts not hype”

There are three main CoFounder’s objectives. Dmitri Sarle says that the team wants to help European startups by (1) giving them new business ideas, for example, by asking investors what kind of companies they are looking for, and by (2) providing tools to grow startup business. A lot of attention will be paid to successful and failure startup stories to guide others. The last CoFounder’s objective is (3) to offer company analysis and deep insights into successful startups.

The co-founders make a strong statement: “Writing for the web means selling you, the user, as a product while we’d rather sell an amazing product to you.” Greg Anderson explains that they want to create a ‘publication for the readers’, in which they could find valuable information not what is popular on social media. Tarmo Virki supports him claiming that “most media are a click-based advertising platform”, so CoFounder could become a good alternative with its simple slogan: “We love facts not hype.”

Support for CoFounder

On 12 March there was launched a campaign on Indiegogo to raise funds for the CoFounder project. At the moment, the team members are ready to publish their second issue and are raising funds for others. CoFounder is an open project: all startups are welcomed to actively participate in the creation process. “We are not doing this for ourselves, we want our community to be a part of the magazine,” the co-founders claim. The ultimate goal of the project would be establishing a media startup which would serve the interests of the entire community. In order to achieve it, you could support CoFounder in several ways:

• By providing stories worth attention,
  
• supporting the Indiegogo campaign,
  
• joining the Thunderclap campaign,
  
• sharing the information about the project on social media and
  
• actively providing feedback. 
  

In appreciation of your support, CoFounder’s  team gives you some offers. For more information, please visit the Indiegogo campaign website. 

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The author of this text is Birute Birgelyte, PR and Communications Trainee at Startup Commons. You are free to re-edit and repost this in your own blog or other use under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License terms by giving credit with a link to www.startupcommons.org and the original post. Photo credit: CoFounder.