How can I get press for Kickstarter campaign in advance before launching?

Starting crowdfunding while in beta is good - you already passed part of the way. So for backers it is less risky to support you. When I've started my project - the only real option was KickStarter. Now it is the same because only KickStarter has "blockbuster" effect - huge paying audience. On KickStarter you'll collect at least ten times more if to compare to #2 IndieGoGo. Sure if your project will pass KickStarter moderation. But it is worth trying. Giveaways, in my opinion, is always better: you test your production chain & keep full control over your business. Also the product is the core of your business and improving your product will lead to higher valuation. If you have community - try to make it bigger & tell your followers about your crowdfunding plans so they prepare to back you when funding starts. If there is no community - start to build one. Also prepair press kits & at least 10 updates (when 30-50-75-100-150-200% of goal reached, explaining functions of your product etc.), make spreadsheet with press (also include communities related to your project) contact details, check your project category on the selected crowdfunding platform for projects related with yours (for future cross promotion). Hiring expert is pretty useless, I think. Calls on clarity.fm will work better as you not tied to one person and may get more opinions, probably, for the same price. And it is not so much information in the net about crowdfunding to lost in it. All you need (considering you already have great product) is: 1. good project page (which means video + photos + text) 2. good work with press (not so much may be done: press kit + send it over the contacts you have - the result is related to kit quality and amount of contacts) 3. some ways to utilize KickStarter organic traffic (that's "30% rule" & crosspromotion - these ways generally don't cost a penny and both work great for me and 2 more projects I've mentored). Call me for details - I'll be happy to help.

This is a tricky question, because it's very difficult for a consultant or PR firm to get major press like this for a startup unless the startup has an amazing, innovative product, is doing something so incredible that it has to be talked about, or has a fantastic story behind it. A PR firm is only as good as its clients' stories, and they often can't get the press the client wants. There are strategies for getting into the press on your own without spending a fortune on a PR firm that may or may not be able to get the tech press you want. As well, there are things that a consultant can do to help you build the narrative to make your startup as appealing as possible to get into the national tech press. We've gotten major national press (Inc., USA Today, Fast Company, Technorati, MSN, Yahoo, Intuit, Tech Cocktail, etc.) for ourselves and our clients. I'd be happy to talk with you about what we can do to help.

Apps are difficult to fund on IndieGoGo as few are successful, and we rarely take them on as clients. Websites like http://appsfunder.com/ are made for that very reason, but again, difficult to build enough of a following willing to pay top dollar for an app that could very well be free, already existing in the marketplace. A site that is gaining more traction you may want to look into would be http://appsplit.com/. Again, Appsplit Is Crowdfunding For Apps specifically.

It's not foolish, but it's going to be extremely hard to pull it off. I would consider starting with a beta program so you can have some paid clients to pay for the company's expenses. After you have some traction, you can raise a seed round.

Good luck! Forget about SEO. This is just a temporary improvement. Not worth your effort right now specially if you have to pay. If is free, take it as long as it doesn't distract you with "useless busy" work. Focus on the emails. This has huge upside potential!! A video is a powerful tool that automatically enables you to connect with those who share your interests and can make people find you simply because they like you. This also reassures them that you haven't forgotten about them, that you are doing what you can but also need the communities help. Share this on all your social networks. Leverage the power and newly harnessed interest of Periscope or Meerkat of both and announce(schedule) through Twitter a video pitch of what you trying to do. This will get you potential viral spread if you ask your viewers to use a hashtag or to simply tweet your live streaming. If you have backers you're doing something right, you just have to now drive traffic to the campaign. Not really work on the pitch itself... Now you're in the numbers business... :) Humberto Valle Best of luck.