Question
I don't want to resort to buying links, but I get the feeling the our competition is and its working for them. They don't have a lot of fantastic content getting links, but they are kicking our buts on a weekly basis. Any ideas would be great.
Answer
There are many ways, but I have not found a single strategy that replaces creating linkworthy content and distributing via aggressive outreach.
Here is a list of all the strategies out there...
http://pointblankseo.com/link-building-strategies
In your shoes, I would stick to blogs and websites that cover startups, and focus on generating referral traffic, not links for SEO.