There are two ways for an early-stage startup to grow:

1. "The Hail Mary": Make a lot of noise pitching media, flooding social media sites, and sending tons of emails, hoping that someone picks up your cause and builds your business for you.
   
2. "Foundation-Building": Develop a structured plan that creates incremental, sustainable, and predictable channels for growth, execute it really well, but remain adaptable.
   

Most startups choose the first approach to growth for several reasons:

1. It's easier than ever before to get media
   
2. It's easier than ever before to create buzz through social media
   
3. They don't know how to build a business
   
4. The second approach takes hard work, persistence, and discipline
   
5. The founders confuse "fame" with "success"
   

Startups which attain some momentum following the first strategy develop a false sense that it's easy to build a lasting, successful company. They may soon end up in what entrepreneurs call "the trough of disillusionment".

Thanks to the explosion of online media and attention to the startup space, it's easier than ever before to create hype.

When I launched my first consumer internet startup in 2006, we were featured on several major tech blogs (CNET, TechCrunch, VentureBeat). This resulted in over 50,000 web visitors and 6,000 signups within 48 hours. Now we are often featured in top publications and only get hundreds of web visitors. I don't understand this.

I once had breakfast with an entrepreneur who had built one of the most successful internet companies of the 1980's. He shared some great advice:

"Too many startups are wasting time trying to get media attention - setting up camp on the front-lawn of Google, TechCrunch, or other influencers that can make a huge impact on their business. Or even worse, hiring PR people to do it for them. But the media is a like a lighthouse, with its spotlight going 'round and 'round. Either you can waste your time chasing to get in front of the light, or you can invest your time building a great business and be ready when the light comes around and shines on you."

You've seen it happen dozens of times. Think of startups that got massive "hype" for a few weeks or months, and then a year or two later you wonder "what happened to those guys?"..

As you may have guessed, I strongly advocate the second approach to early stage growth: build a strong foundation of skills to acquire, impress, and support paying customers. You can avoid ever being in the "trough of disillusionment" if you develop a systematic approach to growing your business. The benefit is a much higher chance of building a profitable business faster.

To be clear, media and PR can be important to growing your business. But they should be used to accelerate your other programs, not as a main ingredient.