Guy Grimland, editor of TheMarker IT, interviewed me a couple weeks ago and at the outset of the interview asked me “why should startups approach VC Cafe rather than traditional media?” It was early in the morning, but the question was easy for me to answer. I believe that blogs represent another angle of the media, but they’re not here to kill the traditional printed word. I told Guy what Israeli startups already know: I don’t need a scoop as the pre requisite of an interview with a company that has a cool story or product. Blogs simply provide additional exposure, especially in the early stages of the startup’s life cycle.

Though the news on Israeli venture capital and startups is constant, I decided a long time ago that real lessons and takeaways don’t lay behind the press releases and the official announcements. The lessons are in the stories that entrepreneurs share, in the companies’ visions, in the business model creativity, the bootstrapping abilities and the dedication and skill of the management teams. That’s why I like the interview format so much.

Below are some of the stats featured in TheMarker IT article:

I’m truly honored to be featured alongside some of my favorite and most respected bloggers. Below is the list of blogs described in the article as “Must Know” for all Israeli startups:

• Somewhat Frank by Frank Gruber. Contact: frank@frankgruber5.com
• Webware by Rafe Needleman (former editor of Cnet). Contact: editor@webware.com
• Cleantech Investing in Israel by Jonathan Shapira. Contact: jshapira@gmail.com
• Gigaom by legendary Om Malik. Contact: http://gigaom.com/contact
• Blonde 2.0 by seriously blond Ayelet Noff. Contact: Send a Facebook message.
• Israel On Blog by Anonymous. Contact: through this page.
• VentureBeat by superstar Matt Marshall. Contact: venturebeat@gmail.com
• TechCrunch by Michael Arrington. Contact: http://www.techcrunch.com/submit-profile.
• Go2Web20 By the web 2.0 maid of honor, Orli Yakuel. Contact: orliy1@gmail.com
• the.co.ils by Yaron Orenstein. Contact: the_editor@thecoils.com
• Mashable by Australian wiz Pete Cashmore. Contact: pstyle-news@mashable.com
• http://blogs.microsoft.co.il/blogs/yosit by Yosi Taguri of Microsoft. Contact: through Yosi’s blog
• ReadWriteWeb by Richard MacManus. Contact: tips@readwriteweb.com
• Also worth mentioning: Myblog by Ouriel, Yaron Galai’s Web X.0, and Daniel Cohen’s Israel Ventuire Capital 2.0The article provides a short review of each one of these blogs – VC Cafe was described as a “friendly place for Israeli Startups”. Thanks again to TheMarker! Can’t read Hebrew? Ouriel has a pretty good translation in this post.

See the article through Scribd’s excellent iPaper application:

Original article in The Marker(Hebrew): http://it.themarker.com/tmit/article/2896

and also in Haaretz