The lesson learned (and I'm sorry if you had to read between the lines a bit) is that Techcrunch and the other major outlets aren't the only course for marketing your product. I could have busted my ass making putting together everything I'd need to make Arrington raise an eyebrow, or I could focus on trying to get the word out in locations where I was more likely to get conversions. I chose the latter.

To be honest "There’s no glamorous future for Mailmanagr, as well." pretty much sums up this article. It may be a good product, but its aim is not to be a high growth start-up and technically its just a component to an existing app.

Yes, it is just a component to an existing app, but it's a component that customers seem to want, and that the original app's developer didn't seem interested in building (but who can ever tell with 37signals).

'Lessons in PR' implies that there was actually something learned, or at least that something worth learning is being presented.

Nope, just a guy explaining why he chose to market his Basecamp specific web-app via 37signals. Dur.

To be honest "There’s no glamorous future for Mailmanagr, as well." pretty much sums up this article. It may be a good product, but its aim is not to be a high growth start-up and technically its just a component to an existing app.

Best place for a start-up lesson? Probably not.

Should you not target techcrunch, even if your app would most likely not get covered, in order to maintain the exclusive nature of your launch? Sure, if you got a good plan B.