When Garage.com, an Internet matching service for entrepreneurs and investors, threw open its virtual doors in October, the launch party was held at a Mercedes dealership in Silicon Valley. The A-list of entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and media people who showed up got free massages, their pictures on mock covers of Forbes magazine, and raffles for a one-year lease on a Mercedes.

In the weeks surrounding the event, Garage.com in Palo Alto, Calif., was written up in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The San Jose Mercury News, and just about every tech-savvy media publication around. With such flashy press coverage and its glitzy launch, Garage.com has probably become the best-known Internet service for marrying startups with angel investors, venture capitalists, and corporate strategic partners -- though it was by no means the first.

Where did all this priceless buzz come from? The person who set off the vibrations for Garage.com is one of its founders and the chief executive officer Guy Kawasaki, the former "evangelist" for Apple Computer Inc. Kawasaki developed the two concepts -- buzz and evangelism -- into marketing musts for young companies seeking attention and credibility. He did it for years at Apple, which, despite falling market share, is still known for a core of fanatically loyal customers. Now he's practicing what he preaches at Garage.com.

This marketing approach, he says, is a three-stage process. First, companies must build a great product or service. Secondly, nurture the buzz around the product. And third, fuel the message with targeted and intense evangelism. What's buzz? "Buzz is generalized but diffuse 'street talk' about a company or product. Evangelism is specific, focused, and directed -- i.e., getting someone to try or buy a product," Kawasaki replies in an E-mail interview. "Evangelists have a psychological stake, whereas people who spread buzz usually don't."

Garage.com has quickly created so-called "mindshare," because it was able to land in the media. And it had credibility in the media because of the strength of its founders: Kawasaki; Rich Karlgaard, the publisher of Forbes; and Craig Johnson, the chairman of Venture Law Group, a Silicon Valley law firm.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS. Al Ries, a Roswell (Ga.) marketing consultant with Ries & Ries, says the credibility of the partners and the media attention a new venture gets are crucial. Indeed, the buzz may be more important than the product itself. "It doesn't matter how good the product is, but how powerful the perception is," says Ries. "The biggest problem with small companies is that they're too product-oriented. They want to be first or the best. But it isn't a question of who's first or the best, ...rather who's first or best in the mind of the consumer."

Garage.com is a good case in point, since Internet services that match entrepreneurs and investors have been available for at least a year. Still, few have generated the kind of excitement that Kawasaki's venture has. Although Kawasaki, unlike Ries, believes in the innate power of great products, he also speaks of the power of brands. Garage.com, for instance, has subscription E-mail lists and resource bulletin boards on its Web site, both of which are designed to keep the company's name in peoples' minds.

"We want to imprint people with our brand -- for the day when they are starting a company or want to invest. Call it institutionalized buzz, if you will," he says. This type of mindshare is essential to building a base of customers, even if a business is operating in a small town or a niche market. The relentless goal is to pop up in customers' minds when they first think about a specific product.

And if you fail to do that? "Well, then you better have a low price," says Jack Trout, president of Trout & Partners, a Greenwich (Conn.) business strategy group.

By Samuel Fromartz in Washington, D.C.


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