Most people's twitter settings require that they follow you to DM them.
"e-mail them with a bot that scrapes emails off the product site"
Not a bad idea and we could make some educated guesses as to what the email address is (e.g. support@company.com). That said, we've found some founders aren't as quick to respond to email as they are on Twitter. I personally prefer the more ephemeral nature of Twitter for these type of notifications as my email inbox is already difficult enough to manage.
"Clearly, you guys are also trying to benefit from the increased publicity from using a public message 'board' platform"
We send direct @mentions to founders/startups on Twitter. These tweets will not surface in other's Twitter feed unless they're following both people.
Most people's twitter settings require that they follow you to DM them.
"e-mail them with a bot that scrapes emails off the product site"
Not a bad idea and we could make some educated guesses as to what the email address is (e.g. support@company.com). That said, we've found some founders aren't as quick to respond to email as they are on Twitter. I personally prefer the more ephemeral nature of Twitter for these type of notifications as my email inbox is already difficult enough to manage.
"Clearly, you guys are also trying to benefit from the increased publicity from using a public message 'board' platform"
We send direct @mentions to founders/startups on Twitter. These tweets will not surface in other's Twitter feed unless they're following both people.