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Ask YC: Give Us Your Best Elevator Pitch

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Ask YC: Give Us Your Best Elevator Pitch

#61

Post by cperciva »

wheels wrote: post #60
cperciva wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Backups for Criminals Is Airbus a company of criminals? They have a perfectly good reason for wanting to keep their data out of the hands of the US government: Every time the US government gets some information about Airbus, Boeing has it the next day. Sadly, industrial espionage is something which many governments are actively involved in; wanting to make sure that your foreign competitors don't have access to your…

Is Airbus a company of criminals? I think that misses the point though. From a rational perspective, of course, companies don't want the US government grabbing their private data. But from an emotional impact perspective, which seems to be the idea of a pitch, it makes it sound sketchy. Possibly more emotive, and catering to the (annoying) zeitgeist would be "[...] designed from the ground up to keep your data out of…

keep your data out of the hands of hackers and cyber-terrorists

I'm not good at marketing: I'm too honest. I simply can't grossly exaggerate threats like that. Black hats, sure. Cyber terrorists? Not a very real threat.

Re: Ask YC: Give Us Your Best Elevator Pitch

#62

Post by wheels »

cperciva wrote: post #61
wheels wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is Airbus a company of criminals? I think that misses the point though. From a rational perspective, of course, companies don't want the US government grabbing their private data. But from an emotional impact perspective, which seems to be the idea of a pitch, it makes it sound sketchy. Possibly more emotive, and catering to the (annoying) zeitgeist would be "[...] designed from the ground up to keep your data out of…

keep your data out of the hands of hackers and cyber-terrorists I'm not good at marketing: I'm too honest. I simply can't grossly exaggerate threats like that. Black hats, sure. Cyber terrorists? Not a very real threat.

Sure. But on the other hand, what "security" is about is selling protection from a perceived threat, whether it really exists or not. On the plus-side, in the US these days, "terrorism" has been redefined to "people doing things we don't like". ;-)

Re: Ask YC: Give Us Your Best Elevator Pitch

#63

Post by cperciva »

wheels wrote: post #62
cperciva wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

keep your data out of the hands of hackers and cyber-terrorists I'm not good at marketing: I'm too honest. I simply can't grossly exaggerate threats like that. Black hats, sure. Cyber terrorists? Not a very real threat.

Sure. But on the other hand, what "security" is about is selling protection from a perceived threat, whether it really exists or not. On the plus-side, in the US these days, "terrorism" has been redefined to "people doing things we don't like". ;-)

what "security" is about is selling protection from a perceived threat, whether it really exists or not

No. As anyone who works in the field can tell you, the first step in any security work is to analyse what threats exist (which involves assessing both opportunity and motive -- if you're the US Air Force, you probably don't consider the NSA to be a threat even if the NSA is able to break into your systems).

Re: Ask YC: Give Us Your Best Elevator Pitch

#64

Post by wheels »

cperciva wrote: post #63
wheels wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure. But on the other hand, what "security" is about is selling protection from a perceived threat, whether it really exists or not. On the plus-side, in the US these days, "terrorism" has been redefined to "people doing things we don't like". ;-)

what "security" is about is selling protection from a perceived threat, whether it really exists or not No. As anyone who works in the field can tell you, the first step in any security work is to analyse what threats exist (which involves assessing both opportunity and motive -- if you're the US Air Force, you probably don't consider the NSA to be a threat even if the NSA is able to break into your systems).

But that's my point (and that of several others here -- and really I'm just providing this commentary in hopes that it will help) -- your elevator pitch isn't for anyone who works in the field, it's for your customers and their bosses and investors. I understand that factually you're solving a real problem and noting that in your pitch and that other security experts will understand that too, but if customers / investors read it and immediately think, "nutjob", then it's going to work against you.

Re: Ask YC: Give Us Your Best Elevator Pitch

#65

Post by cperciva »

wheels wrote: post #64
cperciva wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what "security" is about is selling protection from a perceived threat, whether it really exists or not No. As anyone who works in the field can tell you, the first step in any security work is to analyse what threats exist (which involves assessing both opportunity and motive -- if you're the US Air Force, you probably don't consider the NSA to be a threat even if the NSA is able to break into your systems).

But that's my point (and that of several others here -- and really I'm just providing this commentary in hopes that it will help) -- your elevator pitch isn't for anyone who works in the field , it's for your customers and their bosses and investors. I understand that factually you're solving a real problem and noting that in your pitch and that other security experts will understand that too, but if customers / inve…

Fair enough. :-)

Given that I have trouble with dumbing things down for a non-security-literate audience, I think the right solution here is for me to work at educating people -- I'm already planning on doing this, actually, by providing information about all the potential attacks which my code is designed to prevent (and which other code isn't).

Re: Ask YC: Give Us Your Best Elevator Pitch

#66

Post by aswanson »

cperciva wrote: post #65
wheels wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But that's my point (and that of several others here -- and really I'm just providing this commentary in hopes that it will help) -- your elevator pitch isn't for anyone who works in the field , it's for your customers and their bosses and investors. I understand that factually you're solving a real problem and noting that in your pitch and that other security experts will understand that too, but if customers / inve…

Fair enough. :-) Given that I have trouble with dumbing things down for a non-security-literate audience, I think the right solution here is for me to work at educating people -- I'm already planning on doing this, actually, by providing information about all the potential attacks which my code is designed to prevent (and which other code isn't).

That angle may work best. If you can prove to someone they have no pants on while they think they are fully clothed, that is sure to tag the amygdala, and hence attentiveness.
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