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Yesterday, I Went to the American Idol for Startups. It Made Me Want to Die.

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Re: Yesterday, I Went to the American Idol for Startups. It Made Me Want to Die.

#71

Post by Apocryphon »

polyfractal wrote: post #5
dinkumthinkum wrote: post #4

Not to be that guy but it's like the author is writing a novel. What's the tl;dr here?

He went to Startup Riot, saw a bunch of consumer internet startups pitching their product. Complained about the names, the language used to describe the ideas ("content" vs "text", "consume" vs "read", etc) and the ideas themselves. Half of the article sounds like sour grapes, half is legit criticism.

I think sometimes we need a Debbie Downer to critique a party. Imagine if a similar article like this was written in the late '90s ridiculing the excesses and frivolity of the dot-com boom. Perhaps even when things are going great, we should take a step back and think if we're really going in the right direction?

Even if the economics are better this time around, the aesthetics could be better as well.

Re: Yesterday, I Went to the American Idol for Startups. It Made Me Want to Die.

#72

Post by samstave »

trevelyan wrote: post #15
polyfractal wrote: post #3

Really enjoying the author's prose. This had me rolling: >> It’s like watching some sadist work over a baby lamb with a rusty crowbar and a broken gin bottle. The names of these startups sound like the products of an aggressive brain tumor on the frontal lobe. Crowdegy, Placeling, Kouply, QuoteRobot, Appthwack, Makegood, Onthego, Nickler, Kahal, Tanzio, Taskk. They’re all whimsical and unique in exactly the same way.

Actually, I quite like the name Appthwack.

My favorite domain of all time: www.therapist.com

I cannot read that any other way than, www.THErapist.com

Re: Yesterday, I Went to the American Idol for Startups. It Made Me Want to Die.

#73

Post by samstave »

Apocryphon wrote: post #70
kstenerud wrote: post #51

"Hell, as I check my e-mail, I notice with a resigned shame that my coworkers—smart people I consider to be excellent writers—are unironically using the word “spearhead” as a verb in an e-mail thread." Aaaaand this is where I dismiss the author as simply looking for things to complain about. Complaining about names (as if that even matters). Complaining about the way they dress. Complaining about the way they talk. M…

Buzzwords must die.

I feel like you and I have synergy on that opinion.

Re: Yesterday, I Went to the American Idol for Startups. It Made Me Want to Die.

#74

Post by LeFever »

I was there yesterday, and we actually presented and ended up tied for second place. AppThwack (Not to be confused with a "brain tumor") is a rapid, automated QA service for testing Android apps on real, non-emulated devices in a massively parallel and fast way. I realize it's not a world-changingly noble mission, but I also don't think it's trivial or inconsequential. Regardless, here are my thoughts. I posted a bit more in the article comment, but thought I'd paste part of my comment here.

"This article is definitely entertaining. It's vapid and catty and well written, and accurately portrays an event from an outsider's perspective. Of course there are lots of things that look like "bad ideas" on their face. On the other hand, there are lots of ideas that seem dumb at first that grow into interesting companies that end up solving legitimate problems.

Overall I think the event was very well run and I met a lot of great people. I was there with the goal of getting something out of it, though, and that something was connections, potential partners/customers, and some more pitch experience. Obviously the author got what he was looking for as well.

I think it's important that the "startup community" (I hate that that's a thing people say) gets kicked in the balls every now and then. For example, this look at TechCrunch Disrupt: http://www.buzzfeed.com/jackstuef/scenes-from-the-pounding-h...

Re: Yesterday, I Went to the American Idol for Startups. It Made Me Want to Die.

#75

Post by SCdF »

So those names were indeed terrible. But how the hell do you name things well? It's really hard.

The second you write some code you have to call it something, and I imagine that's the point where people think up janky cute names, and then it's in the codebase and that's that. I know for me I think up something stupid and then roll with that, presuming that if it ever makes it out of localhost it will be renamed to something sensible.

These people are just pitching, no wonder there names are like AwesomeSaucr and CakeBacon and what-not.

Re: Yesterday, I Went to the American Idol for Startups. It Made Me Want to Die.

#76

Post by jefecoon »

SCdF wrote: post #75

So those names were indeed terrible. But how the hell do you name things well? It's really hard. The second you write some code you have to call it something , and I imagine that's the point where people think up janky cute names, and then it's in the codebase and that's that. I know for me I think up something stupid and then roll with that, presuming that if it ever makes it out of localhost it will be renamed to s…

Jeff @ MakeGood; I pitched yesterday at StartupRiot.

For what it's worth, 'makegoods' are old ad-industry jargon for extra ads which have to be run to literally 'make good' on what you've sold to an advertiser... plus a half-way decent play on words. Our target clients instantly get what we do, and want a t-shirt = mission accomplished.

The article has exceptional wordcraft, that's true. However, of all the potential angles or stories he could have written, he simply phoned in this bashing of the attendees for wearing khakis and using "TPS Report" industry jargon. If he'd actually bothered to talk to any of these companies he could have written so much more.

I'm going to dust off my khakis and get back to coding up our solution for our clients who love us now.

PS: i hadn't looked at the author's bio until I saw the comment of someone who did and called the author a "hipster twat." Thanks for that, our office was rolling.

Re: Yesterday, I Went to the American Idol for Startups. It Made Me Want to Die.

#77

Post by runejuhl »

samstave wrote: post #72
trevelyan wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, I quite like the name Appthwack.

My favorite domain of all time: www.therapist.com I cannot read that any other way than, www.THErapist.com

I guess you haven't been to www.PENISland.com? For some years there was an actual page at the end if the DNS request. Now the domain hilariously redirects to www.penisLEND.com, which is funny and awkwardly enticing.

Re: Yesterday, I Went to the American Idol for Startups. It Made Me Want to Die.

#78

Post by samstave »

runejuhl wrote: post #77
samstave wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My favorite domain of all time: www.therapist.com I cannot read that any other way than, www.THErapist.com

I guess you haven't been to www.PENISland.com? For some years there was an actual page at the end if the DNS request. Now the domain hilariously redirects to www.penisLEND.com, which is funny and awkwardly enticing.

Haha I totally forgot about the wonder vacation spot; PENISLand!

Goes hand-in-hand with this post:

http://www.businessinsider.com/15-worst-corporate-logo-fails...

Re: Yesterday, I Went to the American Idol for Startups. It Made Me Want to Die.

#79

Post by awakeasleep »

mamoswined wrote: post #63

"The women have it tougher. Their business casual is neither business-minded nor all that casual, a confusing melange of sundresses and sensible slacks, gossamer sweaters tossed over spaghetti straps." That seems weirdly sexist to me. I guess I really like working in tech because I can wear generally what I want, and often in the summer, that means sundresses, instead of a stifling business suit. And I guess I always…

I think you have it backwards. The sundress is overly-dressy. The shoes are designed to be looked at and to impress, rather than for comfort.

I think that sort of misrepresentation (not you specifically, the event) is what the author resenting. Read me out.

Brute utility defines romance of 'startup culture'. Humans understanding their world, and interacting with it in a straight-forward way. I'm modifying the code to do this. These effects will alter this part of our business. You're attempting to account for everything. Money has definite purposes. Your time has value measured in the sort of excitement that makes your brain burn like you were lifting weights with it.

Those conditions do not include men spending their money on jeans, and women spending self control on culturally approved foot torture. At that point the focus has moved from interacting with the business to something about social status.

Buzzwords really give things away. I'm only now learning that buzzwords are the most important part of modern established businesses. They're fucking amazing. A buzzword represents an abstract concept.

Abstract concepts come in two flavors. Those that represent something very specific/complex in concise terms, and those which represent something very vague/simple in bombastic terms. In use, they are the guardians of understanding and agreement. Secrecy and manipulation and power with publicly spoken words. A stark contrast to the liberal sharing of knowledge and honest curiosity of the startup dream.

Re: Yesterday, I Went to the American Idol for Startups. It Made Me Want to Die.

#80

Post by visualcsharp »

RyanIyengar wrote: post #61
smacktoward wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For those of you who are too young to have lived through the original dot-com boom, I can't recommend this 1999 article on company naming from Salon highly enough: http://www.salon.com/1999/11/30/naming/ Read the whole thing, it's hilarious. As soon as I saw the parade of names in the OP I was reminded of one of the names the naming consultants in the the Salon piece devised -- "Jamcracker": When Altman and Manning p…

The Jamcracker Services Delivery Network (JSDN) enables Service Providers to unify the delivery of disparate cloud services to their direct customers and through their channels. Key features include: http://www.jamcracker.com/ Oh goodness

Most of their Web site seems to consist of jargon and puffery--"across the enterprise," "enables" and "ecosystems."
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