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You're a little company, now act like one

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Re: You're a little company, now act like one

#31

Post by tptacek »

edw519 wrote: post #6
arohner wrote: post #2

Excellent advice. In a related note, why do all those Enterprise Software Startups appear to have the same website? The one that has different links about how FooSoft can help for each different industry, and you have to go to wikipedia to find out what the product really does? The only thing I can come up with is someone must like those websites that contain zero information, but who is it, and why?

"...someone must like those websites that contain zero information..." My guess is that the less you say about yourself, the less corporate drones have to eliminate you in their RFP process.

Going cold through an RFP process is playing to lose anyways, edw519.

Re: You're a little company, now act like one

#32

Post by tptacek »

sh1mmer wrote: post #8

A bit of meta-commenting but the "Welcome HN" banner which encourages us to upvote the story put me right off. I'll vote it up if I like it, not because you customized your site to "Welcome" me because I read HN.

What's sad about this comment is that it's dominating the HN comment view on this article, and has nothing to do with the article.

Re: You're a little company, now act like one

#33

Post by sh1mmer »

tptacek wrote: post #32
sh1mmer wrote: post #8

A bit of meta-commenting but the "Welcome HN" banner which encourages us to upvote the story put me right off. I'll vote it up if I like it, not because you customized your site to "Welcome" me because I read HN.

What's sad about this comment is that it's dominating the HN comment view on this article, and has nothing to do with the article.

Sorry about that. Not my intent. I actually upvoted the article because I did really enjoy it.

Re: You're a little company, now act like one

#34

Post by dan_sim »

donaq wrote: post #12

That is, of course, until the present batch of small companies grow big (or die) and all the big companies are putting words like "suck" and "cool" on their corporate blurbs. Then the next batch of small companies will ape them because people never change, and then early adopters will start looking out for companies with "people who care enough to sound professional" (excerpted from the future version of OP). And whe…

I thought I was the only one bored of those "friendly" company that use cool expressions to talk about themselves (ex : "we kick ass at what we're doing, woot!", "no more boring meeting! yay!").

I don't want to be friend with a company or a product, I just want it to look pro in what they are doing. Does your dentist says "I clean the crap out of your teeth! giddyup!"?

Maybe when that "we are friendly" trend will be over, the smaller companies will have access to "big" companies not because they try to sound bigger than they are but because they are pro.

Re: You're a little company, now act like one

#35

Post by snprbob86 »

fuelfive wrote: post #28
tsestrich wrote: post #4

I love the advice given in this article. In working on putting together a little company of my own, I often find myself looking at what seems to be "accepted" and trying to steer in that direction. This creates a lot of fluff in my language and, honestly, I end up with something that I don't think I'd even be interested in trying. Keeping it simple and honest always sounded like a good idea, but the fact that people…

Not sure I agree with this. My startup (Frogmetrics, YC S07) hasn't tried to sound big or small. Our site focuses on the service we provide, in concrete language with a clean design. We don't try to sound bigger than we are, but we also don't play up our smallness with a bunch of cute catchphrases either. We've been pretty successful so far at getting big customers, and I think we'd have done less well with a more "s…

"tailor your messaging to your target buyer" -- I think this is the key insight here!

Personally, I like the approach of avoiding allusions to size on your main site, using the expected language of your customer, and not trying to hide it in your personal communications. It's OK if the company blog unveils how tiny you are, anyone looking there is already interested beyond your size.

Re: You're a little company, now act like one

#36

Post by edw519 »

tptacek wrote: post #31
edw519 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"...someone must like those websites that contain zero information..." My guess is that the less you say about yourself, the less corporate drones have to eliminate you in their RFP process.

Going cold through an RFP process is playing to lose anyways, edw519.

Right. Just like posting a website with zero information.

I don't know why anyone would do either.

Re: You're a little company, now act like one

#37

Post by barrkel »

Alex3917 wrote: post #23
sh1mmer wrote: post #8

A bit of meta-commenting but the "Welcome HN" banner which encourages us to upvote the story put me right off. I'll vote it up if I like it, not because you customized your site to "Welcome" me because I read HN.

For every 100 people who read HN, my guess is that 10 upvote stories and 1 comments. I bet that more than half of regular HN readers don't even know that the site is powered by voting despite the little arrows next to each story. If people knew to upvote stories they liked on their own then the average story would have something like 800 upvotes. I agree with what you're saying because if everyone did this it would b…

I comment a lot more frequently than I upvote stories; I have a pretty high bar for upvoting.

Re: You're a little company, now act like one

#38

Post by mitjak »

donw wrote: post #16
donaq wrote: post #12

That is, of course, until the present batch of small companies grow big (or die) and all the big companies are putting words like "suck" and "cool" on their corporate blurbs. Then the next batch of small companies will ape them because people never change, and then early adopters will start looking out for companies with "people who care enough to sound professional" (excerpted from the future version of OP). And whe…

It is possible to sound professional without sounding boring, and I'd also argue that being honest about the scale and capabilities of your company is a big part of professionalism. "UberSoft is a leading provider in synergistic data-driven technologies focused on improving ROI through market-driven analytics. The UberSoft Team has over twenty years of experience in delivering proven solutions to our corporate partne…

Dead on. As tired as I am of all the friendless as well, there are shades of gray in the between. Take even the balsamiq example the article uses -- the website doesn't jump in your face; it simply tries to be more honest and not present itself as a Fortune 501 company.

Re: You're a little company, now act like one

#39

Post by Tobias42 »

donaq wrote: post #12

That is, of course, until the present batch of small companies grow big (or die) and all the big companies are putting words like "suck" and "cool" on their corporate blurbs. Then the next batch of small companies will ape them because people never change, and then early adopters will start looking out for companies with "people who care enough to sound professional" (excerpted from the future version of OP). And whe…

A good example is sdn.sap.com: "Feed your inner geek". Makes me cringe every time.

Re: You're a little company, now act like one

#40

Post by polos »

It has always been known that:

Lying may(!) bring you some advantage, short-term only; but you always have an alternative way: you can tell something great, without lying, but you need your phantasy for doing that.

So, my dear friend, do you simply lack phantasy?

;)

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