Being the X of Y: Defining your place in the startup world • Hacker News Board

Re: Being the X of Y: Defining your place in the startup world

#11

Post by maxticket » Fri, Dec 30, 2011, 5:26 AM UTC

zackzackzack wrote: post #8

My problem with this type of thinking is that is too easy for Y to swoop in and take over X for you. They have the team, reputation, and recent success. You, most likely, have nothing. Examples: "We are facebook for bicycles!": that's just a facebook group. "We are Heroku for PHP/Clojure/Python": http://blog.heroku.com/archives/2011/8/3/polyglot_platform/ These are my best examples, but if X is just a feature that Y…

"If X is just a feature that Y could implement or acquire, then making that comparison could be a major mistake."

Very true. This could be the case whether or not you publicly call yourself "The X of Y." I've always though that most companies fall in that category, even if they don't know or outwardly admit it.

So basically, we're all in danger no matter what.

Re: Being the X of Y: Defining your place in the startup world

#12

Post by te_chris » Fri, Dec 30, 2011, 7:48 AM UTC

There is so much wrong here. What the startup world thinks of your product matters naught compared to what your target market/s think.

This guy, to me, just unintentionally summed up all that is wrong with certain, vocal, sections of the startup community.

Re: Being the X of Y: Defining your place in the startup world

#13

Post by goodweeds » Fri, Dec 30, 2011, 8:16 AM UTC

Whenever somebody pitches me on "We're the facebook for N" or "We're a groupon for N" I tune them out and find something more interesting to focus on, like the cracks in the sidewalk or that edge on the brown paper wrapper they add to a coffee cup to make sure that you don't burn yourself and sue them. What's that thing called?

Re: Being the X of Y: Defining your place in the startup world

#14

Post by rauar » Fri, Dec 30, 2011, 11:45 AM UTC

stoneage wrote: post #9

Craft your positioning around the context of your audience. Do your consumers really care that you are X for Y? Hell no. They want to know what benefit you are providing them and probably have never heard of the other company you are referencing. But in the context of investors who look at 20 or more pitches a day? That's a different story. You are focusing on memorable positioning and also letting them know your bus…

Why should it be memorable at all ? If you can't stay in their mind by having a great solution for a huge pain then it's a lost game anyway. If they love your idea/solution then you won't need to actively use the comparision at all.

The proof that the business model works and/or scales cannot come from a competitor (except 100% was copied from them but then again just cloning is a dumb idea anyway). That proof is the goal of any serious entrepreneur. I don't see a convincing argument towards VCs here.