

"X for Y" Startups - mgirdley
http://girdley.com/2013/06/10/x-for-y-startups/

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IsaacL
I hear this a lot, but I disagree.

1\. Firstly, take startups where the founders had an original idea, but they
pitch it as "X for Y". Is this a bad thing? Many people will say that they
should pitch it on its own merits. The thing is human communication is all
about reducing an idea to concepts the listener already understands. I used to
work on a startup that was an online freelancer marketplace based around
social connections. I could also describe it as "eLance meets Linkedin". The
latter gets the idea across even though it's not a _perfect_ description.
Doesn't matter. If I'm dealing with someone who hears a lot of startup ideas,
or has a low attention span (eg the typical investor), brevity trumps
accuracy.

2\. What about startups that use the "X for Y" template to _generate_ business
ideas? This might seem a bit more questionable. But if a certain model worked
for one industry, why can't it be adapted for another? Uber's model of
combining the best features of a marketplace and a high quality service firm
worked well for taxis. Could it work for other markets? onefinestay is Uber
meets AirBNB. Exec is Uber meets TaskRabbit. You get the idea. And it's
clearly not true that Uber are the company best positioned to succeed in those
markets, as they have no business selling hotels or personal services.

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shebson
One of the examples given of a startup that created a new category is
Angellist. I generally agree, but it's worth noting that Angellist has
embraced being described as "Facebook for startups" and "Facebook for
companies": [http://betabeat.com/2011/09/angellist-gains-prestige-as-
it-b...](http://betabeat.com/2011/09/angellist-gains-prestige-as-it-becomes-a-
facebook-for-startups/)

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daniel-cussen
Note that Youtube was originally the Flickr for video. It has done a fair bit
better than flickr.

[http://techcrunch.com/2008/03/16/video-coming-to-flickr-
soon...](http://techcrunch.com/2008/03/16/video-coming-to-flickr-soon-really/)

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anandkulkarni
Parse pitched itself as "Heroku for Mobile."

Seems to be an effective shorthand to convey what you do.

