pg, can you ask the YC founders to stop announcing their new companies as the "The This of/for That" for example (from the front page):
"Leaky (YC S11) is Hipmunk for Car Insurance"
I honestly don't care if your new company is "* (YC S11) Is The Facebook for Unicorns," since it really tells me nothing. I have to figure out what a Hipmonk is before I can understand what they do. Hold on while I call the Dalai Lama to ask about the difference between a monk and a hipmonk.
Of the YC S11 batch with announcements up, it seems the Snapjoy folks are doing it right (from the front page):
"Snapjoy (YC S11) Will Organize Your Photos For You"
Now the Snapjoy announcement above provides concise and useful information about what they could do for me, the potential customer.
Then for the sake of HN readers can we allow the titles submitted here to be different?
Edit to add: I know it's possible but I've seen a couple of cases recently where a submitter changed a title (for clarity) but a mod changed it to match the original article.
Replying here to mention that every once in a while, a curator on HN changes a story title that was the original article title to something that is made up by the curator.
This has happened with a lot of new articles posted on HN in general.
It's frustrating because on one hand, you don't want to post an article that's not the source even though it has a clearer (albeit, link-bait) title, but on the other hand, you want the source link even though the title doesn't make any sense.
You're absolutely right. I was able to tell from the Snapjoy link what the startup did, and whether or not it was a thread worth browsing through. In 2 seconds.
If all YC (and non-YC) startups describe what they do in the title in 10 words or less, everybody wins.
I think the most important part of my previous post was not emphasized enough, and probably because my sense of humor got in the way.
The important part is, from the Snapjoy announcement I was able to identify myself as a potential customer. Though I do have a car and car insurance, for me they are already solved problems, so I did not identify myself as a potential customer of Leaky (even if I actually am). If I told my mom that "Leaky is the hipmonk of car insurance," can you imagine the resulting conversation? My mom's hearing isn't great so you could be certain that hilarity would ensue, along with repeating myself and doing a lot of unnecessary explaining.
If I told my mom that "Snapjoy can organize your photos," the resulting conversation would be far less entertaining, but far more useful and far shorter.
It makes perfect sense to me. Obviously, if you don't know what Hipmunk is it's hard but on the other hand, knowing Hipmunk, that sentence conveys more information than a generic one ever could.
Well yes but at the same time you proved my point. This works but it only tells me that the site is about finding car insurance. For all I know, I could end up with yet another sales person on the phone trying to convince me to buy something.
The Hipmunk line gives me the idea that I will have a simple page where I can compare options easily which seems to be the case so far as I can tell from their video.
I don't know what the situation is in other countries but as a British person that summary screams "RUN AWAY".
Edit: Apparently they are doing the same thing as all the insurance comparison companies here, but are the first US company to actually do it properly, so my reaction isn't very fair and your summary is quite good.
I think you are overestimating how many poeople know about Hipmunk. But it's kind of a moot point, TC picked the title. Leaky compares themselves to Orbitz which is very well known.
Angellist and all related Angel/VC pitching is a totally different
situation, with a totally different audience and runs with totally
different expectations; you are trying to attract investors, not
customers.
A "High Concept Pitch" one-liner is an excellent device to employ, but
like everything, it can be done well or it can be done poorly. Both of
the examples I cited from the front page are one-liners, but one is done
poorly (e.g. very narrow scope), and the other is done well (e.g. very
broad scope).
Maybe Leaky (YC S11) is looking more for investors than they are for
customers? If so, then they are using the right language to target the
desired narrow scope of knowledgeable investors. But with better aim,
could they kill more than one bird with that stone? A new startup
announcement on techcrunch is an important opportunity.
The provocative question is, "Would you rather invest in a company
actively acquiring investors or a company actively acquiring customers?"
TechCrunch is a terrible place for consumer startups to try to find customers. It's a great place to gain credibility with the tech/entrepreneur/investor community and it also typically results in other publications writing about you. YC companies launching publicly 2 weeks before Demo Day (probably) need both of those things more than they need a few hundred more users. Just about anybody reading TechCrunch who is of great importance to the next two weeks of this company's lifecycle knows what Hipmunk is. Those same people also know that an article in TechCrunch doesn't get most companies very many users.
> It's a great place to gain credibility with the
tech/entrepreneur/investor community and it also typically results in
other publications writing about you. YC companies launching publicly 2
weeks before Demo Day (probably) need both of those things more than
they need a few hundred more users.
True. Very true. Two weeks before Demo Day must be an insane time.
I see the only difference between you and I is, you are thinking shorter
term with _OR_ logic, while I am thinking longer term with _AND_ logic.
To be more clear, I want to craft the message to gain credibility with
the tech/entrepreneur/investor community, gain additional press, _AND_
acquire new customers. It can be done. You might be living with your
initial one-liner a lot longer than you ever expected; choose carefully.
On the other hand, you've lived through this particular insanity, so you
understand the pressure cooker the current batch of founders are in at
the moment. Expecting the founders, under pressure, to come up with a
one-liner that their mother could love might be unrealistic, but it is
advantageous.
> TechCrunch is a terrible place for consumer startups to try to find
customers.
Our opinions differ a bit on this, and considering who you are, it's
probably not the most wise decision on my part. ;)
It's the early adopters -- the enthusiasts -- found on the likes of
techcrunch, HN and similar that start the snowball, even on consumer
orientated startups. When you craft a message specifically for the tech
savvy early adopters, they understand it, but they can't use your
message to sell it to others.
It comes down to the, "All things bought are sold," idea, where when you
buy something, you sell others on it in some way. You might convince
them it's useful, cool, exclusive, smart, worthwhile, or whatever, but
you really do sell your purchase to others. A well crafted message makes
it easy for your customers to sell for you, particularly your early
adopters. Oddly enough, it works on investors and journalists as well
since they both have the need to sell their investment/article and
hence, sell for you. The need to sell a purchase is the reason why
one-liners exist.
In general terms, we agree, but my expectations are very high, and
admittedly, they may be unrealistic under the circumstances (launching
two weeks before fundpocalypse). None the less, keeping this stuff in
mind might be helpful to founders in the long run. I hope it is.
Why you're telling them how to use their own marketing/PR tools? ^_^
This site is about making good PR (with some rare mistakes, such as in airbnb's case, but there is really big money involved at the time of the next giant bubble bursting =) and promoting their business and ways of making money, as almost every other site on the net.
So, honestly, why they should provide you with the content you like for free? ^_^
Because they want us (early adopters) to use their product. try to think a little bit more - "so their shares in the startup will grow up in price".
Did I express any difficulty with understanding? I thought it was just less fanboyism and a little bit of nonconformism.. ^_^ And of course I used to mass down votes for saying things unpleasant to fanboys.
"Leaky (YC S11) is Hipmunk for Car Insurance"
I honestly don't care if your new company is "* (YC S11) Is The Facebook for Unicorns," since it really tells me nothing. I have to figure out what a Hipmonk is before I can understand what they do. Hold on while I call the Dalai Lama to ask about the difference between a monk and a hipmonk.
Of the YC S11 batch with announcements up, it seems the Snapjoy folks are doing it right (from the front page):
"Snapjoy (YC S11) Will Organize Your Photos For You"
Now the Snapjoy announcement above provides concise and useful information about what they could do for me, the potential customer.