You’re a little company, now act like one
blog.asmartbear.com
blog.asmartbear.com
At the height of the bubble, it became common wisdom that startups somehow were not real startups unless they distinguished themselves from small businesses by staking out a grand vision and promoting it relentlessly in their business plans, in their marketing materials, and in their company presentations. It was at that time that everybody and his uncle suddenly became a "leading provider" of this or that, even when the claim obviously lacked credibility. Such claims always sounded phony and, even if an occasional company eventually lived up to them, were almost sure to be discounted as empty and meaningless by the customers who counted.
So it is refreshing to see a direct and sincere style aimed at early adopters as opposed to the large buyers who will tend to shy away from large commitments to unproven startups no matter how promising the products or services.
One can be sincere without overdoing it, however, and too much emphasis on "three founders in a room" and the like is perhaps too casual.
Moral of the story: Just speak English and tell the truth. A concept so revolutionary, it just may work.
Great post, Jason. You put a label (early adopters) on the demographic many of us should be pursuing. Thank you.
I'm wondering if there's a thread dedicated to this topic on HN?, and if not, if it would be worth starting one?
i.e. early stage app promotion/making your app seen by the right people ...
Bullshit is useful - it's fertilizer. Your "about" starts out by wasting my time.
"ThinkCode.TV is a project from ThinkCode Labs, Inc, a Canadian startup founded in 2009"
Someone may care about Canada. Someone may care about 2009. (I doubt that there are many people who care about either one, but ....) However, no one cares about the relationship of ThinkCode.TV to ThinkCode Labs. (You're not Bell Labs.)
Is your goal to get someone to care about ThinkCode.TV or about ThinkCode Labs? Pick one and dump the reference to the other. Then replace ". We are" with "," and ask yourself if your names are the most important thing that you want to get across. If not, that sentence is in the wrong place.
Kill "deeply rooted", "strongly", "a viable business," ,and "in today’s ever-changing world". (That leaves an unnecessary comma.) Better yet, rewrite that sentence so it highlights your customer's needs and not your beliefs. (They only care about your beliefs so far as those beliefs have some relationship to them getting what they want.) And, when you do, remember that modifiers are like knots - they weaken. Yes, even the emphatic ones.
What's your highest priority? If it's not customer service, don't use the word priority in the last paragraph. (If it is, what does that say about your product?) Kill the first and last sentences in that paragraph and rewrite the middle one.
The contact form is too cute. Is it better than a e-mail link/address?
"screencast" should be "screencasts"
Well, for some reason I was thinking acangiano was here in Argentina, so I do care.