“We are Uber for X”
medium.com
medium.com
AngelList has startups which are primarily described as Mint.com for "stocks" (Vuru), "financial institutions" (MoneyDesktop), "banks" (MyJibe), "student loans" (Tuition.io), "education" (Always Prepped), "cloud content" (AnyCloud), "your digital data" (voyurl), "your time" (Meexo Labs), "your career" (Mighty Spring), "your belongings" (Itemology), "relationships" (EvenBetterHalf), "maternal and pediatric health" (HealthyUs), "fitness" (Curl), "health and fitness" (Total Health Card), "medical records" (ExtrinsicCare), "diabetes" (HealthEngage), "legal services" (AttorneyFee), "sales software" (Stride), "enterprise marketing departments" (Allocadia), "small business marketing" (BringShare), "business relationships" (Mosec), "business" (Cheqbook), "consumer utilities" (dropcountr), "energy" (MyEnergy), "energy usage and expenses" (Power2Switch), "mobile payments" (Wallet), "cars" (Price My Ride), "insurance" (PolicyOwl), and "travel" (Superfly).
Whew. And I didn't even include the ones that are something else plus Mint.com for X.
Honestly, after going through this list I'm not sure what "Mint for X" even means anymore! Cynically, I suspect it means the technology they're hoping to apply is pie charts and snappy web design.
I am thinking it is supposed to mean:
* Gather personal data on a topic from multiple other sites so that you can manage/view it in one place instead of on each individual site.
although you are probably right that a lot of people just interpet it as pie charts / snappy web design.
I've never purchased from their mobile application, though it has been on my phone for over a year.
The Etsy web experience is better for browsing and social discovery is much more intuitive.
That said, Fab recently announced that 30% of their sales are mobile.
That, and the interesting fact that "mobile" is a broad term which seems to encompass tablets in most interpretations. Modern tablets often do a pretty good job of displaying sites which haven't been particularly optimized for mobile anyway.
The hard question is whether to launch on the web or mobile first. Once you've decided on mobile first, choosing iPhone first is a fairly obvious choice.
There is a reason companies are going iPhone first.
An alternate explanation to yours is that companies are going iPhone first because it's trendy. We all know about the SV echo chamber. Following trends seems to fit the data just as well as your hypothesis.
Of course some of that is because Amazon's website is awful, full of noise and random goop that's simply distracting 95% of the time.
But still, I think that actually reflects a lot of websites: the actual content takes up a small fraction of the page, and is surrounded by noise; even those which are less clumsy/cluttered than Amazon often fill the space with graphical prettiness rather than useful content. A small-screen interface can often just eliminate the noise and will be better for it.
Surely this one could have had a better name! (I guess they could pivot into an Uber for...never mind.)
At first I didn’t care much for the Uber metaphor, because it's not accurate (it turns out, less than 20% accurate), but I’ve warmed to it, to convey the gist to the listener.
We had a mobile-first product, and while getting ad hoc snow plowing is useful the day of a storm (and from the supply-side, mobile solves a problem), most of our business is from repeat customers. That is, snow plowing is a route business, and mobile is a companion (e.g. for one-timers, to get info. on your plowguy’s eta/location etc).
Like others, I find the Uber metaphor useful for telling people what we do in 3 seconds, though interestingly, it’s hardly ever to customers. Most of our customers have never heard of Uber in fact, probably not a surprise given their age (many 55+) and where they live (suburbs). I imagine this is different than other Uber for X companies.
By the same token, I find it helpful to invert the Uber metaphor to further explain what you’re doing. For example, Uber would be like PlowMe if it had the option of picking you up at the same place and time automatically.
*PlowMe is now part of ServiceRoute.
That's what the Uber for X is, it doesn't matter if it is cars, services or in our case - people. If you need something, just let everyone know in your area by simply pressing one button and they'll come to you.
So for now, you can find someone nearby to play tennis with you, whenever, wherever you want to :)
When you guys launch in San Francisco, I will try Tennis Buddy. I think it's an interesting concept if you guys broadened it to more general athletic activities (as opposed to just tennis).
I can imagine this being particularly useful for pickup basketball and running buddies.
-> Better comparison shopping (Shopobot)
-> Flickr for video (YouTube)
-> Group video chat (Tinychat)"
- AngelList hover suggestion for writing your high-concept pitch.
Here's how I see it:
1) There are many, many thousands of startups on AngelList.
2) AL explicitly prescribes this exact "X for Y" formula for writing your 1-liner, where X is a well-known success.
3) Uber is a well-know success.
4) Author points out that "30+" companies chose Uber as their X.
This doesn't really seem like a fair characterization. People are following suggested wisdom and 30+ is hardly considerable. Probably about what would be statistically expected, distributing good candidates for X (well-known successes) across AL startups.
1. Identify a service-based industry that feels archaic. 2. Recruit suppliers in your given vertical. 3. Create a mobile application with a big green request button."