5 ms·
While not mentioned in the article, one annoying phrase that has emerged recently is "X for Y". "An AirBnB for music." "A Yelp for wedding dresses." To me this
by d_r 15y ago
While not mentioned in the article, one annoying phrase that has emerged recently is "X for Y". "An AirBnB for music." "A Yelp for wedding dresses."
To me this speaks: "We aren't able to clearly explain what we do, but here's this other well-known company that solves a similar problem in a different market. We'll piggy-back from the recognition of their name. Look at us, look at them, and try to make a connection."
- niklas_a 15y agoHaha, I agree. I've never understood why defining your company in relation to another company makes sense. If you have a good business idea your company should be able to stand by itself.
- run4yourlives 15y agoYou answered your own question. If you don't have a good business idea (or if yours is underdeveloped) you try to create a connection with something a person might already feel positive about.
- tycho77 15y agoCheap shot. You can't win with this one. You know what would happen if they described the product in a vacuum? The top comment on the HN thread would be "Basically, it's like an X for Y."
- andrewflnr 15y agoI guess, but ideally, you can describe yourself with actual verbs, and leave the pat generalizations to HN commenters.
- run4yourlives 15y agoIf somebody correctly makes a connection from your explanation to something they are familiar with, you have done your job. If you need to make a connection with something you hope someone is familiar with in order to explain your product, you don't understand your product well enough.
- tycho77 15y agoAh, good point.
- eogas 15y agoDo you think it's important to differentiate your product in such a way that it can't be described as X for Y? I suppose there are arguments for either case. If you can be described as X for Y, then you can make the argument that "it worked for the Z industry". However if you can't be easily summed up as X for Y, you can claim that this is something completely new that's never been done before. And people like that...I think? I don't know, I'm rather new to this. What do you think?
- run4yourlives 15y agoI'm sorry, but I don't understand what you are trying to ask. Can you re-phrase your question a little?
- eogas 15y agoThe question I'm really trying to get at is whether it's good or bad to be an X for Y company, or at least for people to think of you that way.
- amalcon 15y agoMore like re-emerged. Remember "Napster for X"?
- nandemo 15y agoI disagree. The formula "We're X for Y" is a very succinct way to start painting a picture of what your company does. It's supposed to be a "hook" for an investor or a tech news writer (or reader) to keep listening to you. So I wouldn't assume they aren't able to clearly explain what they do. Still, your complaint might be that, even if works for investors or tech news writers, it shouldn't necessarily be used for prospective employees. In that case, I agree. But I'm sure that, if you happened to be interested in a particular startup that used that formula to describe themselves, they'd be happy to provide you with more details on what they do.
- nethsix 15y agoPerhaps, startups have been reading Hacker News/Y-combinator too much? ;-) (http://ycombinator.com/howtoapply.html http://ycombinator.com/howtoapply.html). Y-combinator applicants are encouraged to make such associations to enable the evaluators to quickly grasp what they are doing.