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Don't publicize how small you are
When you visit a new city and decide to go out for the evening, would you rather go to a club that everyone is at or one where you are the only one? I know my answer; I want to go to the one where everyone is. Don't you want your Web application to be viewed the same way? One of my advisors always says, "Perception is reality."
As I continue to work with more startups, I see so many who are showing the world how small they are. For years, I used to say that the Web was a place where you appear in any way you wanted, so why are so many choosing to appear small? When you add Digg-style voting to your site and each story has one vote, you appear small. When you add a forum and have one topic per month, you appear small. Even if your app is great, when you publicize the fact that you are small (or new in some cases), users may go elsewhere.
Some features that can make you appear small include:
- voting
- forums
- latest registered users
- latest comment
- newest users
- number of saves
- anything with a date
With this said, here is my suggestion. As you look at the features you want to add to your Web app, note the ones that might be better left until you get good growth. Does the Digg style voting really need to be there day 1? I think it's completely OK to build the features just don't make them live. Create a checklist that lists the features and how many users or traffic you need before you add the feature. Then just flip the switch on the appropriate date.
Remember that bigger is better. Now get out there and get your club jumping like it's your birthday!
One of the features, which can't be avoided by online startup is a contact page. How in your opinion (and in context of this article) should look the contact page (not showing how small are you) of the small startup? :)
I think he's referring to your success. Don't display the fact that your success is small.
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Wacky Labs -- This is supposed to look like a sig!
Hmm Ivan - not sure what you mean exactly. It's ok to be small, not ok to act small.
Did you mean contact us page or about us page?
my case. I act as large one :) I meant "about us" page probably.
One good way with the contact page, is to create several email accounts such as admin@company.com along with, sales, tech, webmaster etc etc
Basically several addresses that forward to your primary address to give them impression of numerous staff members.
And it is also a good way to sort incoming mails.
Tourists love to go to the place "where everyone is", but I'm not a tourist. When I go out I'm looking for a place that's interesting.
I was pretty excited when I found a friend to invite me to iminlikewithyou. Same when I finally got into GMail. I've never gotten excited about Yahoo! Mail. If an idea resonates with a user, it is more exciting when the site is somewhat empty than overflowing with people. Ever read through the comments for a popular YouTube video lately? It's a minefield of spam and pointless flaming. Early-adopting, passionate, evangelist users are much more likely to carry the flag for a site that is in it's infancy, than a crowded one.
Is it better to be big than small? Of course. Would I flip a switch to be big if I could? In a second. But it doesn't make sense for startups to pretend to be something that they're not.
Focus on the idea.
Nail your features.
Make your demographic fanatical.
I'd much rather be at a half-full bar where I love every song the DJ plays, than at a full bar where I have to scream to talk and have people spilling their drink on me.
Mark, all I am suggesting is that you don't publicize that you are small. I am not saying you should pay people to come to your club so you appear larger.
This is especially true for new Web apps who aren't a Google product or those that have a "celeb' name as founder.
Your comment applies to blogs too. It's a good idea not to put a FeedBurner FeedCount chicklet on your page until you have, say, several hundred subscribers.. otherwise you might not look worth subscribing to to some users!
Great point Peter!
Allen -
This is a great article hinting at a great problem when sites first launch. There is no traffic!
We launched with Recently Uploaded and New People. We also have forums.
I don't think these site features hurt us/have hurt us in anyway. Especially forums because having an active communication line with your audience and scaling that is more important then having an impossible way in touch with you.
Would you rather goto the club with or without a bartender?
Another thought... before launch, I did think it was going to be a good idea to have a ticker of how many users had signed up to show initial growth when we hit techcrunch press. A VC told me that was crazy and decided to nix it during feature lockdown. Probably for the best but maybe not?
I think there are bigger worries then showing how busy a site is but rather building a great product that has functional use.
Rob, I am confused by your comment. Are you saying Viddler doesn't have the traffic to handle launching the items you listed but you launched them anyway? I think all 3 of them are heavily used, so it looks great.
I think I talked about this a bit with Colin in Philly. I think its fine to publish stats as you grow, but why draw attention to it when growth might not be there. While you may have hit TC and got the gold bar from them, not everyone does. This article was mainly for the 98.25% of startups that don't/can't get the buzz going from the large blogs.
I agree that a great product is important but for this article, the product doesn't matter.
I saw a local website that didn't just have a hit counter, it had a flashing marquee saying how many users were online and how many had visited for the day.
Toward the end of the day the figures showing were 1 and 1. :D