Please Don’t Be “The Uber of” Anything
Are these common messages selling your startup short?
When you’re creating something new that didn’t exist before, it’s tough finding the right words to explain it.
If you’re a founder of an innovative product or business, you’ve probably explained it to people 10, 50, 100 different ways…and still haven’t found the one that feels right.
In a perfect world, the inherent awesomeness of your product would be enough to get people on board. But in the real world of your market — a noisy, crowded and inattentive cluster — you have to help people “get” your product in an instant.
You have to frame its value in a way that makes sense to your target customers. That’s what positioning is all about.
Positioning your startup has never been more critical. As the differences between competing solutions narrow, and more cutting-edge technology springs up, you have to be clear and specific about the value you offer.
Positioning is so powerful, it can make an inferior product look better than a superior one.
Whether you like it or not, the words you use to describe your startup are actively positioning your product. Here are examples of common startup language that may be weakening your positioning and making life harder.
“We’re reimagining x”
Sorry if you’re happily using this one. It sure sounds good — especially if your product is set to shake up the market — but the language isn’t serving you well.
For one, it’s a tired phrase in our age of rapid innovation. But the real problem is it forces the reader to do all the work. It’s on them to picture what your reimagined future for ride-sharing or cyber security looks like. And that’s way too much to ask of any prospect.
“Reimagination” is a vague abstraction. It’s a word you forget in seconds.
Chip and Dan Heath break it down in their seminal book, Made to Stick:
“Concrete language helps people, especially novices, understand new concepts. Abstraction is the luxury of experts. If you’ve got to teach an idea to a room full of people, and you aren’t certain what they know…
