Do small startups still have a chance, or do people just pretend to like them?
Do small startups still have a chance, or do people just talk positively about them while continuing to use sites like facebook and linkedin and expecting perfect polish? For example, I started www.nextcept.com a few months ago as a venture network. I'm focusing on a unique method for co-founder discovery, and users seem pretty pumped, but if I post in various startup communities I get told I'm spamming them even when I'm just asking to for thoughts or wanting to talk about my project.
7 comments
[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 32.6 ms ] threadThis is anecdotal, but I found it much easier to tweet something to someone 8 years ago, and get some feedback. Now, you're lucky if you get a response back.
IMHO, startup communities are the worst. Most of the great startups I know avoid those communities, and are usually already a part of 500 Startups or YC.
It's also really common in these communities to post nothing of value. Everyone asks for opinions, takes a month to post a landing page, talks about an upcoming huge launch, repeats this once a month.
As a result, they get very jaded and cynical, the exact opposite of what entrepreneurs should be.
It sounds like you think you know who you want to target and think you know the value you provide them. I'd encourage you to try to make your first few sales manually, before trying to tackle the channel acquisition problem. You can't scale a channel before you know who to target and how to sell to them.
Good luck!
People want their problems solved.
There's your problem. For the most part, these kinds of communities are full of wantrepreneurs, wannabes, and people who are addicted to entrpr0n, but have little or no actual ability, desire, or drive, to execute anything. They're most mental masturbation and/or meta navel-gazing nonsense.
Doing anything really meaningful in this space is really fucking hard as a result.
I care about the quality of the product and support