A Few Thoughts on Startups from a Company That Isn't One

Personally, what annoys me would be summarized in a College Humor video titled "Startup Guys".

I don't like the buzz-word-fests. I don't like grandiose claims like "We're going to change the world" or revolutionize an industry, or something.

What I find irritating too, is the fact that many of these guys feel like everyone's dumb for not seeing the value of their product. No, it's not because I don't understand it. It's because it's a non-product that fixes a non-problem in a non-market.

I'll give you an example: I've seen a guy on TV who's founded a "startup". He claims he has a solution that will revolutionize electronic payments in the country (Algeria), and in an interview, he whines about the lack of support and encouragement -from government structures- despite being in an incubator paid for by the government where they basically give you offices for virtually free.

Good. So I check out his website. It says "electronic payments", but there's no way in hell you can understand what it "really does" for there is no explanation of how it works.

Then I visit the blog, and the guy posted a recent update on the project. You know the type "Alpha test tango zulu whatever jargon is done. The website is now open to the public and you don't need an invitation code".

I say "Sweet!". I'm about to register, maybe there's more info inside. I fill out the form and there's a text field that says "Invitation code" with a red asterisk (mandatory).

I don't think they're stupid enough not to have changed the code. I hit the button, and it tells me I need an invitation code.

Uhm ? "Your founder just blogged that the phase is finished and that it's open to the public. He explicitly said that. Black on white !".

If you're going to tell people your website is open to the public, at the very least test that claim ! Try to register yourself a new account!

Okay ..

Then I download their API. It's written in Python and is tiny. I see that the authentication code is generated from a website. The form is "domain.com". It's different than the company name. It's the name of a dude. What are they thinking ?

Anyway..

I open a new tab and write "domain" and hit Ctrl+Enter. It's a 404. Seriously?

I ping domain.com and it's up. I try "domain.com" and not "www.domain.com" and a page appears.

What do the people who're in charge have on their mind ? A 404, really ? For something that can be fixed in less than a minute ?

But wait, there's more !

Remember it's an electronic payments solution, right ? Cool. The site doesn't have SSL. :)

But wait, there's more than more !

The website triggers a WOT alert as malicious.

So you frankly expect people to exchange money on a website that doesn't have an SSL certificate and triggers a WOT alert, without telling them anything about what your product does, and all this, while you don't let them register because, genius that you are, you forgot to change the code and were too eager to blog about it with technical terms only heard on Star Trek ?

And then, you'll whine about the lack of support.

I've done all of this in less than 5 minutes. The guys are working on this project since 2010. And they've read "The Lean Startup" and are into that kind of things. i.e: There's no excuse for not having at least one damn test of the product !

So yeah..