3 ms·

Anyone else tired of hearing about "the Heroku of x?" However, you can be pretty sure you hit the right combo of good timing and implementation when your own s

by gexla 16y ago

Anyone else tired of hearing about "the Heroku of x?" However, you can be pretty sure you hit the right combo of good timing and implementation when your own startup is followed by services which are referred to as "[insert your startup name] of x." ETA: Let's have some fun and play with the tagline they have on their pricing page which is "Like Heroku, but better." Like Heroku, but without ninjas and rockstars. Like Heroku, but better, but less cool.

aresant 16y ago
Tired or not it's not a bad way to make value proposition clear and in hindsight is pretty handy: - "Youtube is the flickr of Video" - http://slashdot.org/articles/05/08/14/1320217.shtml http://slashdot.org/articles/05/08/14/1320217.shtml - "AdMob is the doubleclick of mobile" http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/techbeat/archives/2009/11/google_buys_adm.html http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/techbeat/archives/200... etc
- gexla 16y ago
  Sure, but wouldn't it be better if you could make that proposition from your own presentation without having to refer to other services? If PHPFog is the Heroku of PHP, then what was Heroku the Heroku of? ;)
  - aresant 16y ago
    You do realize that "The Heroku Of PHP" is not a line from PHPFog right? It's how TechCrunch is explaining what the site is. http://www.phpfog.com/ http://www.phpfog.com/
    - gexla 16y ago
      Actually, it's right on their pricing page. Maybe they didn't think of the line themselves, but it's on their site and not as a quote. PHP Fog is like Heroku for PHP. But better. We will provide simple one-click installations of some of the most popular PHP applications out there. ETA: However, I do agree that "like Heroku for PHP" is a big difference from "is Heroku for PHP." My mistake.
      - robryan 16y ago
        It's a good way of explaining it to people as many more have heard of Heroku. It's not like their directly competing so I can't see a negative side.
  - StavrosK 16y ago
    It's the equivalent of defining a term. You could offer a synonym, or you could circumlocute.
  - netcan 16y ago
    Analogies carry a lot of meaning, often subtle and hard to get across in a paragraph, let alone a line. Who else would you explain it? PHP cloud hosting? Peoples understanding of a thing is not always very high res. Take 'evolution by natural selection'. Some people understand the mechanics, consequences and how A leads to B quite well, some don't. People assciate all sorts of things outside of the mechanics with it: 'aha moment,' 'prototypical scientific theory,' 'gradual process,' 'controversy,' 'cornerstone theory,' etc. etc. You can get at this fuzzy nebulae of meanings and associations via analogies: "Darwin of climate science," "Natural Selection of Geology," "Intelligent Design of Feminism." A lot of people don't know exactly what Heroku is, they know it's getting a lot of buzz, have heard the praise, have heard customers staunchly defending the prices, etc. They might be inclined to check out a Heroku (or for example, app engine) for their language.
steveklabnik 16y ago
I agree when a company's mission seems simple, it might be overkill. But this kind of analogy was the only way of getting people to reasonably understand what my first startup did. "We're the EC2 of manufacturing."
nl 16y ago
Imagine explaining it from first principles: Q: "Please explain what your application does, without comparing it to anything" A: "It's the Heroku of PHP".. No! A: "It's like EC2, but preconfigured for PHP with less control".. No! A: "It's like shared web hosting, but with better performance characteristics and somewhat more control".. No! ..... A: "You get a server on the internet, where you can install PHP stuff. Except you don't actually have a server, and it is preconfigured to automatically scale your app across virtual machines. It comes with a set of tools and scripts to make installing stuff easy, and you don't need to administer it. By letting us concentrate on system admin and scaling it gives you more time to concentrate on building your application." Q: "Oh, you mean like Heroku, except for PHP?" A: "FUUUUUUUUUUUU"

by gexla 16y ago

aresant 16y ago

Tired or not it's not a bad way to make value proposition clear and in hindsight is pretty handy: - "Youtube is the flickr of Video" - http://slashdot.org/articles/05/08/14/1320217.shtml http://slashdot.org/articles/05/08/14/1320217.shtml - "AdMob is the doubleclick of mobile" http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/techbeat/archives/2009/11/google_buys_adm.html http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/techbeat/archives/200... etc

gexla 16y ago
Sure, but wouldn't it be better if you could make that proposition from your own presentation without having to refer to other services? If PHPFog is the Heroku of PHP, then what was Heroku the Heroku of? ;)
- aresant 16y ago
  You do realize that "The Heroku Of PHP" is not a line from PHPFog right? It's how TechCrunch is explaining what the site is. http://www.phpfog.com/ http://www.phpfog.com/
  - gexla 16y ago
    Actually, it's right on their pricing page. Maybe they didn't think of the line themselves, but it's on their site and not as a quote. PHP Fog is like Heroku for PHP. But better. We will provide simple one-click installations of some of the most popular PHP applications out there. ETA: However, I do agree that "like Heroku for PHP" is a big difference from "is Heroku for PHP." My mistake.
    - robryan 16y ago
      It's a good way of explaining it to people as many more have heard of Heroku. It's not like their directly competing so I can't see a negative side.
- StavrosK 16y ago
  It's the equivalent of defining a term. You could offer a synonym, or you could circumlocute.
- netcan 16y ago
  Analogies carry a lot of meaning, often subtle and hard to get across in a paragraph, let alone a line. Who else would you explain it? PHP cloud hosting? Peoples understanding of a thing is not always very high res. Take 'evolution by natural selection'. Some people understand the mechanics, consequences and how A leads to B quite well, some don't. People assciate all sorts of things outside of the mechanics with it: 'aha moment,' 'prototypical scientific theory,' 'gradual process,' 'controversy,' 'cornerstone theory,' etc. etc. You can get at this fuzzy nebulae of meanings and associations via analogies: "Darwin of climate science," "Natural Selection of Geology," "Intelligent Design of Feminism." A lot of people don't know exactly what Heroku is, they know it's getting a lot of buzz, have heard the praise, have heard customers staunchly defending the prices, etc. They might be inclined to check out a Heroku (or for example, app engine) for their language.

steveklabnik 16y ago

I agree when a company's mission seems simple, it might be overkill. But this kind of analogy was the only way of getting people to reasonably understand what my first startup did. "We're the EC2 of manufacturing."

nl 16y ago

Imagine explaining it from first principles: Q: "Please explain what your application does, without comparing it to anything" A: "It's the Heroku of PHP".. No! A: "It's like EC2, but preconfigured for PHP with less control".. No! A: "It's like shared web hosting, but with better performance characteristics and somewhat more control".. No! ..... A: "You get a server on the internet, where you can install PHP stuff. Except you don't actually have a server, and it is preconfigured to automatically scale your app across virtual machines. It comes with a set of tools and scripts to make installing stuff easy, and you don't need to administer it. By letting us concentrate on system admin and scaling it gives you more time to concentrate on building your application." Q: "Oh, you mean like Heroku, except for PHP?" A: "FUUUUUUUUUUUU"