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This was super interesting! The design really helped as well. I liked this one: "Lesson learned: People care about the narrative behind your product, so don't

This was super interesting! The design really helped as well. I liked this one: "Lesson learned: People care about the narrative behind your product, so don't be afraid to tell your story!" As someone who finds new things on HN all the time, I always check the "about" page, especially if it's something that isn't free. I'm surprised at how often the "About Us" isn't actually "About Anyone", there's no names, it's all just "Us" and "We".

stevekemp 7y ago
To be honest I assume 99% of startup-stories about their inspiration, their journey, and their motivation are just faked. It is nice to see when it comes from an obvious solo-developer, but mostly these things are sanitized and improved over time.
- bluetwo 7y ago
  Yep. I get so tired of the "Shark Tank Template" in which entrepreneurs must pretend that they stumbled upon the need their product fills.
rootusrootus 7y ago
> I'm surprised at how often the "About Us" isn't actually "About Anyone", there's no names, it's all just "Us" and "We". I tend to assume that a lot of times this is because "We" is a lie, it's "Me" and they want to avoid revealing that it's someone's side project. I could be completely wrong. I am a lot.
- rhizome 7y ago
  Not to jump on you specifically, but seriously, why does this matter? I'm not saying "don't think about this thing I don't think people should talk about," I'm saying, "in what way is pronoun selection important?"
  - rootusrootus 7y ago
    It might matter to your customer. Especially if you are trying to succeed in the B2B market. My side project is a piece of software I am confident has real value, and therefore the price won't be chump change. My biggest early hurdle will be convincing companies that they can trust I will be there to support them. I won't lie, but I'm not going to advertise how small the operation is.
- jnfr 7y ago
  I wouldn't go as far as to say "We" is a lie especially with malicious intent. In short, "we" can be an appropriate way to refer to a company as a whole. Btw this is a hotly discussed topic among solo founders (whether to use "I" or "We") so it's nothing you can be "wrong" about!
  - smnrchrds 7y ago
    One academic solved the problem of not wanting to use "I" and simultaneously not wanting to refer to himself as "we" in a rather creative way. Meet F.D.C. Willard, the first-ever feline to co-author a physics paper: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F._D._C._Willard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F._D._C._Willard
- AmericanChopper 7y ago
  > "We" is a lie, it's "Me" and they want to avoid revealing that it's someone's side project. Or if it’s a small group of co-founders and they don’t want to paint a target on their back, and have their employers suing for the IP they created on weekends and evenings.
tr352 7y ago
Related to this: I wonder if the days of founders naming their companies after their own (family) names are ever coming back. There’s something wholesome about it and it inspires confidence. Who is more trustworthy: someone attaching their name to their business, or someone who hides behind WeeBlee or BlooBloo or whatever it is they came up with?
- rcfox 7y ago
  I've always dreamt of doing that, but someone else already used my name: Fox. Even if there weren't probably some kind of trademark issue, there's definitely a negative sentiment associated with it.
  - tr352 7y ago
    Add your first name or just your initials. That would pretty much solve that problem.
  - reificator 7y ago
    There's a reasonably popular streamer named Michael A. L. Fox, his URLs are his full name and in casual conversation he's referred to as MALF. It doesn't seem like there's been any association between him and the company Fox. In fact it doesn't even seem like there's any association between him and Michael J. Fox. My personal advice would be to brand around the imagery of a remote controlled fox and not bring up other things with the same name. The comparisons will happen but if you don't call attention to them I'd bet it happens less than you imagine.
- jkarneges 7y ago
  HashiCorp :)
DoreenMichele 7y ago
I'm surprised at how often the "About Us" isn't actually "About Anyone", there's no names, it's all just "Us" and "We". That's something I often get instructed to use when doing freelance writing. It is considered "professional" and "corporate speak." The other thing is that women and minorities sometimes intentionally hide or downplay their personal details. One guy with a very "foreign" sounding name legally changed his name to something normal WASPy sounding because it was a barrier to doing business. I have seen at least one article on the front page of HN where a woman founder was being sexually harassed and generally treated terribly by clients when doing support chats. She changed her picture and her name to make it appear you were dealing with a man and that largely stopped. I'm a woman and I've had to deal a lot with awful behavior from people, much of which is pretty clearly rooted in misogyny, basically. I'm still not sure what the best path forward is for me. One part of me is clear that hiding or downplaying my gender to try to be successful just reinforces sexism. Another part of me has to wonder if that's a hill I really want to die on or would I rather be able to, you know, eat more regularly and what not.
- hef19898 7y ago
  Damn, I might be guilty as charged! Not long ago, I officially launched greenleaves.io, a logistics startup. The main issue I have with the about us thing is, that for now it is just me. So I use a lot of we and such (the co founder will join as soon as there is enough money to sustain a second person, we both have family, so...). Would you to have quick look at https://greenleaves.io/about/ https://greenleaves.io/about/? Because the last two weeks told me that I might be overthinking a couple of things...
  - DoreenMichele 7y ago
    Try reading this: https://johnnycupcakes.com/pages/about https://johnnycupcakes.com/pages/about Then sit down and "tell your story" in writing as if you were telling it over beers at a pub to a few new-ish friends who don't all equally well know your backstory. Get someone to read through it before publishing it. Good feedback is very helpful. Also, grammar check, spell check, etc. You want to be somewhat entertaining, but more importantly you want to capture as succinctly and compellingly as possible why you are uniquely/especially qualified to offer a new and better solution to an old and tired problem space, basically. There's also a movie clip I like and I've written about why elsewhere, so let me link you to that write up: https://www.reddit.com/r/CitizenPlanners/comments/ecr2vv/getting_the_word_out/ https://www.reddit.com/r/CitizenPlanners/comments/ecr2vv/get... I actually suck at the doing business thing or I would no doubt have some brilliant tie-in here to "And if you have trouble with that, you can hire me..blah blah blah." This is why I still work for a writing service. And I blog.
jnfr 7y ago
Thanks for reading and great point. I toyed with the copy here, too, but mainly it looked weird to have "About Me" on a professional landing page. Also I figured if they cared enough to know more about the company behind the product, I guess they'd found out soon enough that it's just one person behind it. If not, we can leave it at "Us"/"We" and keep it professional.
amelius 7y ago
> People care about the narrative behind your product, so don't be afraid to tell your story! But the whole story would include the number of users that they have now.

stevekemp 7y ago

To be honest I assume 99% of startup-stories about their inspiration, their journey, and their motivation are just faked. It is nice to see when it comes from an obvious solo-developer, but mostly these things are sanitized and improved over time.

bluetwo 7y ago
Yep. I get so tired of the "Shark Tank Template" in which entrepreneurs must pretend that they stumbled upon the need their product fills.

rootusrootus 7y ago

> I'm surprised at how often the "About Us" isn't actually "About Anyone", there's no names, it's all just "Us" and "We". I tend to assume that a lot of times this is because "We" is a lie, it's "Me" and they want to avoid revealing that it's someone's side project. I could be completely wrong. I am a lot.

rhizome 7y ago
Not to jump on you specifically, but seriously, why does this matter? I'm not saying "don't think about this thing I don't think people should talk about," I'm saying, "in what way is pronoun selection important?"
- rootusrootus 7y ago
  It might matter to your customer. Especially if you are trying to succeed in the B2B market. My side project is a piece of software I am confident has real value, and therefore the price won't be chump change. My biggest early hurdle will be convincing companies that they can trust I will be there to support them. I won't lie, but I'm not going to advertise how small the operation is.
jnfr 7y ago
I wouldn't go as far as to say "We" is a lie especially with malicious intent. In short, "we" can be an appropriate way to refer to a company as a whole. Btw this is a hotly discussed topic among solo founders (whether to use "I" or "We") so it's nothing you can be "wrong" about!
- smnrchrds 7y ago
  One academic solved the problem of not wanting to use "I" and simultaneously not wanting to refer to himself as "we" in a rather creative way. Meet F.D.C. Willard, the first-ever feline to co-author a physics paper: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F._D._C._Willard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F._D._C._Willard
AmericanChopper 7y ago
> "We" is a lie, it's "Me" and they want to avoid revealing that it's someone's side project. Or if it’s a small group of co-founders and they don’t want to paint a target on their back, and have their employers suing for the IP they created on weekends and evenings.

tr352 7y ago

Related to this: I wonder if the days of founders naming their companies after their own (family) names are ever coming back. There’s something wholesome about it and it inspires confidence. Who is more trustworthy: someone attaching their name to their business, or someone who hides behind WeeBlee or BlooBloo or whatever it is they came up with?

rcfox 7y ago
I've always dreamt of doing that, but someone else already used my name: Fox. Even if there weren't probably some kind of trademark issue, there's definitely a negative sentiment associated with it.
- tr352 7y ago
  Add your first name or just your initials. That would pretty much solve that problem.
- reificator 7y ago
  There's a reasonably popular streamer named Michael A. L. Fox, his URLs are his full name and in casual conversation he's referred to as MALF. It doesn't seem like there's been any association between him and the company Fox. In fact it doesn't even seem like there's any association between him and Michael J. Fox. My personal advice would be to brand around the imagery of a remote controlled fox and not bring up other things with the same name. The comparisons will happen but if you don't call attention to them I'd bet it happens less than you imagine.
jkarneges 7y ago
HashiCorp :)

DoreenMichele 7y ago

I'm surprised at how often the "About Us" isn't actually "About Anyone", there's no names, it's all just "Us" and "We". That's something I often get instructed to use when doing freelance writing. It is considered "professional" and "corporate speak." The other thing is that women and minorities sometimes intentionally hide or downplay their personal details. One guy with a very "foreign" sounding name legally changed his name to something normal WASPy sounding because it was a barrier to doing business. I have seen at least one article on the front page of HN where a woman founder was being sexually harassed and generally treated terribly by clients when doing support chats. She changed her picture and her name to make it appear you were dealing with a man and that largely stopped. I'm a woman and I've had to deal a lot with awful behavior from people, much of which is pretty clearly rooted in misogyny, basically. I'm still not sure what the best path forward is for me. One part of me is clear that hiding or downplaying my gender to try to be successful just reinforces sexism. Another part of me has to wonder if that's a hill I really want to die on or would I rather be able to, you know, eat more regularly and what not.

hef19898 7y ago
Damn, I might be guilty as charged! Not long ago, I officially launched greenleaves.io, a logistics startup. The main issue I have with the about us thing is, that for now it is just me. So I use a lot of we and such (the co founder will join as soon as there is enough money to sustain a second person, we both have family, so...). Would you to have quick look at https://greenleaves.io/about/ https://greenleaves.io/about/? Because the last two weeks told me that I might be overthinking a couple of things...
- DoreenMichele 7y ago
  Try reading this: https://johnnycupcakes.com/pages/about https://johnnycupcakes.com/pages/about Then sit down and "tell your story" in writing as if you were telling it over beers at a pub to a few new-ish friends who don't all equally well know your backstory. Get someone to read through it before publishing it. Good feedback is very helpful. Also, grammar check, spell check, etc. You want to be somewhat entertaining, but more importantly you want to capture as succinctly and compellingly as possible why you are uniquely/especially qualified to offer a new and better solution to an old and tired problem space, basically. There's also a movie clip I like and I've written about why elsewhere, so let me link you to that write up: https://www.reddit.com/r/CitizenPlanners/comments/ecr2vv/getting_the_word_out/ https://www.reddit.com/r/CitizenPlanners/comments/ecr2vv/get... I actually suck at the doing business thing or I would no doubt have some brilliant tie-in here to "And if you have trouble with that, you can hire me..blah blah blah." This is why I still work for a writing service. And I blog.

jnfr 7y ago

Thanks for reading and great point. I toyed with the copy here, too, but mainly it looked weird to have "About Me" on a professional landing page. Also I figured if they cared enough to know more about the company behind the product, I guess they'd found out soon enough that it's just one person behind it. If not, we can leave it at "Us"/"We" and keep it professional.

amelius 7y ago

> People care about the narrative behind your product, so don't be afraid to tell your story! But the whole story would include the number of users that they have now.