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I'm a one man startup. My about page should be personal like: After working for 4 years as a server administrator for some medium to large websites and after h

by racoder 15y ago

I'm a one man startup. My about page should be personal like: After working for 4 years as a server administrator for some medium to large websites and after having a lot of trouble with existing monitoring solutions I decided to build my own. ---OR--- Like a company: With our 4 year experience in the server management industry, we build this tool to help our clients… etc please let me know what do you prefer. Thanks!

ivanstojic 15y ago
I'd love to see what the fine folks of Hacker News think about this. Since I most work alone, I've hit upon the same dilemma several times. Unfortunately, I didn't track my effectiveness when I used one or the other approach so I don't have any hard data to contribute :-(
SamColes 15y ago
I prefer the former myself, but I would guess a lot of people would have more trust and faith in the latter.
imeikas 15y ago
I'd preffer the first one, you are a startup so your company won't have 4 years of experience in the industry, you have. Also clients will figure out that you are a one man startup anyway. Jason Cohen writes exactly about this question in http://blog.asmartbear.com/youre-a-little-company-now-act-like-one.html http://blog.asmartbear.com/youre-a-little-company-now-act-li...
- racoder 15y ago
  the short summary of the article: "Be human. Stop hiding. Be yourself." is a good suggestion
Udo 15y ago
The most important rule is: don't lie or misrepresent what you've been doing. Second: don't sound silly. "our 4 year experience in the server management industry" violates both a little bit. It's OK to present a company profile as "we", but don't overdo it by constantly implying a large group when there is none. And really, even one-man-shows generally have help from other people (be it friends or family or freelancer) so that's OK. That being said, I think it's often a good idea to present a separate About section specifically detailing the founder of the company. It can even be on the same page as the company profile. This is the place where you put professionally relevant personal info, such as "4 year experience in the server management industry". You can even make it more personal by giving out info about what motivated you to do this in the first place, which can be a powerful tool to establish a deeper connection with your potential clients.
- racoder 15y ago
  I tried to present two extremes. Unfortunately English is not my primary language and the company extreme looks a little strange :) . Some grate advice in your comment, thanks for your time.

by racoder 15y ago

ivanstojic 15y ago

I'd love to see what the fine folks of Hacker News think about this. Since I most work alone, I've hit upon the same dilemma several times. Unfortunately, I didn't track my effectiveness when I used one or the other approach so I don't have any hard data to contribute :-(

SamColes 15y ago

I prefer the former myself, but I would guess a lot of people would have more trust and faith in the latter.

imeikas 15y ago

I'd preffer the first one, you are a startup so your company won't have 4 years of experience in the industry, you have. Also clients will figure out that you are a one man startup anyway. Jason Cohen writes exactly about this question in http://blog.asmartbear.com/youre-a-little-company-now-act-like-one.html http://blog.asmartbear.com/youre-a-little-company-now-act-li...

racoder 15y ago
the short summary of the article: "Be human. Stop hiding. Be yourself." is a good suggestion

Udo 15y ago

The most important rule is: don't lie or misrepresent what you've been doing. Second: don't sound silly. "our 4 year experience in the server management industry" violates both a little bit. It's OK to present a company profile as "we", but don't overdo it by constantly implying a large group when there is none. And really, even one-man-shows generally have help from other people (be it friends or family or freelancer) so that's OK. That being said, I think it's often a good idea to present a separate About section specifically detailing the founder of the company. It can even be on the same page as the company profile. This is the place where you put professionally relevant personal info, such as "4 year experience in the server management industry". You can even make it more personal by giving out info about what motivated you to do this in the first place, which can be a powerful tool to establish a deeper connection with your potential clients.

racoder 15y ago
I tried to present two extremes. Unfortunately English is not my primary language and the company extreme looks a little strange :) . Some grate advice in your comment, thanks for your time.