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It's a storage company that provides free pick-up and paid drop-off. How is that "Dropbox For Real Life"? Can I "sync" my stuff between multiple apartments?

It's a storage company that provides free pick-up and paid drop-off. How is that "Dropbox For Real Life"? Can I "sync" my stuff between multiple apartments? These "It's like X for Y" comparisons are so frustratingly dumb.

malandrew 13y ago
Great observation. You should take that to another thread where people are lamenting that the "It's like X for Y" pitch has jumped the shark. You've added nothing of value to the conversation with respect to this company's business model or the problem they are tackling. People please don't upvote this stuff. You're hurting HN.
siruva07 13y ago
Hi, I'm Sam the founder of MakeSpace. It's been a long day so my apologies for the delay. 3D printer jokes aside, I had the problem of not remembering where things were in my girlfriend's storage unit. A lot of storage customers have trouble remembering what's in the storage unit in the first place! (The lifetime average $PSA customer is 3 years and 50% of customers > 1 year). So the "access anywhere" analogy to Dropbox is what people (and not just tech people) like to reference when they hear us talk about it. Also, to your point about "x for y," it works only for a certain type of crowd if both things are well known (and Dave McClure mentions that here: http://image.slidesharecdn.com/howtopitchavc-090321140851-phpapp02/95/slide-4-728.jpg?1244822814 http://image.slidesharecdn.com/howtopitchavc-090321140851-ph...). A lot of YC companies do it when they pitch investors because it's a great way to connect quickly to their audience. When customers call up my 1-888 number; however, "Dropbox for real life" aren't the first words out of my mouth.
- Angostura 13y ago
  > A lot of YC companies do it when they pitch investors because it's a great way to connect quickly to their audience. It works really well when there are strong parallels. When the comparison is weak (such as in this case) it can serve s a distraction with the audience spending time dissecting weaknesses in the metaphor. If your metaphor sets up false expectations, explaining that 'actually, it's not like that' becomes a burden.
  - bradleyland 13y ago
    In support of this viewpoint, I offer an anecdote about the development of our product messaging. Our product is a software + services reverse auction procurement solution (go, go enterprise market!). When we started out, our sales staff used a metaphor: "like eBay, but in reverse". Our current training instructs sales staff to avoid that metaphor at all cost, because there are more differences than there are similarities. Your description is concise, and incredibly apt. That metaphor became a burden. Time during a pitch is incredibly valuable, whether it's in front of a VC or a customer. Time spent explaining how your product is not like something else involves a lot of negative language. It's not like this... ... only it's more like... You don't want to spend your time on these conversations. That's why we now train staff to avoid the metaphor, and to shut it down immediately if someone introduces it.
deleted 13y ago
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mehwoot 13y ago
I like using "Its the X for Y" but in a negative way. "This startup is the Google wave of Y".

malandrew 13y ago

Great observation. You should take that to another thread where people are lamenting that the "It's like X for Y" pitch has jumped the shark. You've added nothing of value to the conversation with respect to this company's business model or the problem they are tackling. People please don't upvote this stuff. You're hurting HN.

siruva07 13y ago

Hi, I'm Sam the founder of MakeSpace. It's been a long day so my apologies for the delay. 3D printer jokes aside, I had the problem of not remembering where things were in my girlfriend's storage unit. A lot of storage customers have trouble remembering what's in the storage unit in the first place! (The lifetime average $PSA customer is 3 years and 50% of customers > 1 year). So the "access anywhere" analogy to Dropbox is what people (and not just tech people) like to reference when they hear us talk about it. Also, to your point about "x for y," it works only for a certain type of crowd if both things are well known (and Dave McClure mentions that here: http://image.slidesharecdn.com/howtopitchavc-090321140851-phpapp02/95/slide-4-728.jpg?1244822814 http://image.slidesharecdn.com/howtopitchavc-090321140851-ph...). A lot of YC companies do it when they pitch investors because it's a great way to connect quickly to their audience. When customers call up my 1-888 number; however, "Dropbox for real life" aren't the first words out of my mouth.

Angostura 13y ago
> A lot of YC companies do it when they pitch investors because it's a great way to connect quickly to their audience. It works really well when there are strong parallels. When the comparison is weak (such as in this case) it can serve s a distraction with the audience spending time dissecting weaknesses in the metaphor. If your metaphor sets up false expectations, explaining that 'actually, it's not like that' becomes a burden.
- bradleyland 13y ago
  In support of this viewpoint, I offer an anecdote about the development of our product messaging. Our product is a software + services reverse auction procurement solution (go, go enterprise market!). When we started out, our sales staff used a metaphor: "like eBay, but in reverse". Our current training instructs sales staff to avoid that metaphor at all cost, because there are more differences than there are similarities. Your description is concise, and incredibly apt. That metaphor became a burden. Time during a pitch is incredibly valuable, whether it's in front of a VC or a customer. Time spent explaining how your product is not like something else involves a lot of negative language. It's not like this... ... only it's more like... You don't want to spend your time on these conversations. That's why we now train staff to avoid the metaphor, and to shut it down immediately if someone introduces it.

deleted 13y ago

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mehwoot 13y ago

I like using "Its the X for Y" but in a negative way. "This startup is the Google wave of Y".