I agree with the OP, but want to make sure that everybody realizes each market is unique. My startup is in the b2b sphere (specifically, industrial research, d

I agree with the OP, but want to make sure that everybody realizes each market is unique. My startup is in the b2b sphere (specifically, industrial research, design, and manufacturing). Our product is slowly growing and getting traction, but that's only because we don't expect to have tens of thousands of users. Each of our users is worth more to us than the average twitter user, so we put more time into recruiting them to the site (generally it's a personal contact 50%+ of the time that gets them there). So in our case, we can afford to put the time in with individual users. We thus don't really need to integrate with existing products, because our market doesn't demand it. In fact, in the IRDM area, I've found that almost everything is proprietary and very secretive; every company protects its trade secrets tightly (not because they are advanced or cutting edge... just because they hold on to every minor edge they can, regardless of the wisdom of doing so). In short, it's very old school business-types who think their secret sauce is in their product rather than in their relationships and experience. But I would definitely like to second the "figure how to make it work from Email or IM or similar products others have already accepted." Our app has put a lot of focus on email interaction, which I think is crucial for us to succeed. I guess all I'm saying is that you really should make sure you know what your ideal user is like. If they're like mine, then you have a little more leeway because they're a little more used to the non-integration of different components (i.e. they are willing to try anything).