State of Startup Launch Pages
aka. Total bullshit
SO I’ve been slowly venturing and preparing my way to a startup of my own (I hope) so I wrote this piece on being a design founder a while ago. I’ve certainly been doing a lot more thinking and keeping in touch with the startup world a lot more lately — and then I realized this mess I encountered today — and it’s what I am writing about.
After finishing Startup School by YComb last weekend I was like damn, there are a lot of young, bright, and gutsy people pursuing their passions — how am I ever going to standout when they’re all 50x smarter than me and can actually BUILD stuff? Then with full excitement while reading about TechStar Demo in Seattle on Techcrunch today I suddenly felt:
These people have no f’ing clue what they’re doing.
Ok that’s not entirely accurate, so let me elaborate starting from the 1st link/startup/demo I visited: Everpath
So this is kind of like Skillshare + Slideshare? I want to see and learn more about it! My email? Let me think about it for a sec.
Onto 2nd one: Cuecard
Blah blah blah your business, blah blah blah solutions. 3 big icons , 1 random screenshot, and lots of press logos (not visible in this screenshot). Check check check. Wait, what was I here for? Oh right. My email? uh…I rather give it to the 1st one it looks more interesting (and your invite button is too, too wide).
So let’s do a 3rd then: Wire
That’s pretty stingy asking me for personal email in return for your Twitter that I don’t care about. You know what, I’ve got iMessage, Wechat, Whatsapp, LINE, Facebook Messenger, and a gazillion others. I think my iOS folder can’t fit any more.
And I blindly continue to the 4th: Codementor
I thought I was looking at demo #2 all over again (brain stops). At least their invite button stands out a bit more.
PS. is having the email address field as wide as the submit button now a new trend?
Should I even continue? Sparktrend.
Not sure about that name….and I think my Pinterest board has better pics than you. What? I wasn’t here just for the pics? Because that’s all I saw and got.
When I thought things couldn’t get any better, of course now it’s all Perfect.
That (looks like) is some deep philosophical shit we have right here. I think it’s a test and I’ve clearly failed to pass it through the storm.
Are you guys enjoying this? Want more? I might as well since I’ve taken the screenshots already. Next up: Vetted
Talk about minimalist — this one doesn’t even ask me for my email (at least not directly) and skips all the intro and screenshots, just right to the press logos.
Remind me why I was checking out all these sites again? I think I’ve lost it and let’s close it off with the grand finale: DesignLab
So it’s supposed to be a place where you learn design? Great! Spread the love and knowledge! But somehow…somehow…I am getting a dejavu feeling as I scan this page…who is providing all these butter templates for all the startups out there?
OMFG. Only 2 lessons and one of them is it. I guess we, designers, are the ones to blame for after all — and the world wonders why there’s so few design founders; Because most get that “pretty” part about products, and that’s about it.
Anyway, not sure how to close this off but I’m just really frustrated by these splash pages where it tells me NOTHING about the product, the great people behind it, or how it’s unique.
Especially this — one company that I was actually genuinely interested in (they are the guys behind Hootsuite), but months past and I still have no f’ing clue what they do. I actually sent them a message on Twitter inquiring and all I got was “just sign up at our site and be updated!”.
Right.
Oh well, I doubt the end product is really any interesting anyway if they can’t even get 1 page right </semi-sarcasm>.
Before we’re done here, let me show you one more thing:
What a boring image, right? But wait….all you have to do is mouse over it…
..
…
….
And BAM! The icons change color! GREATEST DESIGN EVER.
I apologize if I seem harsh in this article or put a negative image to any of these companies, that’s not the intention and will gladly take you off the list if required. I sincerely wish all the best to the bright minds out there pouring their passion into their startups — But come on “designers”, be smart, think about what you’re designing, and make it count.
