Darren Herman

All too often, Startups get compared to other startups.  Spacely Sprockets is Foursquare meets Yelp.  Widgetsly is Appnexus meets Legolas.  Usually, startups don’t pick who they are compared to as it’s up to the writers or editors of whoever is writing the press piece.

I was recently chatting with Chris Dixon, the CEO/founder of Hunch and angel investor in over 70+ companies, and he said something that really stuck with me.  I’m going to paraphrase here but he said something along the lines of, “when you are designing a product and crafting the positioning and messaging strategy, you need to keep the above in mind so that you, as the startup, controls who you get compared to.  If that means making your interface more like one company so you can be compared to them, that’s what you should do.”

Remember, once you contact the media to talk about your startup, the story is out of your hands and in someone else’s.