If you watch 30 Rock, you’ve undoubtedly seen the scene in which Jack Donaghy spouts off the importance of synergy, followed by about ten other buzzwords that just don’t make any sense at all. That’s the joke. Industries love their buzzwords, but perhaps none as much so as the tech business. There are tons of buzzwords new start-ups will use to market themselves. Sure, some are necessary: they’re a more efficient way of conveying what you mean. But others don’t mean what you think they mean, and in fact, might even convey something other than what you’re hoping to say.
Innovative
If you’re calling your start-up innovative, you’re being redundant. Most start-ups are at least kind of innovative, but there are really two kinds of innovation. You can either be breaking through a wall, or you can take a path that someone else has already taken. Take Palm, for instance. When Palm introduced the Pilot, they had to spend a lot of time and money explaining what it actually was. After that, though, there was an explosion of new companies releasing Pilots. Palm was the true innovator—the others made a few tweaks they thought made it better. Stop saying you’re innovative and show us why you are.
The Next Big Thing
Sure, your new start-up project is certainly your next big thing, but the odds are really against it being the next big thing. Your start-up, try as you might, will most likely not explode in the proportions that Facebook did. You just really aren’t being realistic or honest with yourself if you believe this. Stop saying it, and put the work behind it to make it big. Don’t rely on people to just take your word for it.
Mission Critical
I hear a lot of entrepreneurs talk about their start-ups like they’re an army going to war against the big guys. They’ll call certain aspects of meetings or development “mission critical.” You’re doing it wrong. Look into The Art of War, an old military treatise written by Sun Tzu. Learn the real tactics behind war, and figure out how they actually apply to what you’re doing. You’ll realize the points you’re focusing on aren’t all that mission critical after all.
Market Fit
Sure, I can take your word on the fact that your product is a market fit in my market, but I would much rather see hard data—data you should collect in the initial phases of starting your business—and make my own decision. As a start-up, you should know where you fit in, what your wheelhouse is. If you tell people you’re a market fit and don’t provide some kind of white paper, it shows that you didn’t do your legwork.
Sexy
Hiring good user interface people has become the new thing, and it’s all about making a product look and feel good. Unfortunately, because good UI people are hard to find—there just aren’t that many of them—some start-ups have taken to mimicking another design. When they talk about it, they say, “sexy.” Yeah, it’s sexy, but is it new or different? Doesn’t the style speak for itself? Do you need to label it? More often than not, “sexy” is just referring to another design that has been copied, and isn’t unique. When you produce something with a UI that’s unique, the only word you’ll hear is, “Wow.”