Has anyone hit on a magic formula to explain what you're doing in your startup so they'll leave you alone and stop suggesting maybe you can get a job in uncle bob's shop? / you did so well at school / and so on.
I was employed at a small company (under 10 employees) and my Aunt wouldn't stop calling me about Cisco.
"Cisco is a really great place to work at... it's stable, good pay. Even though your Uncle just got laid off, I still think it's a great place."
I'm a recent graduate, just moved back to my hometown in Silicon Valley. All of my old buddies are so eager to land jobs at BigCo. I'm completely shocked that no one wants to work at a startup, do their own business, or even work for a small company.
Since when did "I work at Google" become a damn pick up line?
I think being an entrepreneur is only impressive after you're successful (ie. get RICH). I'm pretty sure the Reddit guys had a hard time impressing their family/friends with their startup, until they got filthy rich.
I think family wants to see you secure. I think future spouses want to see a willingness to take on risk. So tailor those pick up lines to the audience.
(Wonder if startups got less sexy with the economy going down...)
It actually scares a lot of people it seems, maybe it's just my family.
Of course, when i started working at home again, they were still asking me "how's your office doing?" As if, that is where I kept all my work, in folders, at an office, with desks.
Of course you could just say, we just opened an office downtown, and people will get excited for you.
Because high level of bureaucracy here in Russia it's really hard to start a company in a real sector. And it's hard to find a VC for tech startup. It's depressing. I even thought about moving to some other country on Phd postition and part time working for start up... but it's seems too extreme =(
I'd be glad to help some of them out when I have the time and interest, but there is no way in hell I want to churn out a full out custom inventory system for their business for $200. And yes, someone has actually asked me for that at that price before. My jaw just dropped.
This happens to practically everyone - Doesn't matter if you're a Doctor, Laywer, Mechanic, Banker...
Maybe my family and in-laws aren't cool enough to ask for a web application, but my current description has been geeky enough to fend everyone off. I guess the time is coming when I should be concerned about that and move on to something niche-sounding.
I try to explain that I'm doing something I am much more passionate about but most people (other than my parents, thankfully) can't seem to understand that logic. Living in a "brown" community doesn't help either, where every other parent is a doctor.
Am I the only one that read this 3 times trying to understand its meaning?
Funny story: I was on plane and got to talking to the guy next to me. He asked what I did and I told him (the above line basically). He was thoroughly enthusiastic and kept asking all sorts of questions. I finally got around to asking what he did. He said "Oh, I'm a test pilot for Lockheed Martin" ... Never could figure why he thought my job was cool.
But software's utterly opaque in this department.
[1] Chemistry's always been the one that I didn't get.
-- Albert Einstein
And erwin Schrodinger's grandmother must really have been something. It took me two wellwritten books just to get a general grasp of what he was doing.
Graduate student.
0: "I'm a grad student." 1: (Deadpan/barely impressed.) "Oh. You must be really smart." 0: "Don't worry. I'm not."
Analyst at a pharmaceutical consulting company.
0: "I'm a consultant." 1: "Oh." (Isn't everyone?)
Quantitative trader/developer at a hedge fund.
0: "I'm a trader." 2: "Oh." ++
Unemployed.
0: "I'm a treasure hunter." 1: WTF? OR "I'm asking what you do for a job, not..."
Working for a startup.
0: "I'm starting a tech company." 1: "Oh, cool!" 0: (Excited.) "Yeah, it's fun. I'm using a ridiculously powerful programming language called Lisp. It looks like this." (Points to some monstrosity of a macro such as ONCE-ONLY.) 1: "Uh, yeah..."
++ The use of 2 here is not a typo. Finance is not nearly as "sexy" as I thought it would be before going in, and the standard-error descriptor is, in fact, appropriate.
Just goes to show how the whole world isn't technical.
There's a huge digital divide among poker pros. Most tend to either be younger guys like me who use computers as a tool to improve our game (ICM Calculators, equity calcs, stat tracking, etc.) and the old road-gambler types who still think poker is just about reading people. Of course poker is such a mathematical game that the second group is at a tremendous disadvantage, except for the few who've adapted.
Grandma: What the heck is a TicketStumbler? Are you still just playing at the computer all day?
Me: Oh, have you been to our site Grandma?
Grandma: No.
Me: Well Grandma, have you ever heard of Expedia, Kayak or Orbitz?
Grandma: No.
Me: What about Bizrate or Pricegrabber?
Grandma: No.
Me: Hmm...well essentially what we do is take sports & concert tickets from all over the internet and put them on one website. So instead of going to multiple websites you can just go to one. You know how you put all your recipe cards in one place? Well we do that, but with tickets.
Grandma: Oh I see. Well, that's nice dear; would you like a beer while you work? Or how about some more candy?
Me: I love you Grandma.
Dan: Where'd all the Margaritas go, Grandma?
Grandma: I drank 'em all up!
A fellow I know is a financial planner. Yawn. But I watched him explain what he did to a woman he was trying to pick up and, damn, it sounded exciting and noble. He helped people achieve their long term dreams and become independent.
So be kind to your family. Give them a Christmas present and make them all happy by telling them how you've got the greatest gig in the world writing software to make the world a better place. You might be surprised how much it changes things.
Just saying "I do x." is a like hitting a conversational brick wall. "I am a(n) x." is even worse.
People need a story or a hook to keep paying attention.
Dad: When you told me you were quitting school and moving to Boston to start some Internet company I thought it was just a pipe dream. But, you made me really proud.
Grandma 2: I heard your business is doing well. Of course I don't understand what it is you do, but I'm proud of you!
No good quotes from my other Grandma; she can barely remember who I am anymore :(
(I'm a PhD student in high performance systems.)
"What do you do?" "I build things" "Like what?" "Things that no one really needs but are willing to pay for" "Oh"
Versus
"What do you do?" "I work with computers" invariably "Oh great, I downloaded a bunch of stuff that I really didn't even need just because the button told me to and now I have a virus, can you fix it?"
to which my answer will be
"No because I'm out of your pay grade".
Why.
Bu don't worry I'm sure Einstein had some pretty tough times explaining to his family what he did :-)
it's good practice for your marketing. you need to talk to your market in terms of how you're going to help them kick more ass. if you talk to your relatives in terms of whom you help kick more ass, they are more likely to give a shit.
"I help $these_kind_of_people kick more ass!"
1) Figure out the "regular" job that is most directly related to what your startup does and say you do that. For example, I have largely been involved with ad supported startups, so most of my relatives think I work at an ad agency.
2) If you have big clients, partners or vendors that you think your relatives have heard of you can say something like, "I work with company X". The fact that you have some relationship with a company they have heard of is typically good enough for them to think you are doing something right.
That being said, your non-technical family members are also a great audience on which to practice refining your pitch. If you can figure out how to explain what your startup does to your family, then you can surely explain it to users, clients, investors, etc.
Family and friends usually get it and they are very excited and supportive (of course, some family members are artists and independent contractors so 'startup' probably sounds less risky than it should).
Not surprisingly, it's the bigco lifers we run into at holiday parties, who were always too afraid to take the plunge, that say 'I know a guy who's hiring if you want a job.' I tell them something like 'thank you for letting me know, but my plate is full with my business'...what I really want to say is 'I'm not *ing unemployed, you jackass, and I'm working harder than you ever have or will!"
not something I've really thought of much... but at the supermarket early this morning it went something like this:
ME "Everyone is very cheery here?" (referring to singing employee - who sings at 7?)
CHECKOUT "Yes, she is quite happy always smiling."
ME "So they don't employ grumpy people? or are they just all cheery?"
CHECKOUT "No, they are all pretty happy?"
ME "Oh, I thought they would be tired (just after 7am and I'm dead tired) and grumpy" (I'm tired, I'd be grumpy)
CHECKOUT "So what do you do?"
ME "I write ...."
CHECKOUT "Ohhh (surprised)"
ME "... software."
CHECKOUT "Ah you're one of those 'computer nerds'?"
ME "Yeah... something like that."
CHECKOUT "That's a compliment you know."
I should have just left it at writing.
When dealing with money-focused people it helps to reassure them that you can support yourself by consulting when needed.
Some people are very fearful and often think everything will always go wrong. Those are the most difficult people to reach. I often give up once I detect someone has that characteristic. Just sort of change subjects and find common ground somewhere else that does not involve talking about risk, success and failure.
"Startup," "Entrepreneur" etc. is a loaded term. I think Australia & The States are almost opposites in their reaction to these terms. I'm not born Australian (5th year), & the term doesn't describe me, so maybe I'm not the ideal person to advise here.
But I wouldn't venture further then 'starting a business.' I certainly wouldn't describe myself as an entrepreneur. Australians like to tear the tall trees to shreds. & that'd be like calling yourself a revolutionary poet.
My explanations of my work, though, vary with the comprehension I expect from the listener. For my uncle, an engineer with more patents than I've had drunken inspirations, I go in-depth into whatever has me most excited at the moment. For my cousin, the horse trader and Counterstrike fan, I give a general description of CND, bowdlerizing it of anything glamorous so I don't get asked to teach him how to hack.
The more difficult query comes when I don't know the questor quite as well. Unless the truth matters, and it usually doesn't, I'll take a peripheral aspect of my work and practice my story-telling abilities.
Lady: "What do you do, then?"
Me: "I'm a web developer"
Lady: "Oh, so a web designer!"
Me: "Er, close, I'm a web developer - I make designs work"
Lady: "Oh, I get it! So like in Microsoft Word?"
Me: "..."
Thankfully, the majority of my family are computer literate and don't require babying over the subject.
Of course, next up might be the startup thing... that'll be a whole new battle.
"Sometimes a little inaccuracy can save a whole lot of explanation."
I laid my relatives to rest years ago.
I don't have relatives.
My story changes from year to year.
I enjoy telling my story and explaining my business model to my family, whatever I am excited about at the time is normally easy enough to relate to something they do or understand.
