Does a startup must-have a website?
Mikita Gera
7 replies
I had a discussion with my colleague the other day. And a question came up about whether a startup must have a website
I want to answer "Yes!". Moreover, it should be not just a website, it should be a good-looking page with detailed information about the project, team, goals, cases, and so on and so on. Here are a few "why?"'s:
- if your project name contains .ai/dev/agency/pro and others. Every mention of the name will show up as a link to a website, so psychology tells us, that people are more likely to tap into it and there is nothing. So, it's a failure, bro
- the reality of a #startup ecosystem shows, that even projects, which do not exist and are only in the development stage, have webpages to attract potential users, check on demand, make some PR activity, and other things. The website becomes for them one of the channels how they communicate with a community at an early stage
- things like a website, a LinkedIn page, a presentation, and so on, this is the must-have package that you take with you when you're on your founder's/busdev's journey and talking to potential customers. It's that social proof, the presence of which may not add points on its own, but takes them away in the absence of
Do you agree with me or not? Share your opinion on both positions below!
Replies
Brian Yip@brian_yip
I don't think a startup necessarily _needs_ a website, but it's definitely helpful to have one as it provides credibility as I agree with your statement on how people will naturally go to your site to learn more.
However, in today's world - "where a community lives" could replace a website. This could be a Slack workspace, a Discord group, Instagram, etc. The journey will be more difficult, but it's possible!
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I think website plays a big role definitely. It the most common way how people looks for products, services, etc. And the way site looks shows the level of startup as well.
@oxana_ivanova don't quite agree with "the way site looks shows the level of startup as well", because I know good-looking sites for projects, which are not managed well enough, and product is in stagnation :)
@mikita_im agree that not all the time cool websites mean that it's a great product ๐ But modern, clean designs attract and if you have a cool product that just coming to the market, then it's really one of the first points that shows your approach, culture, brand, etc.
I think so. I've been in various meetings where people took the time to investigate our web site and even demo our product beforehand. This helps me to sell, upsell or crosssell at times.