My advice: boil it down to WHAT YOU DO not what you WANT to do.

Keep in mind that it took eBay ten years before they were able to say “you can get IT on eBay.” I’m sure their first positioning statement was something ULTRA SIMPLE like “online auctions for everyone.”

Courtesy of the Internet Archive the eBay mission statement circa 1998 was:

“We help people trade practically anything on earth.”

Now you’re talking – there is no “WTF nomenclature” or VC mumbo jumbo in that statement.

Forget the position statement, the real question is whether or not Teqlo passes “the blink test.” Sorry. I couldn’t resist. : )

Here’s my stab at Peter’s version:

“Teqlo is an online service that lets non-technical people who use the Web get internet related tasks done faster, easier, and simpler by allowing them to mash-up popular web applications into personal widgets.”

It probably sounds like crap and isn’t meant to be THE statement about Teqlo but it’s my idea of how to get at what you do quicker. I personally don’t relate to terms like “personal workspace” because I’m just not savvy like that. Plus, I find the idea of what you do very cool and want to use it, but in terms of evangelizing it to my friends, I’d need more than just one sentence to get them hooked. You need to start somewhere though as I am sure Google did when they said “we are a search engine” then followed by all the details of why the hell you should care more about them than their comeptition. Just some thoughts! Use or ignore them.

One of them was really interested in rough blue semi precious gem stones. She wants to make a necklace.

“Can I add another one of those techie widget things to check this search for me all the time and tell me when a good deal comes up?”

That was her first question!…. in other words, right away this highly non-technical user wanted to use Teqlo to start assembling a small customized application to help her do something on the web.

It’s not a one sentence description, but it the 2 minute demo sure made me feel happy to be working for the company.

As I try to parse this and figure-out if I’m willing to fund this or even use it, I think it needs some more work:

= “personal workspace” means nothing to me ’cause it could imply a desktop, a environment for development, or a slew of other nebulous ideas
= “internet” is there a difference between wired and wireless
= “get things done” is to me the weakest part — even when I’m wasting time I doing something so what kinds of things is Teqlo supposed to help me do, productive, collaborative, educational or any

If your scope is this broad at the start it will be hard(er) to attract the initial users who need to be able to self-select and your one sentence does not speak to any particular audience.

Happy holidays Jeff and the rest of the Teqlo team,
me

best,
Jeff

I buy this version (not that it matters, its not my wallet you’re after … ). Seriously though, I think it’s concise and defines what Teqlo does without getting into the how.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

I have been part of the process that Jeff is describing. Maybe we compacted the idea a bit too much. How about this rendition?

“Teqlo is a service that lets people who use the Web to get their work done faster, easier, and simpler by allowing them to combine popular web services into personal productivity applications.”

Longer for sure… any clearer??

Zoli and Paul, what you want is the “how it works” part of the pitch and it’s there but at some point you have to abstract it to a higher level. Is Google an advertising network that deconstructs the individual ad unit to the point of intersection between a term that is searched for and an advertiser honing in on specific keywords, or is Google an internet search service. The answer is that it is both but sure as shit they didn’t walk into those early meetings talking about advertising networks.

Far too many startups go into pitch meetings consumed with how their stuff works and why it’s different and they don’t answer the question that hangs in every one of these meetings – why should I care? The answer to that is not going to come from me giving you one sentence without context but it’s my hope that after hearing the pitch you will walk away with key messages, the first being what I provided in this post and the rest of it being what I didn’t disclose in this post.