Why Do Startups Forget about the Value They Should Generate for Users?

When it comes to web startups, it often happens that after the first buzz in the blogosphere is over after about a week from the launch day, people forget about the startups entirely and never visit again - unless bombarded by numerous newsletters and reminders from the team. The main reason for this problem is that some startups regularly forget about one simple thing: they need to generate some real value to their users.

This value should not necessarily mean enticing users with opportunities of making money by sharing advertising revenue or paying users for some actions within the site. It can really be anything: a convenient way to store photos (Flickr) or a strong communication platform (Twitter) or a nice place to stay in touch with friends (Facebook). Whatever it is, people need to know what they get from your site for them to be willing to stay and use your site at all.

But why does it happen that sometimes startups are launched without any value or motivation for at least some of their potential users? Today I have noticed such a paradoxical example in my own inbox and even despite of the fact that the email arrived from a Russian person so the startup is obviously from Russia, I could not help but write this negative post despite of the fact that I try to be favorable to the web projects that come from Russia.

The startup is correctmytext and it offers exactly one thing that the name suggests: correcting texts written by foreigners in your native language (or in other languages you are fluent in). Currently the site supports 10 of the most used languages of the world so people speaking them can help each other by correcting texts submitted. Another thing you can do here is request a sound recording of your text so that you knew exactly how it should be pronounced by a native speaker as well.

Now it all sounds pretty good probably and it is obviously appealing to be able to get help from native speakers of the language you learn or need for business and easily get an edited version of a text you need for some reason (without paying to a professional proofreader). But can anyone explain me here what the point is for the “language professionals” who are supposed to correct submitted texts?

I think I can easily call myself a language professional myself having almost 10 years of translation experience and still working in the field of localization of software and web applications for my customers willing to enter the Russian market. And unfortunately I can’t see any reason for me to spend time on the site if I could use the time in some more productive manner.

Believe me, any good translator has very little time to spend helping people with language tasks without any substantial motivation (and while helping people may make you feel good, it will hardly turn into food in your fridge). And if you can spend your time translating things for your customers (and get paid for it), why would you do the same for free?

Ok, some translators are enthusiastic enough to work for free on localization of some websites (and even companies like Google are sometimes happy to avoid paying translators and prefer crowdsourcing) but such jobs at least let you add a nice line to your CV and it could be important enough to attract new customers. But how could participation in correctmytext help you achieve comparable results? Unfortunately after registering and playing with the site for a few minutes, I don’t see anything.

At the same time there are probably some ways for a site like this to lure real language professionals into participation. For one, they could offer some sort of a badge to language professionals that they could use on their sites or profiles in various translation communities as some type of an endorsement for the corrections they offered to foreigners - and transform these activities into new paying customers.

Also there could be some money-related motivation as well. For example, for people who need correction of texts they will use in their business (and I have seen quite a number of examples of such texts on the site) there could be a special paying account that would guarantee that they get corrections from real language professionals because such professionals will have a reason to help - in the form of revenue sharing offered by the website. So it could be a way to get professional language support without dealing with hiring a professional.

Finally, it could be possible to display ads on the texts people correct and if such ads generate some revenue, the users submitting corrections could also be offered compensation in the form of advertising revenue sharing. It could be a very small revenue source but people do tend to like such things anyway.

So to me it looks like the possibilities for a substantial motivation are here but for some reason the website owners decided that relying on people’s desire to do good things would be enough to succeed. I’d really want to share this attitude but my experience is that people need at least some motivation to do something good long enough (versus doing something good for a short time out of curiosity and only when you have free time you can’t use otherwise) and for every startup it is important to find that motivation and offer it - or chances are it will not work.