I was wading through my daily quick look at the tech sites like Teccrunch, VentureBeat, etc., getting frustrated that they all have the same stories, often with the same wording obviously lifted from press releases and I had a thought that I have on a weekly basis:

Why don’t they tell us, in a clearly understandable manner, what all these goofily named companies actually do? And why can’t the companies themselves do the same?

I know why.

Most can’t do a good, compelling, simple description because they do something no one wants or cares about except a very few nerds in their niche interest area. And they’re so close to their subject that they can’t pull back and question what they’re doing, why anyone would care or how they can make money from it.

On top of this they pick a name that is impossible to remember or associate with what they do even if a reader thinks it has value. Here’s some random names from today’s stories: Okta, CloudCrowd, Nixty, Zendesk, Involver (I can sort of see this one), Reddit, We7 and on and on. Some of these are successful, some may become successful, most will or have raised a lot of money and most will not exist in a few years or even months.

Can you tell an average person on the street what your start-up does in a way that captures their interest?