Why calling your startup the "X for Y" can kill your pitch
And how to test if it makes sense
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When I was working at YCombinatorâs Startup School I came across thousands of founders using the âX for Yâ pattern to describe their company: the âAirbnb for furnitureâ or âMixpanel for your healthâ.
But âX for Yâ can backfire easily, so you need to see if it truly helps your pitch â or destroys it.
Read on to find out:
Problems with using âX for Yâ
When it makes sense to use âX for Yâ
How to test if âX for Yâ works for your startup pitch
Problems with using âX for Yâ
Itâs not clear what part of X youâre referring to
Youâre hoping to anchor yourself to some part of company X that makes sense for your startup. But company X is enormously successful already, so by this point:
Company X has dozens of products
Company Xâs products have lots of value propositions
Company X has numerous distribution channels
You canât control which parts of company X investors associate you with.
If they associate you with the âwrongâ parts of company X, it can backfire and completely muddle your pitch.
đ Weâre the âAirbnb for Yâ
Youâre a marketplace that doesnât own inventory? Youâre focused on helping people monetize their unused physical assets? Youâre obsessed with trust?
đĽ Weâre the âFigma for Yâ
Youâre a web-based tool? You help people collaborate on tasks? You have a bottoms-up sales strategy?
đ Weâre the âTesla for Yâ
Youâre an electric version of a gas-powered vehicle? Youâre vertically integrated? You make lots of batteries?
Youâve instantly inherited all of Xâs problems
There were tons of issues that company X had to deal with to break through and become the success that it is. By anchoring yourself to company X, it could mean:
Youâll have all the customer acquisition issues that company X had
Youâll have to form the types of strategic partnerships that X had to
Youâll need years of R&D to develop complex technology as X did
đŠ Now in addition to defending your own startup, you have to defend against all the issues that company X had, too!
đŚ âWeâre the Plaid for ___â
Youâll need to form multiple partnerships with entrenched organizations to deliver siloed data? Youâll need to build complex security and privacy infrastructure?
đ âWeâre the Uber for ___â
Youâll have to aggressively capture market share while balancing regulatory risk? In addition to dealing with constrained marketplace supply?
đŚÂ âWeâre the Amazon for ___â
Youâll have to master logistics and supply chains? Youâll have to fight razor-thin margins for years? And youâll have to deal with ⌠Amazon?!
Does Y even want the features of company X?
Your customers â the âYâ in âX for Yâ â may not even want those features of company X:
Company X made things cheaper. Is cost the biggest issue for Y?
X made a market more efficient. Is efficiency the key problem for Y?
X made things simpler. Is complexity the massive pain point for Y?
âď¸Your customers donât care if you call yourself the âX for Yâ. They just want their problem solved.
Since startups cluster around referring to the same X (whatever the most successful companies are at the time), investors will be hearing lots of pitches with that same tagline, and think the same thing: does X even make sense for Y?
đ âWeâre Ro for vitaminsâ
Do vitamin shoppers really want to be connected with someone to determine their plan? Do they care about discretion in their packaging?
đ¤˛đ˝ âWeâre OpenDoor for carsâ
Is selling your car so painful that youâd do it through a service? Can you offer competitive prices to car owners? Would buyers want to buy used cars from you?
đˇÂ âWeâre Slack for photographersâ
Do photographers need to have always-on chat? Is realtime interaction that important? And if so, why wouldnât they just use Slack?
When it's OK to use âX for Yâ
Investors consider company X a huge success
It may sound obvious but the company X that youâre anchoring to has to be considered a clear success by investors.
That last piece is important. There are countless products that millions of people use, but which havenât resulted in investor wins.
Early-stage funding economics mean investors need to believe that your company could be a massive success and return many multiples on their investment.
đŤ âWeâre the Mint.com for ____â
Maybe youâre positioning yourself as an aggregator of data sources for the end-user. Everyone has heard of Mint, but its exit to Intuit isnât considered a huge win by most investors, so that could hurt your pitch.â âWeâre the Stripe for ____â
If this actually makes sense in your context, itâs great: Stripe has become one of the most valuable private companies in the world, and its investors have made a lot of money in the process.
The part of X that youâre copying has to be obvious
This is to combat the first point that investors might be confused about, which is not knowing what part of X youâre referring to when calling yourself âX for Yâ.
đ An easy fix: add a quick line after the âX for Yâ description, narrowing in on exactly what you mean by the comparison.
And try to choose a company that is obviously associated with a particular value proposition!
đŤ âWeâre the Google for ____â
Google is clearly a huge success, but at this point itâs associated with so much that itâs impossible to be clear on which part of it youâre anchoring yourself to.â âWeâre Google for ___. We index all of ___ for Y and make it searchableâ
Now I have a better picture of what your company does, and since Iâve seen Google be so successful in doing this, I can start to see how you could be too.
X has to represent a better way of doing things
This is usually not an issue since most founders anchor themselves to recent companies that are successful, but itâs worth saying: company X has to be doing things in a way that is reflective of the future.
Is X capitalizing on trends that are going to continue far into the future? Do you believe that other industries ânamely the one youâre after â are going in that direction too?
đŤ âWeâre the IBM for ____â
IBM is a massive and successful company, but its products and services arenât what people associate with the future and the way the world is moving.â âWeâre the Shopify for ____â
If you mean that youâre creating all-in-one tools to help some set of people more easily do commerce online, thatâs a wave that is definitely future-proofed.
Y would want those features of company X
It has to be obvious right when an investor hears the âX for Yâ that Y would clearly benefit from Xâs value propositions.
đ The leap from where market Y is right now, and how much better theyâd be with Xâs features, has to be really small and clear.
Itâs ok if itâs not obvious since youâll need to explain your unique insight about why youâre so confident that Y is a perfect match for Xâs model.
đŤ âWeâre the Uber for valet parkingâ
It isnât clear that valets would benefit from this. Uber works since demand for rides is consistent and frequent, which doesnât seem to apply here.â âWeâre the Netflix for fitness contentâ
This could be the pitch for Peloton (or many other fitness apps). There are still lots of questions about whether this model would work, but I can already imagine that a large group of people would want on-demand fitness classes.
Bonus: Geoclones (e.g. âX for Indiaâ)
If this really makes sense, it can work wonders in explaining your company in a concise and compelling way.
Most companies canât instantly translate their success in one geography to another due to cultural and regulatory differences, so if you have an insight about how X could work in your region, you can quickly elevate your pitch.
But you have to be careful. There are caveats here:
đŤ Competition from X
If Xâs model works so well for your country, why wouldnât X see your success and decide to enter that market itself? Are there strong reasons why it wonât be easy for X to enter your market?đŤ Cultural differences in your market
Different regions can have vastly different cultural norms and behaviors. The way that consumers (or businesses) transact and collaborate in those regions might mean Xâs model wonât work. If you donât agree, have strong reasons why.đŤ Regulatory differences
Countries have different approaches to regulation, which means Xâs model might not work in your country. Especially in industries with a lot of goverment oversight and red tape, you need to be confident that you can jump through those hurdles.
How to test if âX for Yâ works for your startup pitch
The best way to see exactly how people respond to âX for Yâ is to do an email test. Send your âX for Yâ description in an email to people that you know and trust to give good feedback. Ask them what they thought you meant when describing your company that way.
Subject:Â Does X for Y make sense for my startup pitch?
Hi ____,
Iâve been using the following one-liner to describe my company. Could you read it and email me back about the questions I have below? Thanks!
[insert X for Y line here]
Based on this, could you tell me:
1. What exactly you think my company does?
2. What parts of [COMPANY X] Iâm referring to for my startup?
3. Skepticism that comes up for you when I refer to our company that way?
4. If thereâs anything unclear about what Iâm building and why?
Thanks so much,
[your name]
Feel free to email me with this template and Iâll give you my thoughts.
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