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Proposal: Startup Business

The original pioneers of Answers OnStartups were

[...]technology geeks-turned-founders.[...]coders who learned business through experience and necessity. You know, like you - Source

This implies that the site was founded as a geek-to-geek forum with a focus on Software Startups.

Will Startup Business also have the same target demographic? If so, does Startup Business broaden that scope to include Makers (technologies focused on building physical products)?

Given the increase of "Sensing" products entering the market (e.g., Nest, Smart Things, FitBit, etc), this should be explicitly addressed. What would qualify as a "Good" Maker question?

If not, then who is the target?

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    The target should be broader than just software startups. There is knowledge that entrepreneurs from all types of industries can share that applies to every other industry.
    – Hopstream
    Commented Jan 24, 2014 at 18:29
  • I don't think the focus was ever limited to just software, per se. I think it was a little broader: technology startups. I think you're right on the money though. To contribute to this question, I'd add, would questions about starting a franchise be on-topic here? According to most definitions of the word "startup" that I've seen, it requires that you're still trying to figure out your business model. If you start a franchise, the business model problem has been solved. So is that in or out?
    – rbwhitaker
    Commented Jan 24, 2014 at 19:31
  • @rbwhitaker based on the definition, I would exclude franchises, which could fall under a broader proposition for Entrepreneurship.
    – Delicia Brummitt
    Commented Jan 24, 2014 at 20:01
  • If as a community, we decide they're excluded (and I would agree with that) we need to specifically state that in the description when the time comes for that. On the old answers.onstartups.com site, we had a lot of questions coming in about franchises.
    – rbwhitaker
    Commented Jan 24, 2014 at 23:31
  • what startup 501c3 or other non-profit entities - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/501%28c%29_organization
    – Knuckle-Dragger
    Commented Mar 7, 2014 at 6:38

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If the type of customer is kept to Technology Startups, even though the same information could be used by other industry types, control on specific answers would be harder to look after and there may not be the depth of expertise available to service every industry type.

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I am not sure how phrase it but I would define the the intended audience somewaht broader, as the old site unnecessarily excluded many questions I personally found interesting. I would go with something like this:

Everyone involved in creating business solutions.

Including executives, chiefs, investors, entrepreneurs, one-man-shows etc. The creating part captures the essence that innovative businesses are the most welcome as opposed to the "How do I make a webshop I heard webshops are big money"

By this definition opening a franchise would not really make it as it is merely spreading a business solution not creating.

I find it reasonably likely that we could attract high-level professionals not necessarily running a startup but being involved in an established company and willing to contribute to the site(i.e. executives, investors, attorneys etc.) and I think we should be as welcoming to them as possible.

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  • I almost agree with @JaniKovacs here. What about people "copying" existing Technology for another region e.g.? I think the "Rocket Internet" projects/companies are a good example here.
    – Dominik G
    Commented Mar 25, 2014 at 18:23

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