Non-startup startups

[yegg]

There are a lot of non-startup startups listed under the startup filter, even in a very over-broad definition of startup, e.g. accountants are listed there.

I don't suggest doing anything differently since people should be able to self identify, but it would be nice to have another layer to somehow filter this out.

The best idea I have here is to let people add more information and then let us filter on that, i.e. goal: high-growth, indie, etc.; investment: bootstrapped, <1M, 1-5M, etc., and perhaps most importantly space: internet, search, etc.

I want to be able to say here are the startups that I care about, e.g. because they are like me, in my stage, etc., so I could connect with them.

[bradoyler]

This is mainly because the default category is "startup". Should be a quick fix.

[yegg]

Well that part is a quick-fix, but it is not a quick-fix in the sense it is a lot of "dirty" data now and doesn't really get to my use case in this current form. Granted, you could argue my use case isn't the intended one.

[cera]

The map currently defaults somebody to startup if it's not specified. If somebody generously classifies all 250+ companies appropriately, then the default won't apply. An "other" category could be added and that might be a solution.

Gabe: Would these all be checkboxes? Like high-growth, indie, etc? You could presently use the tags to achieve something like this, but it would be hard to teach/train everyone on how to use the right ones.

[yegg]

Well let's just be frank about it :). I don't know the best way to approach this, and happy to give suggestions, but I have a particular use case in mind.

I am personally focused on growing the high-growth segment, which is a narrower startup definition than I think anyone else involved wants to take. I get that.

My use case would be two-fold:

1) To use it in places like http://foundedinphilly.com/ where I can say, yes, here is the map of all these startups in that segment.

2) Send people there to connect with other founders in that category.

That category is small (the companies listed on that site), so I'd be personally happy tagging it manually.

I think using tags for high-growth won't work for the reason you said -- there is a place for defined sub-categories. Tags may be appropriate for market, though even there auto-complete helps a ton (like on AngelList).

So I guess I'd argue for:

a) getting rid of the default

b) adding a few sub-categories in the startup category (and maybe for others).