Brad Feld

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Your Platform Is Not In My Space

Aug 22, 2010

In 2009, the word that finally got on my nerves was “space”, as in “our product is in the X space” or “the space we are going after is X.”  It seems like the word “space” managed to find its way into every paragraph.

The annoying word of 2010 appears to be “platform”, as in “we are going to be a platform for X” or “our platform for X will solve the following problems.”

In my little corner of the world, the word “platform” is a lot more precious.  There are very few platforms.  You aren’t a platform until you have a zillion users (well, at least 100 million).  Until then, feel free to call yourself a “junior platform” or an “aspiring platform.”  Or, call yourself an “application”, which is what you most likely are.

I definitely make this mistake myself (e.g. “Company Y is a platform for X”) and I’ve been self-censoring lately and now saying “Company Y aspires to be a platform for X”).

Ok, I feel better now.