A 101 Guide to Getting Noticed-Talibro Does it Wrong

I love talking to startups and am always keen to have a chat to people doing new stuff. Often these approaches come via Twitter – that’s all good, Twitter is, after all, good for that sort of thing.

But sometimes companies get it so, so wrong.

Case in point Talibro, a new SMB accounting application that looks really good – it has most of the bells and whistles that SMBs need, looks simple (at least from the limited bits I could see, more on that below) and enter a space ripe for disruption.

Which makes it all the more of a shame that Talibro could have got their approach to me so wrong.

First up the tweet which included a link to the Talibro website (or so I thought)

Hi @benkepes . We launched a new online acc. software @ talbro.com . Would love get reviewed by you.

— Talibro LLC (@Talibro) October 17, 2012

So far, so good. I clicked on the link and was taken into a world of nothingness

Eagle eyed viewers will notice that the URL they sent me is missing a relatively important “I” – it pointed me to Talbro instead of Talibro.

OK, so that little issue resolved, I clicked on the correct link and went to the correct website. Nice screenshots, clear text. I figured it was worth signing up to demo the product. I did so and clicked the requisite email confirmation link. Then upon trying to login I was met by this somewhat contradictory screen telling me that I was at the wrong place, and that I needed to sign in at a different URL (which actually happened to be the URL I was signing in at).

OK so it’s not the biggest cock up in the world. But these are amateur mistakes and tarnish that most important of things, first impression. Startups, please learn from these mistakes…..