Reaching out, nice to e-meet you and other buzzwords startups must banish

We’ve heard it all at Ventureburn this year. But frankly we’re a little tired. It’s been a long year, but before we go we would like to share with you 12 buzzwords that startups should banish from their emails and conversations. Go ahead and make it part of your New Year’s resolution.

Why be stuck on just a few over-used words or phrases when there are literally tens of thousands of words in the English language.

The second edition of the (20-volume) Oxford English Dictionary contains entries for 171 476 words in current use, and 47 156 obsolete words. Steering away from cliche expressions will definitely make life a little bit more interesting.

Why be stuck on just a few over used buzzwords when there are tens of thousands of words in the English language

Here are the words we at Ventureburn would like to see banished in 2019:

Reaching out: It can be a lonely world, especially if you don’t use the phone much and just rely on emails and Whatsapp messages to communicate with clients and potential partners — almost as if you are reaching out for that human touch or human voice. Just say “thanks for your email”. The person will understand.

Nice to e-meet you: Hello or hi — won’t that suffice? The statement seems to presuppose you’ve actually met the person to whom it’s directed to. How sincere is that?

We’d like to partner with you: We’d like to use your name and network to get rich while not spending a single cent (on you). Isn’t that what you really want to say? Instead you could just say “we’d like work with you”. It’s a lot more neutral an expression.

The ecosystem: Tech organisations that make up the startup community and are helping to support tech startups are now part of this thing called “the ecosystem” which presupposes we’re all in some way linked together and need to work together to make it happen. Really?

The community: A more friendly term to mean all those organisations and startup companies in your particular city, country or in the world itself. The word itself conjures up images of startups, funders and mentors all being part of one big hippie commune. In reality it’s nearly never like that.

Ecosystem players and partners: You can be a player, someone making waves in the ecosystem. Or you can be a partner — someone who helps others to make waves. But ask yourself, what does that really mean?

Entrepreneurial journey: A fancy way of saying the story of how you have overcome challenges to be the entrepreneur you are today. Isn’t life a journey anyhow?

Hi team: Because we’re all in it together, right?

Influencer: What does it exactly mean if you are an “influencer”? A better term would be someone with a certain standing in the startup community.

Bar: A word commonly used in investing to describe the figure “one million (dollars/rands etc) (eg: “I invested five bar in that startup” — which translates to “I invested $5-million in the business”. Use it to look sophisticated or to not mention the word “million” least too many people around you catch on where you are putting all your hard-earned money.

So: When you really want to annoy everyone around you, move to starting all your sentences with the conjugation “so”. It’s like a brain fart. Just like, you know, so annoying.  

The blockchain: It used to be fintech, now its “the blockchain” that’s the new coolest thing. Your startup’s solution might not even need the blockchain to service users, but it sure has a nice smooth ring to it when you read it out. And investors should love it, right?

Featured image: rawpixel via Pixabay