Why so many Founders hate their website... and the Holiday Margherita Pizza Problem It’s been four weeks since I set up SIDIN, my one-person comms design firm for early-stage companies. And since going public, things have been… hectic. I’ve spoken to dozens of founders, pitched for lots of projects, and booked half a dozen paying customers. All over the world! Not bad! Touch wood. (Thank you to everyone in my network, especially investors, who’ve connected me with potential clients.) I like speaking to founders. Sometimes, amidst all the hype and hoopla, it’s easy to forget that most founders are placing ultra-high risk life bets on ultra-low probability business outcomes. It takes a special type to do this with sincerity. And I like talking to sincere people. And as Founders open up to me, I can see interesting patterns in the problems they have with company story. (And other broader non-story problems also.) Let's talk about one pattern today. Time and time again I meet Founders who really dislike their business website. And it’s not just people who’ve had a design for many years. Often I meet Founders who’ve JUST completed a redesign and still hate it. And at least once a week I meet a founder who has relaunched their website six times in as many years. All with negligible impact on business. Why does this happen? Well, founders love optimizing for channels. It’s very addictive. “I have a kick ass new way of posting on LinkedIn!” “I have an amazing new hack to post on Twitter!” “I am going to ripoff the Linear webpage for my SaaS thing!” Sadly, this is often the wrong way to go about it. Let me explain with an analogy. Redesigning your website before you design your story, is like optimising for the cover of your book, and the social media marketing plan, and the retail plan, and the book website… all before you’ve actually written the book. All of those things are actually fun to do... but you have to write the book friend! Do not optimise for distribution before you’ve optimised for what you’re distributing. When "website" comes up on a call I usually ask founders how they went about making their latest iteration. And most of the time the say something along the lines of: “We hired an agency…” So what ends up happening? The agency asks you a bunch of questions. Maybe you write a bunch of documents. The agency makes a few mocks. And suddenly you’re hunched over Figma arguing over fonts, colours, motion graphics etc. In fact, you spend days sweating over the design details… when you’ve spent no more than an afternoon thinking of the actual content. The agency, of course, follows your instructions. Your new website is ready. And you immediately know you’ve just spent a ton of money without actually telling your story well. The problem only gets worse if you have multiple opinionated founders. In the effort to please everyone’s choices—usually about trivial things—you end up with what I like to call the “Holiday Margherita Pizza Website”. This is the scenario: You’re on holiday with friends and family. It’s dinner time. There is no consensus choice for dinner, so you end up going to a boring ass Italian restaurant, and ordering the most boring ass pizza. Increasingly, I see a tell when Founders have been through this: Companies that ship weak websites almost inevitably end up having pitch decks that tell the story wayyyyy better. Because the pitch decks are often a reaction to the website. So what should you do when you're making your website? I am glad you asked. 1. Write down what sucked about the old one. And be brutal. And promise to never make the same mistakes again. 2. Write down your story. I could tell you the framework I use to do this with my clients. But that would not be good for business. 3. Everyone must agree on the story in black and white, before a single Figma thing happens. I use Workflowy to create a simple bulleted outline of the story. (Bulleted lists are the greatest form of compact storytelling.) 4. Take this to your agency as the actual problem: here's our story, these are the chapters, this is what we want to convey. Show us how you'd design this as a website. 5. Every single time you review any output, check for story fidelity before anything else. (Because a bad website with a clear story will have a better chance of succeeding than a great website with a banal story.) 6. Pro-tip? Simultaneously make a pitch deck for sales. Or for investors. Or for new hires. See if your website tracks them closely. 7. Want an even better litmus test? Once you have a website that is close to complete... try and pitch your business using only the website. Do a mock pitch at work. Really. Go for it. Can you pitch your business to a customer/investor/talent using just your website? If you can't talk an audience through it, there is no way the website can do it without you around. And voila. You now have a website that tells the story you want to tell. That actually pulls weight. And that you don’t immediately hate afterwards. And now you iterate. I hope that helps! Thank you for your reading. Next time we talk about why early-stage companies can be handicapped by emotional memories. BTW I'd love to chat with you Founders about your company story. Link in bio for a relaxed, pitch-free conversation.

Potato came to India in 16th century. First written record of dosa was in 8th century. Which means there was an 800 year gap between first dosa and first masala dosa.

Who is the third person taking photos?

I was sitting in Starbucks opposite the British Museum. A huge group of Japanese tourists come in. And they can’t use the wifi. So they looked around and then approached me. And I sat and set up Starbucks wifi for each one of them. Then one guy said “India! Very good IT support!”

“India before L&T”

Congrats to all Odiyas.

Rings of Power

Congrats to their father Abu Dabi.

Anupam Kher on NDTV is the closest ever Modi has come to a press conference.

He just inaugurated a PDF file.

Why one billion people can’t win Olympic medals? Why South Korea has won more individual golds in last three days than India has won in last 124 years? What is the reason?

Wait. New CEO of Arsenal is Dick Garlick????!!!! Lauda Lassoon???!! Guys really?

The greatest survivor in Indian history. If you take this guy and drown him in sambar he will turn into drumstick and float to the surface and survive.

Annual reminder that MDH uncle will only put his photo on the vegetarian items.

Oh my god I just realized. He is turning his face into a map of India.

Assets declared by BJP and INC in FY 2013-14: BJP: 780.754 cr INC: 767.23 cr Assets declared by BJP and INC in FY 2019-20: BJP: 4847.78 cr INC: 588.16 cr Source: adrindia.org/content/income-…

Supreme Court should hear this case in 35 phases spread over 15 years.

Gandhi did not die for us to import Salt from England.

Welcome to all cricket fans watching their first football match. Please don’t worry. This is the normal amount of grass on the pitch.

Rahul Dravid celebrated exactly how you imagine Rahul Dravid celebrates. Like his body really wants to go wild… but his brain is like “No Rahul no. Stop this. What is this debauchery. Rahul people are watching. Rahul! Is that a high five? Are you a caveman?”

World Cup is seventh headline on the Sydney Morning Herald mobile website. Three scrolls down.

SIRAJ-UD-BOWLAH

Going to keep complaining about Nvidia India until they get upset and ask me “to come and join us if you have guts”.

Once again Bengal is the location of a new Yeast India Company.

My favourite memory of IIMA is sitting through an excellent class on supply chain management and then standing in a line at the mess for 15 minutes because only one guy is making chappati.

One reason I love Dhoni is that he just shuts the fuck up all the time when he is not playing cricket. An important lesson for all Indians.

People are naming children after dosa variety?

Ok. I am going to figure out why everyone in India has this spoon… has to be an interesting story…

If Indian media shut down right now--all of it, newspapers and TV and everything--it would hurt the government far more than it would the public.

Remember Lok Pal? The solution to India’s corruption? Even the website doesn’t work any more.

That rarest of rare things: an Indian business leader whose finances and paperwork were in such good order that he could criticise any government.

I have cracked the pattern. Jaitley: Everything is ok RBI: Actually some things are not ok PM: Before also things were not ok

Murthy: "We need to find a new CEO..." Nilekani opening a laptop: "No problem. I have everybody's contact details..."

Defeating the Mughals one poor, helpless tailor at a time. Superb job. Proud day.

Yesterday Modi worked 27 hours. He hasn’t slept since 2020. He ate breakfast last in December. He takes a break every four hours to drink one teaspoon of water. RT widely.

Man. It is going to be wild when both Amarinder Singh and Sidhu join the BJP and suddenly they both are like what the fuck not again.

Was brushing one child’s teeth when Kohli hit three fours. Sorry but this child is going to stand here and brush his teeth for four hours now. I don’t make the rules.

Once I met a guy who runs a shop in the UK who said he randomly put mangoes from Dominican Republic into boxes that said India Pakistan whatever and desis would just eat and say "aha aha oho authentic memories of home are coming..."

Google Docs is currently the Prime Minster of India.

If divorce is approved she will have peda heavy price. Unless her whole plan was daylight rabri through alimony. Anyway lassi what happens.

Congress sweep in 1984 in blue and BJP in 2019 in orange. Interesting and persistent islands of resistance to a national narrative.

That dog is almost as well trained as Indian TV news.

Rolex Daytona Black and Rose Gold.

Magnificent NASA photo of the Keralaporotta Nebula in the Ummenchandy Galaxy. A huge moment in the history of mankind.

What a victory. Still not entirely sure why there is a cricket trophy named after a cricketer and a Sunil Shetty movie. But let’s not nitpick in this moment.

Party: "Rahul, everything you touch is turning into total failure..." Rahul: "Wait... I have an idea..."

Some basic Malayalam for travellers. Is this USA: Americayaano? Are you American: Americanaano? Are you American male: Americanaanaano? Is this black coffee: Americanoaano? Is this American squirrel: Americanannaanaano? Is this male American squirrel: Americanaanannaanaano?

Satya Nadella finally attends a cricket match. And once again he has to spend all day looking at a terrible Surface.

Same three guys are playing tennis for last 25 years. What is this nonsense?

Boycott Indian News TV. Destroy that poison. Stop advertising with those clowns. Delete those channels at home. Don’t even watch them ironically. Don’t share their garbage even for the comedy.

100% India is going to announce a new journal to compete against The Lancet. You just know it.

Why not rebrand “Resignation” into something cool. Vanvaas2.0. PMLeaves. NamoVamos. Something like that. Maybe he will listen.

Awkward for Indians who have only made friends with other Indians…

Looks like it is going to be a disappointing night for India at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Ahmedabad.

Damn easy to sit in foreign and tweet, centrist etc. But students are funny things. You can muzzle media, scare off corporates and intimidate film stars. But students... Students have nothing to lose, their entire lives to gain and an infinite capacity to stay pissed off.

Anybody from Uttarakhand who has not been CM so far? What are you doing wrong?

Big difference between Modi and my dad is that when I failed in Hindi he hugged me tightly with tears in his eyes and said "No problem Sidin. You tried. Hopefully some other family will take you in. Get out of this house."

Don’t know why some people are spreading propaganda against India by dying when they are lynched.

Hey hey boss your website is called The Print.

WAS NOBODY EXPECTING HIM TO COME BACK OR WHAT

Why Kent she remember???

My god. Laxman Sivaramakrishnan’s name is like 35% of Indian mythology.

Journalism 101: If someone says it's raining and another says it is dry, it is NOT your job to quote them both. It's your job to look out of the window & see which is the truth but there is no business plan in this. So better to set up 2 companies one pro-rain and one pro-dry.

This is what happens when journalists, politicians vomit and then go home thinking lol just a job no big deeeaaaalllll. Bastards. A broken economy you can fix and then break again with master strokes. And fix again. A broken society is f-ing broken for decades.

Good thing this didn’t happen to Attenborough’s Gandhi...

High time a puri was in charge of oil.

Unbelievable Javelin throwing by Neeraj Chopra. Just absolutely erotically thrilling efforts.

Cricket is weird. Some random mathematical formula that two people understand can decide who will win a match, but an actual written rule is debated ad nauseum.

Why is the title on top not centre justified properly?

Indigo Captain’s entire life is now being picked apart by 35000 guys for: 1. What is Mateti surname is it Converted? 2. Has he ever flown to Rome? 3. Did his uncle once donate to AAP? 4. Has he been to Karachi Bakery? 5. Does he like wear brown shoes with a black belt?

My god LinkedIn is just… my god. It’s full of like engineer MBA types who have finally been allowed by their parents to feel human emotion and now can’t fucking deal with it.

Two Autonomous Aadhaar-enabled cars hit each other in Delhi. Both already know who each other's fathers are. Traffic returns to normal.

Wait…my god what did the Prime Minister do????!!!!!

His office is made of Dairy Milk?

I once met a person who had personally met Shah Rukh Khan. Will never forget that moment.

My god I am walking past a desi birthday party and literally every boy name has a ‘aan’ sound in it. Avyaan. Viyaan. Vihaan. Aryamaan. Guys what is going on? Which website is responsible for this? Can the government intervene? Maybe an ordinance? Some OCI restriction?

Good morning to all except Bangalore South Lok Sabha constituency.

One thing I’ve learnt from the Covid catastrophe is that the so many batch mates from engineering (and maybe b school) have no savings. So many people with like 20 years of really affluent work experience are two month’s salary away from crowd funding to feed their families.

Hello friends. Have a good weekend. Never ever watch Indian TV news, even ironically. Ban it at home, and aggressively encourage friends to stop watching it. Never. Ever. Ever.

It is a PDF file. File has a password. Password will be shared via website. Website needs OTP. OTP will be sent after registering phone number. Phone number must be updated via app. App is currently undergoing maintenance.

Hope this will make the idea of Paternity Leave more popular in India...

Don’t have a PhD in foreign policy but as I understand it India is supporting Russia so that they can get weapons to fight China who is supporting Russia who is also being supported by Pakistan who is fighting with India? Cool. Makes sense.

Just realised that MDH uncle’s photo only appears on the vegetarian items...

Sonam Wangchuk just reminds me of Iron Sharmila who fasted for 16 years to get AFSPA removed, was hailed as a hero, and then got 90 votes when she ran in an election.

My brother is visiting Paris and took this photo of the beach volleyball venue from the top of Eiffel Tower. And it’s one of the greatest photos I have ever seen.

You are putting superb Twitter threads while your parents are sitting at home and watching Republic. All the best. Viva la resistance.

Please use the IPL trumpet. No exceptions. One nation. One horn.

Chotta Rajan and Manmohan Singh in the same hospital. I am sorry but I cannot be a novelist in this country. I cannot compete with this.

Deepika Padukone gutsy move. Government has like 35000 ways of paining your life beyond belief, from dengue is growing in your potted plant to spelling mistake in tax return to some random non-bailable bullshit.

Welcome to new CEO of Twitter who on average tweets like twice a month. Because he has actual work to do. Let this be a lesson to us all.

Guys been working on a new startup for several months now. One of my hardest, most demanding projects yet. Hope you will all enjoy and support... 🎉🎉WHATAYBROTHER!🎉🎉

Disappointing T20 World Cup for a India. But I hope everyone is enjoying the last generation of Indian cricketers with normal names. Twenty years from now team will be: Viyaan Kiyaan Vikhyaan Aryamaan Narender Narender Virat Virat Ahaan Vihaaan Ahaanvihaan (w)

Many people don't get the scale of India's size. Let me try to explain with an example. If you made every Indian stand in a line, this line wuold stretch from the earth to the... wait sir please stand in line. HELLO SIR STAND IN LINE IT WILL TAKE ONLY TWO MINUTES. SIR... MADAM...

Indians protesting overseas is really... unique. Because like 15 languages amongst 300 people gathered. And you are left thinking bloody hell what a weird and wonderful project this country is, literally nobody can sing anything in tune, but this is all worth saving.

How can you call him best husband without giving others a chance? Bad methodology.

Indian banking is amazing. Central Bank of India is not central bank of India. South Indian Bank has branches in North India. Catholic Syrian Bank is not Catholic or Syrian. Punjab National Bank is based in Delhi. Indian Overseas Bank has 3000 branches in India and 4 overseas.

Just an idea. Why not give one year CM post each to Congress, NCP, BJP, Shiv Sena and Reliance?

Ha ha they have imposed section 144 in Bangalore as if otherwise people there can move easily from place to place in large groups. LOL.

If history had been different this could have been a Ranji Trophy match…