Quora for Startups: Sprouter Pivots to Focus on Q&A for Entrepreneurs

http://www.readwriteweb.com/start/2011/02/quora-for-startups-sprouter-pi.php

by jdp23 • 15 years ago

17 23 15 years ago

raganwald3• 15 years ago

I'm using the market leader for Startup Q&A to type this comment.

jdp238• 15 years ago

HN is one of the ''current'' market leaders. Recently though we're starting to see a trickle of Quora links here; over time I suspect it'll be more and more common to ask elsewhere and post here.

At least for me, HN's not that great for startup Q&A. No question I've asked here makes it to the front page, so people almost never respond. Meanwhile Quora's topics and the ability to direct a question to somebody give a lot of major advantages. Over the last two weeks I've had conversations on Quora with a journalist I didn't know and with a CEO of a company in the news. Both of the links came up on HN as well but I don't believe either of them posted here.

babyshake• 15 years ago

Agreed with this. Ask HN threads can contain excellent information, but is no longer a match for a good Quora thread.

However, is there really a need for a "Quora for startups"? Wouldn't that be...Quora?

raganwald3• 15 years ago

I agree that Quora can and maybe should leech some of this away. However, I personally dislike seeing SO and Quora questions posted here. The fragmented discussion is a sign that something is amiss.

If HN is a bad place to ask questions because they don't make it to the front page but it's a good place to discuss questions, my guess is that the community's perspective has some value.

Maybe it's time for HackerQuestions.com with users/karma integrated between HN and HQ. It's good that you can chat with journos on Quora. It's also good to have amore focused conversation within HN, that's why people discuss Quora or SO questions with such energy.

mbesto• 15 years ago

I'm not entirely sure what you're competitive advantage is then?

From I've read, it sounds like you've made the following conclusions:

HN - Great community, but not always reliable.

Quora - Great quality and responsiveness, but lack of focus.

And you want to sit somewhere in between? What's in it for the people giving advice?

jdp238• 15 years ago

Here's an experiment: I asked the same question on Quora, Sprouter, HN ... where will I get better responses?

Here's the Quora version: http://www.quora.com/What-impact-will-Sprouters-pivot-have-o...

csel• 15 years ago

The experiment does not mean anything. You will have very little response or no response at all.

Why? A lot of Q/A startups come and go and personally nobody cares if yet another new one shows up.

razin• 15 years ago

I thought Quora was the "Quora for Startups."

jdp238• 15 years ago

Quora certainly hopes so. But Sprouter could give them a run for their money.

On the one hand it's not like Quora has to dominate every market space to succeed -- StackOverflow will be better than them for programming questions, and there's a law site whose name I forget that rocks for legal stuff. But since this is so close to their core (Silicon Valley web startup scene) it's potentially a real challenge...

[Apologies for the duplicate comment]

johng• 15 years ago

I freaking hate how everyone is now using the word "Pivot"

jjm3• 15 years ago

What you do you propose?

raganwald3• 15 years ago

Reboot?

badmash69• 15 years ago

I am not a fan of Quora -- but you can't outdo Quora for entrepreneurs as so many of the VCs seem to be on Quora. Entrepreneurs will always go to where the VCs are.

jdp238• 15 years ago

But suppose a lot of angels and VC's decide that Sprouter's a better place? For example anybody wanting to do business with international companies can't be happy with Quora's English-only attitude ...

jjm3• 15 years ago

Is this Sprouter's 2nd pivot? I seemed to remember they had some sweeping changes back in early 2010 but can't find any evidence online or in my email (been a member for some time)...

toisanji• 15 years ago

hmm, I thought Quora already was "Quora for startups". Am I missing something?

patrickaljord• 15 years ago

Isn't Quora supposed to be Q&A for entrepreneurs?

clojurerocks• 15 years ago

Sprouter is an odd beast. It was started a few years ago as a twitter for entrepreneurs. Its based in canada so that was part of its marketing and was founded by a woman which was also part of its marketing. It had a terrible interface for a while which they sort of improved over time. I tried to use it for a few months and found it was loaded with spam. It also has a very small userbase in general so theres really nobody to follow and no real discussions taking place.

Why they are now becoming a quora clone is frankly bizarre. I think they are becoming another digg or myspace or hunch where they just are becoming desparate and are probably either losing users or just not having an increase in traffic. SO they are just throwing different plans out there to see which ones stick.

Quora for Startups: Sprouter Pivots to Focus on Q&A for Entrepreneurs

Related Stories