Yesterday an infographic presented itself as an alert on my phone. I think it came from Google+ but I can’t figure out how to show old alerts. I must say, I was intrigued by what promised to be some advice for someone that’s exactly in my position. Is my startup ready for success? Unfortunately there is a lot of bad info out there.

Take the Survey

Go ahead, follow the trail.

I suggest you work your way through the infographic before going any further. In case you had trouble, as I did, finding the start – it’s just to the left of the big SUCCESS text.

You either came out fully prepared and the proud owner of a multi-million dollar startup or you teetered over a cliff and into some lethargic one-liner: MAYBE YOU SHOULD EVALUATE YOUR STRATEGY ONCE AGAIN!!!!

The graphic is accompanied by a few paragraphs that contain anecdotes about failing startups and saving time with stitches or some such nonsense. However, in the humble opinion of this writer, it’s all bunk. I cannot possibly fathom how the first step in ascertaining a startup’s viability is whether or not they have a website domain! A website is required to run a business? Sure, it’s nice and all, but even Google would prefer you to have a Locals page filled out with correct info than a poorly constructed webpage.

I mean really – does your small coffee shop have to have a website to be successful? I doubt it – I’d probably focus more on Yelp and Facebook.

Bad Info

Now, I’m no startup genius but in my opinion this infographic was created by someone that has never started a business. I get a strong feeling that this person wants you to buy a website (funny that it was posted by web and graphic designers) instead of being a logical look at your chances of startup success.

I probably don’t need to write this post because most of you aren’t fooled by gimmicks but it just upset me that people put out this garbage. Sorry DesignHill – I’m not smoking your dope.