I noticed a tweet last night that caught my attention – “Canada’s Top 100 Startups”. A click took me to Mobisheet, which a list of startups using Alexa as the ranking tool.
First, Alexa should never be used as a way to accurately rank anything online.
Second, the idea of ranking startups has never struck me as a good idea other than perhaps putting a flickering spotlight on startups who will take all the attention they can get.
The problem with lists is they’re like beauty contests; completely subjective, open to bias and always called into question.
Using metrics such as pageviews or Alexa rankings to rank startups is an exercise with no value because assessing the potential of a startup often has nothing to do with publicly-available numbers. B2B companies, for example, they could have modest amounts of traffic but strong sales that, of course, they may not reveal publicly.
I would suggest lists such as the one created by Mobisheet are bad because they highlight companies that may not deserve or warrant the attention, while burying or ignoring companies that are more exciting and interesting.
So how should startups be highlighted other than ranking them?
One approach is simply writing about startups doing interesting things. In my Globe & Mail “Start” column, I’ve written about startups such as QuickMobile, 500Pixels, Keek, Strutta and Thrive Software. StartupNorth and TechVibes also do a good job of putting the spotlight on startups, and, from time to time, the major newspapers write about startups.
While there needs to be more coverage because there’s so many interesting startups, they’re better than lists because the approach has more merit and value.
