ANALYTICS 2.0

In depth analysis of KillerStartups by its own creator - Gonzalo Arzuaga

Two weeks ago I promessed interviewing Gonzalo Arzuaga in order to let them tell us about Killer Startups (his latest own Startup). Here is the interview, I hope you enjoy it. 

JUAN: What is Killer Startups?

GONZALO: KillerStartups.com is a user driven internet startups community. Entrepreneurs, investors and bloggers are staying updated on up-and-coming internet startups using our blog platform.

JUAN: How did KS begin?

GONZALO: We clearly created KillerStartups with the idea of adding something we found it was missing at that time. Techcrunch is certainly the big fish in the internet startups niche, and Digg was really getting bigger by the day. We decided to put them together and see what would happen. That’s why we like to say KillerStartups in a way is like Techcrunch + Digg. We only review internet startups, we don’t do editorial news, we just focus on doing reviews. And letting our members vote on that, comment, contact the startups reviewed, share their opinion if they think that startup will go IPO, survive, etc. Currently we’re doing 20+ reviews per day, and we’re soon gonna go for more. It takes a lot of effort and resouces to generate good quality content.

JUAN: What is the target market of KS?

GONZALO: Basically we aim to all internet related companies. We include VCs willing to invest in internet companies, entrepreneurs creating their own internet startups, and CEOs of established internet companies looking for new and upcoming startups they may buy or invet in.

JUAN: What is its competition?

GONZALO: Actually we don’t see anyone just yet doing exactly the same thing KillerStartups.com is doing. But off course, if the concept gets validated, we might see some others join us.

JUAN: What does KS that makes it different?

GONZALO: Well, we’re trying to do one thing and one thing only, and trying to do it well. We just review internet startups. That’s it, that’s all we’re ever gonna do. And put lots of work and passion into it. That’s the key to succeed in anything you do, I believe.

JUAN: What should potencial investors expect from this project?.

GONZALO: If you consider the investment needed, it’s really low investment, that’s why the web 2.0 is so great. You can go to the market and see if your idea has potential, or not, in a very short period of time, and with a low investment. Actually we don’t know how’s this gonna evolve. We launched KillerStartups.com in January 20th and since then the traffic’s been growing steadily. Last week we were in the 17,000’s in Alexa, not bad at all. But off course we want to go for the 5,000’s Basically the risk is high in the sense that if the market doesn’t like it, all the investment goes south. Definitively it’s a long term play, we just don’t know how’s this gonna evolve, and we just love the fact it is that way.

JUAN: What is your opinion about people that says “KS is just another Clon of Meneame”?

GONZALO: Actually our technology is based on pligg.com which is a script created from the meneame team. We strongly believe that what set you apart is execution. Meneame is like digg in spanish, KillerStartups is only focusing on internet startups, that’s why we believe we have more relation to Techcrunch than to Digg or Meneame in that sense.

JUAN: What is your passion?

GONZALO: I Love writing and reading, but not much of that lately unfortunately. I’m putting really long hours into KillerStartups.com, like you wouldn’t believe…

JUAN: What’s the best book you’ve read?

GONZALO: “Think and grow rich” by Napoleon Hill. I read that book when I was 17, and what an impact it had in my life.

I would like to personally thanks Gonzalo Arzuaga for his time, as he said this days he is really busy with KS. 

Some of the reviews KillerStartups.com got since launched:

“Simple blog idea done well. Good idea for a focused site. Well done!”
Howard Lindzon - Wallstrip.com

“KillerStartups is very cool site, great concept!”
Sean King - StartupStories.com

“I think your site will fly!”
Andrew Ive – AdvisorGarage.com

“What a forward thinking concept.”
Matt Keegan – TheArticleWriter.com

“Wow. Great idea. I think you have a killer start-up yourself.”
George – CanIMakeBigMoneyOnline.com

 Juan Damia

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