Excellent, and I love the idea. We (a community of 400+ founders in a small Bangalore community) were even discussing you guys a few days back.
I have given this feedback earlier, too, but the copy sounds Ind-lish at most places. Your customers are going to be primarily non-Indian. It would be best to have a native speaker, such as an American, to review and re-write. I’m an Indian and have worked primarily with overseas clients since the early 00s. I have learned a lot about what we speak/write sounds normal, but they sound either funny at best or rude at worst.
Not in a derogatory way, and I’m guilty of being one myself, too. However, this is what I equate to, “Quite a tad of our Indian English is like driving a car with the handbrake half-engaged or sawing a hardwood with an unsharpened tool.”
I see where you are coming from. But, as an NRI, I found the writing authentic.
Just like American English, English English, Australian English, it is Indian English. Nothing to be unproud of and criticized about..
I’d perhaps be happy to see translation options as
Indian English, American, UK etc on a modern humorous tone :-)
It is perfectly OK to move fast and do the `Juggad`[1] in the beginning, but, from my experience, once they succeed, they will eventually do that - improve the copies. I was suggesting to focus on that early on. It is akin to improving on the UX — get the product’s core working with crappy UX but then improve as the product succeeds.
Please go through the WebArchive of any successful Indian Startups (even the ones focused on Indians); they all eventually moved to a more Internationally better sounding English. We Indians can understand them and are not culturally nostalgic or patriotic about “Indian English.”
While we are at it, I guarantee that once they succeed, if not the founder of Cheq, the investors and/or external forces will force them to buy `Cheq.com.` I will be surprised if they are not thinking of getting that domain already.
Okay, you mistook what I said, and responded based on an unspoken assumption.
1. I did not suggest - move fast and have a lax attitude. Writing or speaking Indian English != carelessness or lack of professionalism. I do agree that catering to an international audience(particularly relevant to this startup) necessitates speaking in unambigous "close to the customer" language, and hence I suggested a "Indian English", "American english", and "British English" toggle.
> they all eventually moved to a more Internationally better sounding English.
well, international, yes. But, better sounding English? who are we to judge which one is better?
Someone has to bring in the change of attitude and originality that Indian startups catering to an Indian audience can feel free to communicate to the audience in their speak, and not worry about blindly measuring themselves against a superficially superior standard. Does the copy need to be unambigous, grammatically correct, uninsulting, and non-discriminatory? Yes, and I will back you up. Is it wrong because the English or Americans dont say it that way, I wont care.
>`Cheq.com.`
Nothing to do with any nation, but .com is the default of the web, and even the browser defaults to it with a shift + enter, So, yes, it is advantageous to capture that real estate. That is good advice to startups that havent thought of it in time.
I'm not an English native speaker. I didn't notice anything peculiar in that copy. Of course as non native speaker I lack the skills to notice any nuances but on the other side that means that it's OK for at least some of the potential customers. For native English speakers maybe you need some fixes that I can't see but would you sell the product by its convenience of by the copy?
I have given this feedback earlier, too, but the copy sounds Ind-lish at most places. Your customers are going to be primarily non-Indian. It would be best to have a native speaker, such as an American, to review and re-write. I’m an Indian and have worked primarily with overseas clients since the early 00s. I have learned a lot about what we speak/write sounds normal, but they sound either funny at best or rude at worst.
Not in a derogatory way, and I’m guilty of being one myself, too. However, this is what I equate to, “Quite a tad of our Indian English is like driving a car with the handbrake half-engaged or sawing a hardwood with an unsharpened tool.”
Best of luck. This tool needs to exit.