@haideralmosawi wrote about how being weird is good for startups: 

The most successful startups today sound ridiculous as ideas when they first started. Great ideas sound weird because we judge them by what we know and what’s currently popular, acceptable, and working…Weird is a feature, not a bug.

This is so true. Lots of great products today were ridiculed at launch. Remember how the first iPad was mocked for it’s association with feminine sanitary products? Who remembers that now (while Apple laughs its way to the bank being the first trillion dollar company)? Dropbox was criticized on Hacker News for being something that can be developed “trivially” using FTP. Airbnb was dismissed for fear of “being hacked into a thousand pieces and thrown into a dumpster”. Even the supposedly future-forward, early adopting community in Hacker News can get it wrong. So it really goes to show how anyone’s guess (even experts and people in the know) is as good as your’s, when it comes to whether a product will work out.   

Which is why I love this heuristic about embracing weirdness (in a good way, not a freaky, psycho way). Because:

Weird is authentic and relational

Everyone is trying to sound larger than they are. They use corporate lingo, try to appear formal and professional. Even solo founders use “we” instead of “me”. In this sea of sameness, being weird in your own little ways can actually be refreshingly authentic and relational. That’s part of the appeal of using products made by indie makers and startup founders, isn’t it? We love our mom and pop corner stores, due to the fact that they are small yet cosy. 

Weird means congruence

I always believed embracing your weirdness means being congruent to your own unique skills, talents and personality quirks, and expressing them through the product/startup. As long as it doesn’t come across as a turn-off or is socially deviant, embracing weirdness is actually a deeply enjoyable way to serve the world through your product, isn’t it? 

Weird gets attention

There’s many best practices when it comes to marketing startups and products, and everyone’s using them. We get free, cool illustrations from undraw.co, and now every product landing page has illustrations. But there’s only one you. Maybe you like cats. Make it work with the product! People might tease you for it, but hell, bad publicity is still publicity.  

But weird is hard to differentiate at first

One difficulty I have is how innovative but weird products share the same beginnings as weird but unworkable products, so it can be hard to tell them apart…at first. A bit like a thin line between genius and insanity. But launch it, put it out, let people interact with it, and over time, we can tell them apart. I’ll still bet on being weird any day though! At least there’s a 50:50 chance of getting a hit!