What’s the ‘Slap’ in SlapStart?

Hello! And welcome to SlapStart. Many people know SlapStart for its witty reviews and insightful commentaries on upcoming start-ups. Most people don’t know that SlapStart has always had an identity problem. It started as a hobby writing about start-ups. The original articles would humorously review, critique, and sometimes provide critical feedback of start-ups and their design decisions. When people would ask about our name we would say it was a cross between slapstick humor and slapping sites around a bit.

But times changed. We found ourselves in the midst of start-ups that were hungry for attention. They wanted creative reviews that highlighted their company’s strengths. So we moved the ‘Slap’ offline, providing design and business review feedback directly to site owners in letter headed PDFs. The online articles focused on what companies had to offer the world. This was a great change and carried on for quite a while. After all, start-ups have it hard enough without being criticized during their initial growing stages.

As it turns out, start-ups do have it pretty hard. In fact a number of them have come and gone since we first began featuring them. It’s always with great sadness that we discover a start-up has closed its doors, and the dreams of its founders with it. Amidst the muffled sobs in our office, faint cries, and a few trust falls just in case, we contemplated what to do with the articles of these now defunct start-ups. In our moment of greatest distress, we finally discovered the true meaning of ‘Slap’ in SlapStart. It’s a place for sites that didn’t make it in the start-up world.

• The Slap articles are forever canonized and memorialized here.
• The Start articles are enthusiastically cheered on here.

Welcome to SlapStart. A place for start-ups.

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