History: In the Beginning

ToYou.com first started out as a website directory for businesses that delivered or came to your home or office. We envisioned businesses like restaurants, florists, groceries, doctors, barbers, office supplies, hardware, etc. would be listed. This way people could shop on the Internet without leaving their home or office.

The domain name was part of the slogan, "When you can't get it yourself, have it delivered ToYou.com". Pretty cute, right? Too cute. The first thing that we found out that people had a hard time remembering the domain name. Sure it was short and the catch phrase was easy to remember, but people could not figure out how to spell "to you". They would ask is that spelled with the number 2 or with the letter "u" or is that spelled with 2 "o's"? And this was before texting became big where people short-hand everything.


Other problems arose with getting the content or listings. At that time not a whole lot of businesses had websites and when we offered to build a simple site at nominal cost they would say that they don't have Internet access. We tried explaining that people could order over the phone but very few people would hear of it. Plus most businesses that could be listed were mostly restaurants and Chinese and sub shops at that. We wanted a more robust listing but it was almost impossible to find barbers or doctors who made house calls.

There were a few minor successes. We got a few listings as being a top website by somewhat dubious organizations and we did score big being named one of the top 120 websites by Boston magazine.

Unfortunately this business model didn't work out too well and while we tried a few promotions it never did really get it off the ground. It doesn't help when most staff knowledge is technical and none in marketing.

Next: Marketing Campaigns, Not as bad as New Coke but not a whole lot better.