Introducing Our New Company Rating System

When most research and consulting firms analyze industries, they painstakingly place companies into those ubiquitous quadrant graphs.  Companies that are doing better are shown with arrows pointing up and to the right.  Companies that are doing worse have arrows pointing down and to the left.  Etc.

Well, at Silicon Alley Insider, we're tired of those annoying quadrant graphs.  We also hate it when wussy analysts pussyfoot around with hypothetical if/then statements.  ("If this happens, then Company X may face challenges.")  So, we're just going to tell you what you really want to know:

• Companies that are cool.
• Companies that suck.

In our short history, we've analyzed a bunch of companies and are now proud to present our initial list.  We'll update/augment it every once in a while.  We'll also provide some shorthand logic and/or directional color.

Think your company doesn't suck?  Tell us why not!  Post in the comments or drop us a note.  Think your competitors' company is not cool--or that your company should be added to one of these lists?  We look forward to hearing from you.

Companies That Are Cool:

Snooth     The best wine-review site.
StreetEasy     Neighborhood focus gives it an edge against national real-estate competitors.
Hearst   One of the few trad media companies whose online strategy doesn't suck.
blip.tv    Recently raised more money and carving niche in wildly competitive video sector.
Gawker Media:  Growing and highly profitable blog network.

Companies That Suck:

SpiralFrog            Download free music to PC only.  Forget the nonexistent model--who wants to do this?
QTrax                   Download free music to PC only.  Ditto.
TableXchange     Requires customers to be dishonest
Vonage                Churn and cost-per-acquisition trends headed in wrong direction.
Helio                   Hyped beyond belief, hemorrhaging cash, and still no business model.
Skype                     Growth stalling, lack of focus, and abominable PR.  Downgraded from "cool."
Limelight             Blew first quarter as a public company, getting sued up wazoo.