The 10 Golden Principles of Successful Web Apps according to Fred Wilson

I just finished watching a great video where Fred Wilson talks about 10 things he looks for in a web app prior to investing.

Speed.- an application must be fast. Mainstream users don’t put up with slow apps.
Instant utility.- the service has to be useful right out of the box. For example, Don’t make the user have to import contacts into the app before using it.
Voice.- “software is media today” attitude, style… your software has to have a personality e.g. the fail whale was a personality and people were walking around wearing fail whale shirts.
Less is more.- especially at the beginning (when you launch). Simplicity. It’ll give you the platform to grow from there.
Programmable.- make it possible that others can build on it, add to it, etc. i.e. APIs Let others add value to your application.

Personal.- make your app infused with the user’s energy. and “the more of their data and their personality that they can contribute to your application the more ownership they feel of it” and they start to care. For ex. changing their backgrounds, adding their avatars, etc.
RESTful.- everything in the app has a URL, a clean and comprehensible URL e.g. somebody’s list on twitter has a unique, well-understood URL. So you can share it, Google will see it = discoverability
Discoverable.- understand SEO, build your app from the ground up to be discovered by Google AND social media. Virality. The product itself has to push itself out to the web and to social media.
Clean.- the application cannot be busy on the page. Lots of white space. Big fonts. Not too much functionality presented on any one page and make it very clear what people need to do. e.g. Tumblr’s login page (nobody is not going to know what they need to do there).
Playful.- ability to play in an application. Using game dynamics you can incent the kind of behavior you want to create in your application.