[coenhyde]

As an Australian I can relate to this. Often American's think I'm putting our startup down, just because I'm not overly excited saying everything is awesome and fantastic. I'm extremely positive and have absolute confidence that we will succeed. But I prefer to look at things objectively and to tackle the problems. However American's translate my language into "my startup sucks".

So recently I've been training myself to talk roses when dealing with American's. :)

[timknauf]

We're just across the Tasman from you, and have experienced the exact same thing with our games startup. When my (admittedly modest, even by Kiwi standards) co-founder was over at E3, he reportedly initally caused great confusion amongst Californians by describing our games as 'merely' "pretty good".

[vlod]

I agree. As a Brit my generally phrase is "It's not bad" which translates to: 'Its Okay".

I get the impression they think I've just spat in their faces. :)

[prawn]

(Australian here.)

I think I could have a top-tier international corporation and still have to force myself to describe my product or service as great. I'd probably try to qualify it as opinion - "Well, I think it's pretty good."