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Fun story: I built BetaList 16 years ago which was one of the first "product discovery" platforms. Years before Product Hunt, etc. I manually reviewed every s
by marc 3mo ago
Fun story:
I built BetaList 16 years ago which was one of the first "product discovery" platforms. Years before Product Hunt, etc.
I manually reviewed every submission and unfortunately often I had to tell founders that their startup didn't qualify to be included. Almost everyone would (understandably!) argue their case, but as volume increased I couldn't afford to go into a deep argument with every single founder.
That's when I made https://submit.co https://submit.co a site similar to OP's. The idea being that instead of say "No, we will not feature your startup" I now gave them an alternative place to put their energy.
Initially it was mostly a list of tech blogs, but as more product discovery platforms popped up, I started adding them too. In a sense, I was promoting my competition but it was exactly the startups we couldn't list any way for one reason or another.
Eventually that list of "places to submit your startup" got so popular (and copied everywhere ) that it started driving traffic back to BetaList. (I included it at the very top of the list).
- kilobaud 3mo agoThanks for helping us launch LocalXpose however many years ago. I know it seems like product promotion is (rightfully) something to always be wary of, but I appreciate the forums you’ve provided startups hoping to find early adopters. We are (relatively speaking) successful nobodies, but I wonder if you have any memories of sites that “blew up” after being added on BetaList?
- marc 3mo ago[dead]
- david_shi 3mo agoFor the ones that don’t have a submit button, what have you found are the best ways to get featured? I know some are pay to play but curious if there are other methods you’ve found effective.
- marc 3mo agoGenerally you can just reach out via a contact form. I should link to those
- jklinger410 3mo agoHey thanks for letting me spam BetaList and get a startup I worked for some decent exposure!
- marc 3mo agoHaha you're welcome. Thanks for letting us share it with our audience :)
- encodedrose 3mo ago>often I had to tell founders that their startup didn't qualify to be included Could you share why?
- marc 3mo agoFor many years we explicitly denied any startup that was already launched. This was back in the day where most startups had a long "pre-launch" phase where they would be collecting user feedback through private betas, etc before launching publicly. I wanted BetaList to be focused on early-stage startups and to avoid a lot of debates about what is and isn't "early-stage" I decided on that clear policy. We also denied startups for other reasons such as using an over-used homepage template (they never converted well for our audience as they'd see the same one multiple times a week) or simply having a dime-in-a-dozen product (which also didn't get many signups when featured on BetaList).
- AiNexus 3mo ago[flagged]
- bitvvip 3mo agoEarlier than Product Hunt? That's amazing. It must have helped a lot of people. Developing a product really requires a platform for promotion
- marc 3mo agoYeah PH launched a few years after us :)