r/EntrepreneurRideAlong
People building small businesses in public
- Size
- Mid-size
- Buying intent
- Medium
- Promotion
- Open
Unusually tolerant of builders sharing what they are working on, with a genuine build-in-public culture rather than a promotional free-for-all. Members post progress updates and expect others to do the same.
Intent is modest and the community is warm, which makes it a reasonable place to test messaging and find early users who will actually give you feedback. Treat it as a research and relationship community rather than a pipeline source.
What people actually post
The progress update
Revenue, traffic and lessons from someone building openly. The defining format of the community.
The tactical question
A specific problem with a specific business. Genuinely answerable and appreciated.
The launch
Permitted and common, with a receptive audience if the story is honest.
What people get wrong about it
The open promotion policy suggests low quality. The build-in-public culture keeps it more genuine than the larger business communities.
Can you promote in r/EntrepreneurRideAlong?
Open by the standards of business communities, with the expectation that you participate as a builder rather than broadcast as a company.
What gets you removed
Corporate communication. Anything that sounds like a company rather than a person is ignored.
A good first contribution
Post an honest progress update including what is not working. Candour is the community's currency and polish reads as marketing.
Products that fit here
- Early user recruitment
- Messaging and positioning tests
- Products for very small businesses
- Anything with a build-in-public story
What does not work
Polished corporate communication. The community responds to candour and ignores everything else.
Timing
Steady year-round.
How it compares to the neighbours
The communities closest to r/EntrepreneurRideAlong, and how they differ on the three things that decide whether one is worth your time.
| Community | Size | Intent | Promotion |
|---|---|---|---|
| r/EntrepreneurRideAlong | Mid-size | Medium | Open |
| r/smallbusiness | Very large | High | Conditional |
| r/SaaS | Large | Low | Open |
| r/dropship | Large | Medium | Conditional |
Where this fits in a wider plan
r/EntrepreneurRideAlong appears in our list of the best subreddits for ecommerce brands, which sets it against the other communities worth watching in that market. If you are starting from nothing, the six-week plan in finding your first 100 users covers how to build standing before you mention a product at all.
Watch r/EntrepreneurRideAlong without reading it.
Lidar reads it every day, scores each post against what your product does, and sends you the ones worth answering. Along with the rest of ecommerce and marketplaces.