r/startups
Early-stage founders and their first hires
- Size
- Very large
- Buying intent
- Low
- Promotion
- Closed
Strictly moderated with an explicit prohibition on promotion, and a membership composed largely of people who have not yet bought anything. Useful for understanding what early teams struggle with and essentially useless as pipeline.
Listed here so you can make the decision consciously. A great deal of founder time is spent in this community on the assumption that it is where customers are, and for almost every product it is not.
What people actually post
The idea validation post
Someone asking whether their concept is viable. Interesting reading, zero purchasing intent.
The co-founder question
Equity splits and partnership disputes. Recurring and commercially irrelevant.
The fundraising thread
How to approach investors. Relevant only if you sell to investors.
What people get wrong about it
Founders assume this is where early customers are. It is where other founders are, which is a different thing entirely.
Can you promote in r/startups?
Closed. Links and product mentions are removed regardless of context or disclosure. Treat participation as research only.
What gets you removed
Any link at all, including to a blog post. Removal is automatic and appeals go nowhere.
A good first contribution
Answer questions about things you have actually shipped. It is the only contribution the rules permit and the only one worth making here.
Products that fit here
- Understanding early-stage language
- Testing how you describe a problem
- Nothing transactional
- Nothing requiring a link
What does not work
Any expectation of revenue. If your Reddit plan centres on this community, the plan needs replacing rather than improving.
Timing
Irrelevant, given the above.
How it compares to the neighbours
The communities closest to r/startups, and how they differ on the three things that decide whether one is worth your time.
| Community | Size | Intent | Promotion |
|---|---|---|---|
| r/startups | Very large | Low | Closed |
| r/SaaS | Large | Low | Open |
| r/Entrepreneur | Very large | Low | Conditional |
| r/EntrepreneurRideAlong | Mid-size | Medium | Open |
Where this fits in a wider plan
r/startups appears in our list of the best subreddits for B2B SaaS, 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/startups 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 business and operations.