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Show HN: A clean directory of awesome startups (startupontop.com)

17 points by paul_cryer ↗ HN
Most of the directory or listing services are worthless from a browser's point of view. Your startup(or any listed business) gets lost somewhere buried under categories and sub-categories. So, while these directories do offer a link or two, they really do not provide any value or a good user-experience to a casual browser who simply wants to check out cool startups, quickly find out a bit about them and explore further if interested.

I created StartupOnTop to address this very issue and offer a directory that presents startups in a clean, clutter-free manner. It offers a top-down view (startups first, categories later) and also shows a "quick - view" for users to quickly learn about a startup.

Most importantly, I intend to vigorously maintain it - I would like to keep it ad-free and spam-free. That means, the site is not meant for ‘every’ startup and will try to prevent the site from generic dilution. After a free first month, charging a basic maintainance fee.

Here is the submission link: http://startupontop.com/submit-startup/

-Paul

23 comments

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paul_cryer
Most of the directory or listing services are worthless from a browser's point of view. Your startup(or any listed business) gets lost somewhere buried under categories and sub-categories. So, while these directories do offer a link or two, they really do not provide any value or a good user-experience to a casual browser who simply wants to check out cool startups, quickly find out a bit about them and explore further if interested.

I created StartupOnTop to address this very issue and offer a directory that presents startups in a clean, clutter-free manner. It offers a top-down view (startups first, categories later) and also shows a "quick - view" for users to quickly learn about a startup.

Most importantly, I intend to vigorously maintain it - I would like to keep it ad-free and spam-free. That means, the site is not meant for ‘every’ startup and will try to prevent the site from generic dilution. After a free first month, charging a basic maintainance fee.

vladd
It is interesting to see whether users interested in new startups want a directory (links organized in a category-based model) or a blog (where new, fresh information is served periodically on an ongoing basis as it becomes available). I assumed the later when I created http://www.DailyWebApps.com ; I use WordPress which has built-in support for a category taxonomy so I kind of get the best of both worlds.

If you're interested it would be nice to collaborate in this area. Thanks for the useful resource.

paul_cryer
Vladd, that sounds great. I can be reached at startupontop@gmail.com or paul@startupontop.com
markkat
I go to the 'travel' category see the Hipmunk logo, but I can't click on it?
paul_cryer
Hi Markkat, thanks for the heads up. There was a small jquery bug. It should be fixed now.
Lukeas14
Fixed on the homepage but I'm still seeing it on category pages.
johnnyjustice
Good idea, I hate the fact that directories force everyone into sections, What about a Games start up?
paul_cryer
Do you run a games startup? I would be happy to feature it.
infocaptor
Why is it paid? What value are you providing for startups to apply for a paid listing?

You don't even have a pagerank as of yet so why do you charge?

First build up value then charge

Vow! $10/month to just get a link from a pr0 directory?

iconfinder
I signed up since it's on the homepage of Hacker News and perhaps getting a peak in traffic for some days. I can always cancel before getting charged.

I agree, $10/month is way too much for a service without traction.

infocaptor
what is the average traffic for being on the homepage of hacker news?
markkat
That totally depends on the content, I have found. We've had a couple of links and it brings a couple of hundred hits. However, we've also have had a few that brought a couple of thousands, with little difference in the rank/time.
markkat
That was my thinking. Try it for the first month, and see what comes. It looks nice, at least. :)
paul_cryer
Hi infocaptor,

I am offering a free 30 day listing, if you want to test it out. Like any site, we are just starting out - so obviously we don't have a pagerank etc. But hopefully, with support from customers like you, the ranks will come in near future.

Regarding fees, to be bluntly honest - it just takes too much of my time to be doing it for free (even the most subtle of tasks end up taking a good chunk of your day). Moreover, I do not want to offer any advertisement, nor do I want to clutter the site with any and every submissions. So, the only way towards any revenue is a small fee.

Thanks for understanding (and your support :)

infocaptor
I am not saying provide it for free. Because marketing a free and paid app requires the same amount of effort.

Here are my thoughts when I tried marketing MockupTiger to all the websites. It summarizes the exact thoughts https://plus.google.com/u/0/103713120145925411926/posts/G5nW...

But, for $10/month you are not providing any value yet.

First build value and then charge. Start free but with the intention that one day you will charge.

ad80
9.99 per month ?!?! Good joke
jaxn
I was really hoping this was a CrunchBase replacement.

$10 for a link to my startup (http://bizen.com)? No thanks!

martinshen
This is like startuplist too.. but paid? I don't know why I would pay for this compared to anything else. Also, the site design leaves a ton to be desired.
cyphersanctus
Haha happily filled all the form until I saw the 9.99 per month hehe. Thats steep, given that its free to be on sites like Angel.co or Crunchbase.
pbreit
I don't get it. First, I can't imagine anyone would pay $10/month to be on the list (except for forgetting to cancel their trial). The fact that anyone can submit contradicts that it is a list of "awesome startups". The site itself is marginal (no SEO, one line descriptions, hidden information, no content, no freshness, etc). And it's oddly slow. Yuck.