“Your shitty website is not a startup.” - Reflecting on negative attacks

I checked out your website. I've wished there was something similar in the past, and I've always enjoyed researching my own purchases and thought a curated list of "best of's" would be good reference. Recently, I just look for most popular Amazon items, but sometimes you can not rely on the most popular or most highly reviewed items to be the most reliable, failsafe products.

If you want this to get more traction, I'd suggest adding better navigation and search for product types. Perhaps a few options depending on budget (OK, you want to buy kitchen pots/pans. I have three recommendations, one minimal set under $75, one set around $150, and another for big spenders around $X). Just some ideas to throw around.

Good article, I'm working on an app myself and while the data model is rather simple, implementation has taken longer than I expected and I know sometimes I get the feeling that even when it's feature complete what I have is just a simple webapp/API which a larger team could rebuild in a few days.

Aren't most startups essentially "shitty lemonade stands" until the magical VC fairy shows up?

What do you need besides actually making money and having users to be considered a 'startup'? Employees? An office in SV? Hype? Buzz? A hyperbolic sense of world-changing self-importance? To not use PHP? What?

He's doing better than I am so respect.

There no shortage of people who can only find a sense of power in their lives by attacking strangers on the internet. Odds are, none of the haters has never built anything more valuable than a "shitty website." You should just ignore them and be glad that people are paying attention!