On the prowl for local startups | Hacker News Reader

On the prowl for local startups

5 pointsitsa_phire5 comments

Hi, all. I'd like to introduce my "ugly baby", Startupolitan; a site bridging local startups with the people in their community. From launch date, local startups will have exposure to the crowd that matters most. Users can select their location and browse through the latest startups in their area. After spearheading a few myself, there was always one buzzkilling, undying question that arose with every single one, "how will I get the word out?" In the midst of answering that question repeatedly, I realized a few things, 1) just how little support startups really have, 2) how creative I really am and 3) how much money I can plow through within less than 24 hours.

Startupolitan is an idea that I've been toying with for a little while now and I've just decided to put it out into the universe as I feel it is certainly needed by many.

It's been a ridiculous challenge trying to maneuver through those who've already received either enough recognition or enough VC funding to be well on their way. What I'm looking for most are the indie, likely bootstrapped startups. Be my guest and submit a neat startup that you know of, or even better, one that you're behind. Would love to hear back from some of you.

http://www.startupolitan.squarespace.com (Yes, it's a trial. Yes, it's Squarespace. For the moment. I’ve learned from my financial mistakes.)

Cheers,

Saphire, Editor

Cool. Done. The groovy photo ask was kind of annoying, but then I got over it.

Great company. Thanks for the submission!

This is what the world sees currently at that link:

Squarespace trial accounts are not visible to the public. When you are ready to publish your website, upgrading your trial will make your site active to the world.

You can get to the site to see it but there are a few hoops to jump through. Given that there are other free platforms which don't make people jump through those hoops to even see the site, you might consider moving it to some other free platform.

Also, I am failing to understand what the site is supposed to be doing for a startup. I am seeing a short list of companies with location in the city + state format. Maybe I am just stupid, but I just don't see what the value here is supposed to be. The About page (called 411) is not really helping me wrap my head around it.

The site will soon be moved to another platform, the domain will be registered etc. I really just wanted to get it started, bare bones.

The objective now is to build a list of great startups and create traffic flow to the website. It is a passionate mission of mine to give startups the exposure they need from day one. In essence, Startupolitan is to be the destination for people to go to discover startups in their area. To my knowledge, no such place exists.

Sure. Maybe you weren't looking for constructive feedback, just members? I don't know. I have a number of projects but nothing I would call "a startup" and although some of those projects are location-oriented, nothing is really location-based per se because the plan is to make money online. So I am, unfortunately, not a good candidate for joining your site. But I like being helpful and I know sometimes an outsider perspective is a good thing. Thus, the comment.

Best of luck.

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