Publicity and press go hand in hand with the business development practices of a startup. Any exposure is good because we don’t know where our next lead is going to come from. Besides the business exposure PR provides opportunity to liaise with potential business partners and more importantly employees as the first set of recruits is the most important step in the scaling of a new organization. As if I needed to spell these out to you guys, nevertheless it can be useful for those who plan to start their ventures later and are still in the wide eyed stage of entrepreneurship.
However, this post isn’t for the wide eyed, rather it is for the open eyed entrepreneurs who have taken the plunge and kicks tarted their ventures recently. As readers of WATBlog are well aware, Proto’s 5th Edition got over last week in Bangalore with 15 odd startups showcasing themselves. I thought this is therefore a good time for other startups to know some places online where they can list, showcase or feature themselves for others to see and network online. Some of these you might be aware of already, nevertheless here are 10 websites that we think you should feature your business on:
1. Crunchbase: CrunchBase is the free database of technology companies, people, and investors that anyone can edit. There are already over Fourteen Thousand companies listed in this database, and with one of the most popular Tech blog – Techcrunch powering it you are sure to garner a lot of eyeballs online here.
2. KillerStartups: They proudly claim to review 15 startups everyday on their blog, and for this reason it is a favorite haunt of investors, technology enthusiasts and entrepreneurs in general, heck even Google seems to like them. Get featured and reviewed and get the tag of a killer startup here.
3. Vator.tv: This is a social network for technology startup companies which gives entrepreneurs a platform to connect with Investors, Acquirers and Media. It gives Investors useful tools to keep track of companies and industries that interest them, and also provides a platform to discover the best investment opportunities in technology. The fact that it is a community network and not just a blog gives Vator an added edge.
4. YouNoodle: Now if you are among those enterprising kids we see in our technology institutions making what you think is the next big thing, then Younoodle is your kind of place. It acts as a platform to discover and support the hottest early-stage companies and university innovation. Younoodle claims to develop decision-making technology and tools for the startup community and even have a cool startup predictor tool to try out.
5. Startup-Review: The name sort of becomes enough to know what the site is about. It is primarily looking at web based entrepreneurship, even its tagline goes analyzing web success and has a case study approach to startups. A good resource in general to see successful startup cases and perhaps to feature your own little success.
6. Mashable: Mashable is one of the most widely read social networking and social media blogs on the web and has a massive readership. It’s startup section has featured some interesting startups and is a good place to display your innovation.
7. Sutrajobs: Itself a startup, Sutrajobs has been featured on WATBlog before as one of 7 MVP funded/mentored startups earlier. They describe themselves as ‘an endeavour designed specifically for startups and Emerging companies in the new age media space who are venture funded or are too cash-strapped to afford the services of a consultant to find the right talent.’ It is essentially a job site catering to the digital startup niche, so can be a good place to get the team that I said before in order.
8. Business Hackers: With a tag that goes ‘only leading startups’ you can be sure that a lot of people might want to check this site out a lot (regardless of whether they actually only have leading startups..you get my drift I hope). The good thing about BH is their categories spread over a wide range and are not limited to technology and the web like most others on this list.
9. India Specific Directories: The Indian startup scene is well documented online and there are a number of blogs and directories that cover and feature startups here. Therefore, instead of listing them individually I am clubbing them as one, and the list includes:
10. Social Networking: One needs to be where one’s customers are, wait, where one’s shareholders are. Social Networking sites like Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter even Squidoo lenses for that matter are important destinations online, and whether you find them a time sucker or not a lot of people very important to you are spending their time there, and as a startup you can’t pass up any touch point.
If you get technical like I do with my jokes, there are more than 10 sites listed in this post for you to check, however, it seems the list lacks something still. Oh wait, yes – WATBlog.
We at WATBlog also do our share of startup reviews and have WATJob.com which lists openings in the WAT ecosystem and WATShow which has done score of interviews of startups and VCs and generally anything that should interest the entrepreneur in you. So do check them out as well and give your suggestions on how WAT can cater to you better. We are listening.
Good bunch of informaiton Maneesh!
Thanks for posting.
Hey Maneesh, thanks for putting us on the list….it is really great to have achieved the kind of companies that we have in less than three months.
Thank you all for your support.
Hi Maneesh
nice write up – a consolidated list of sites at a single post
wud like you to visit my site http://www.startupstory.in for relishing stories of indian startup companies
The website for Business Hackers has expired and currently points to a parking page…
Hi Maneesh,
Cool list! Very helpful
This is a great list.
Whats the name of that social network – the linkedin for startups? Im pretty sure its not vator… There’s one more let me see if i can find it.
Hi Maneesh,
Great list, but have you looked at TradeVibes.com? TradeVibes is a startup wiki, and the best way to discover, research and discuss hot (and not so hot) startup companies. TradeVibes features profiles for thousands of startup companies, and offers many community-oriented interactive features.
Check it out, and let us know what you think!
Good list and very good advice. Startups should use all free things which can help them get visibility and traffic.
Great info. Thanks Maneesh. I gave a 5-star rating to this article. Keep it coming.
An observation – the posts on startup-review.com show a date of 2007. Is this still a hot place to list one’s biz?
Thanks for a useful article. You missed out Antya.com. Thought you might add it too…
Also, the link of businesshackers is wrong and pointing to some parked domain. Should point to businesshackers.com
@Anubhav – thanks for pointing out, I have changed the link.. missed an S there and I really didn’t know about Antya, seems very interesting..
@Kartik – Typo tha
@srini & Lilly- coming there
@Madhav – noticed.. and I think in hindsight I shouldn’t have included it, but the case studies they have are worth checking out..so more like a resource now
..
@Harshil – You got me thinking too.. have we spoken about it on WAT?
@ Himanshu, Rizwan & Sameer – Thanks ppl
That’s what 4 smileys there hehe.. happy weekend all..
how does sutrajobs make sense to list in a post about 10 Websites to Feature Your Startup Online ???
its a job site, not a media news or PR site?
@Abhishek Dude.. Sutrajobs is a job site.. I have explained why I have put them on the list above..