Nine years ago, in 2017, I launched StartupBase.
At the time, it was a simple side project built around a simple belief:
Great products deserve a better way to get discovered.
Back then, product launches were already becoming crowded. Founders were spending months building products, only to get a brief moment of attention before disappearing into the noise.
I thought there had to be a better way.
So I built StartupBase.
Over the years, something interesting happened.
Founders kept submitting products.
Users kept joining.
The platform slowly grew into nearly 10,000 product listings and 13,500+ users.
Most importantly, it helped drive thousands of clicks to products seeking visibility, customers, and feedback.
That proved something important.
The problem was real.
Founders needed better distribution.
Users wanted better discovery.
But while StartupBase was useful, I knew it wasn't living up to its full potential.
The platform had become a victim of its own age.
The design was dated.
Product pages lacked depth.
Discovery could be much better.
The submission process was slower than it should have been.
And launches still felt too temporary.
Products would get attention for a day and then fade away.
For a long time, I kept pushing improvements down the roadmap.
Then, eventually, I stopped asking how to patch the old platform and started asking a different question:
What would StartupBase look like if I built it today?
That question became StartupBase 2.
Not a redesign.
Not a facelift.
A complete rebuild.
Building StartupBase 2
The goal was not to add features for the sake of adding features.
The goal was to make StartupBase more useful.
More useful for founders.
More useful for users.
More useful for discovering products worth paying attention to.
Every major decision came back to those principles.
Better product pages
Products deserve more than a logo, a tagline, and a few links.
StartupBase 2 gives founders richer product pages with more context, media, launch history, team information, and supporting details.
The goal is simple:
Help visitors understand a product faster.
Discovery beyond launch day
One thing always bothered me about product launches.
A founder can spend months building something, launch it, and then watch the attention disappear in 24 hours.
That never felt right.
StartupBase 2 places much greater emphasis on ongoing discovery through daily launches, weekly and monthly rankings, collections, and topics.
A good product should continue getting discovered long after launch day.
AI Launch Assistant
This is probably my favorite addition.
Submitting a product can be surprisingly tedious.
Founders already have enough work to do.
So we built an AI Launch Assistant that can collect information about a product from across the web and help create a ready-to-submit listing in seconds.
Instead of filling out everything manually, founders can start with a much better foundation.
We also use AI to help review submissions and determine whether they are a good fit for StartupBase.
It is not perfect.
Sometimes it gets things wrong.
Oops. 👀
But it makes the process dramatically faster and helps founders get answers much sooner.
Reviews and community feedback
Discovery is better when there is context.
StartupBase 2 expands reviews and comments so founders can gather feedback and users can make better decisions.
Products are easier to evaluate when real people can share their experiences.
A blog, finally
For years, StartupBase was mostly about launches.
I wanted it to become more than that.
With StartupBase 2, we are launching a dedicated blog where I can share launch strategies, growth ideas, founder stories, product updates, and useful resources for builders.
Launching a product is only one part of the journey.
Learning how to grow it is another.
Simpler onboarding
One small improvement that makes a surprisingly big difference:
You can now sign in using Google, LinkedIn, or X.
Previously, X was the only option.
Getting started should not be harder than it needs to be.
Why this matters
At its core, StartupBase 2 is about one thing:
Helping great products get discovered.
That mission has not changed since 2017.
The tools are better.
The platform is stronger.
The experience is cleaner.
But the mission is the same.
I want founders to have a place where they can launch with confidence.
And I want users to have a place where they can consistently discover products worth trying.
What's next?
StartupBase 2 is not the finish line.
It is the foundation.
There is still a lot I want to build.
Better discovery.
Better founder tools.
More visibility opportunities.
Smarter recommendations.
More ways for products to reach the right audience.
This release simply gives us a much stronger base to build from.
If you've been part of the StartupBase journey over the years, thank you. 🙌
And if you're discovering StartupBase for the first time, welcome. 👋
And if you have a product to share, you can submit it here.
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