

Show HN: A clean directory of awesome startups - paul_cryer
http://startupontop.com/
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.<p>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.<p>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.<p>Here is the submission link: http://startupontop.com/submit-startup/<p>-Paul
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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

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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.

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markkat
I go to the 'travel' category see the Hipmunk logo, but I can't click on it?

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paul_cryer
Hi Markkat, thanks for the heads up. There was a small jquery bug. It should
be fixed now.

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Lukeas14
Fixed on the homepage but I'm still seeing it on category pages.

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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.

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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.

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johnnyjustice
Good idea, I hate the fact that directories force everyone into sections, What
about a Games start up?

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paul_cryer
Do you run a games startup? I would be happy to feature it.

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jaxn
I was really hoping this was a CrunchBase replacement.

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

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ad80
9.99 per month ?!?! Good joke

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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?

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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.

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infocaptor
what is the average traffic for being on the homepage of hacker news?

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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.

