Today, 10 years ago, I launched BetaList 🤯

Since then we've…

🚀 Featured 15,000+ startups
💖 Reviewed 70,000+ submissions
😘 Welcomed 100,000+ registered users
💰 Generated almost $1M in revenue

⬇️ THREAD

📅 It all started as a way to get publicity for an iPad app me and my friends were working on.

In 2010 it was hard to get press coverage as a bootstrapped startup.

This lead me to create "https://t.co/jL3uUNmhzx" (the .com was taken)
📢 TechCrunch (@alexia) wrote an article on it.

Back then, getting featured on TechCrunch was the equivalent of hitting #1 on Product Hunt.

https://t.co/2F2uJPvqSz
✍️ Couple years after, I wrote the origin story with the clickbait-title:

How I Tricked TechCrunch Into Writing About My Startup

Ironically it gained 60K views and drove even more visits than the TechCrunch article. Check it out for the full story.

https://t.co/BDtdFolTcc
💰 I didn't intend to monetize BetaList when I started.

But when established companies started asking how to get featured, I offered them paid advertising slots instead. Starting at $50/week and continuously doubling the price until they said no.

Today it's $1,500/week.
🤑 Expedited reviews. The second revenue model.

Over time more and more founders submitted their startup. So a backlog emerged and it could be days or sometimes weeks between submitting your startup and getting featured on the site…
… that's when founders started asking me if they could get featured sooner. For example, because they wanted to show growing signup metrics for an upcoming VC meeting.

I initially did this for free as a favor. But then too many founders wanted to skip the waiting queue…
… so that's when I asked a small payment of $15. Now fewer people asked. Mission accomplished. 😅

Until of course too many people were willing to pay $15. So just like with advertising I kept increasing the price. $199 today.
♻️ The product itself has stayed largely the same throughout all these years.

There have been redesigns and code rewrites, but fundamentally it's still the same concept today. Bringing early adopters and early-stage startups together.
⤴️ The biggest shift for me personally, was when I delegated daily operations to @rpish

This opened up time and energy for me to work on new ideas like https://t.co/9Gi1X9pqyB (community for makers) and https://t.co/fHfOVQmgBX (job board, a spin-off from BetaList)
📈 That's how BetaList turned from a side project into a business. Step by step.

But more importantly it was my way into the startup community. Turns out creating a platform for startups is a great way to establish yourself in the community and meet lot of amazing people.
📅 BetaList is still going strong today. Not growing as fast in the earlier years, but still helping hundreds of founders a month and generating increasing revenue year of year.

It has been and continues to be a very rewarding product to work on.
🙌 I can't possibly thank everybody that helped me along the way, but here's shout out specifically to the people who helped in the early years @rpish @didierv @jeffbayayo @sborsje @boris @espreedevora @levelsio @joepkuijper @fabian_markaban and many many more. Thank you!
Oh right, I should probably put the link in this thread right 😅

https://t.co/jnDaGepb9H – discover tomorrow's startups
https://t.co/gywnB67Zj3 – promote your own

More from Tech

A common misunderstanding about Agile and “Big Design Up Front”:

There’s nothing in the Agile Manifesto or Principles that states you should never have any idea what you’re trying to build.

You’re allowed to think about a desired outcome from the beginning.

It’s not Big Design Up Front if you do in-depth research to understand the user’s problem.

It’s not BDUF if you spend detailed time learning who needs this thing and why they need it.

It’s not BDUF if you help every team member know what success looks like.

Agile is about reducing risk.

It’s not Agile if you increase risk by starting your sprints with complete ignorance.

It’s not Agile if you don’t research.

Don’t make the mistake of shutting down critical understanding by labeling it Bg Design Up Front.

It would be a mistake to assume this research should only be done by designers and researchers.

Product management and developers also need to be out with the team, conducting the research.

Shared Understanding is the key objective


Big Design Up Front is a thing to avoid.

Defining all the functionality before coding is BDUF.

Drawing every screen and every pixel is BDUF.

Promising functionality (or delivery dates) to customers before development starts is BDUF.

These things shouldn’t happen in Agile.

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प्राचीन काल में गाधि नामक एक राजा थे।उनकी सत्यवती नाम की एक पुत्री थी।राजा गाधि ने अपनी पुत्री का विवाह महर्षि भृगु के पुत्र से करवा दिया।महर्षि भृगु इस विवाह से बहुत प्रसन्न हुए और उन्होने अपनी पुत्रवधु को आशीर्वाद देकर उसे कोई भी वर मांगने को कहा।


सत्यवती ने महर्षि भृगु से अपने तथा अपनी माता के लिए पुत्र का वरदान मांगा।ये जानकर महर्षि भृगु ने यज्ञ किया और तत्पश्चात सत्यवती और उसकी माता को अलग-अलग प्रकार के दो चरू (यज्ञ के लिए पकाया हुआ अन्न) दिए और कहा कि ऋतु स्नान के बाद तुम्हारी माता पुत्र की इच्छा लेकर पीपल का आलिंगन...

...करें और तुम भी पुत्र की इच्छा लेकर गूलर वृक्ष का आलिंगन करना। आलिंगन करने के बाद चरू का सेवन करना, इससे तुम दोनो को पुत्र प्राप्ति होगी।परंतु मां बेटी के चरू आपस में बदल जाते हैं और ये महर्षि भृगु अपनी दिव्य दृष्टि से देख लेते हैं।

भृगु ऋषि सत्यवती से कहते हैं,"पुत्री तुम्हारा और तुम्हारी माता ने एक दुसरे के चरू खा लिए हैं।इस कारण तुम्हारा पुत्र ब्राह्मण होते हुए भी क्षत्रिय सा आचरण करेगा और तुम्हारी माता का पुत्र क्षत्रिय होकर भी ब्राह्मण सा आचरण करेगा।"
इस पर सत्यवती ने भृगु ऋषि से बड़ी विनती की।


सत्यवती ने कहा,"मुझे आशीर्वाद दें कि मेरा पुत्र ब्राह्मण सा ही आचरण करे।"तब महर्षि ने उसे ये आशीर्वाद दे दिया कि उसका पुत्र ब्राह्मण सा ही आचरण करेगा किन्तु उसका पौत्र क्षत्रियों सा व्यवहार करेगा। सत्यवती का एक पुत्र हुआ जिसका नाम जम्दाग्नि था जो सप्त ऋषियों में से एक हैं।
1. Project 1742 (EcoHealth/DTRA)
Risks of bat-borne zoonotic diseases in Western Asia

Duration: 24/10/2018-23 /10/2019

Funding: $71,500
@dgaytandzhieva
https://t.co/680CdD8uug


2. Bat Virus Database
Access to the database is limited only to those scientists participating in our ‘Bats and Coronaviruses’ project
Our intention is to eventually open up this database to the larger scientific community
https://t.co/mPn7b9HM48


3. EcoHealth Alliance & DTRA Asking for Trouble
One Health research project focused on characterizing bat diversity, bat coronavirus diversity and the risk of bat-borne zoonotic disease emergence in the region.
https://t.co/u6aUeWBGEN


4. Phelps, Olival, Epstein, Karesh - EcoHealth/DTRA


5, Methods and Expected Outcomes
(Unexpected Outcome = New Coronavirus Pandemic)