Original Summary

A few months ago I launched a small AI tools directory. Traffic was okay, but I realized another directory wasn’t very interesting. So I tried something different. I created a weekly competition called “The Capital” where founders compete for votes and a spot on the podium. Honestly, I had no idea if anyone would care. The first week had around 10 founders. Last week we had 95 founders competing. This week we’re already at 59 and voting only opened recently. A few things surprised me: Founders are far more willing to share a competition than a directory listing. The leaderboard creates a reason to come back every week. Most growth has come from founder referrals, not SEO. Building the community has been harder than building the website. The biggest lesson so far: People don’t really care about directories. They care about visibility. I’m curious if anyone else has built a community layer on top of a marketplace, directory, or SaaS product. What worked and what didn’t?   submitted by   /u/startitupai [link]   [comments]

  • 情报分类：商业与市场研究
  • 分类依据：内容涉及商业、投资或市场动态
  • 信息来源：Reddit · SaaS
  • 发布时间：2026/9/23 22:27:39