FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

General

What is BetaList?

BetaList is the place for early adopters to discover upcoming and recently launched internet startups, and for startup founders to share their startup with the world and get early user feedback.

Please review our selection criteria and submit your startup.

How do I advertise on BetaList?

If you are a new startup and match our selection criteria you’ll probably want to submit your startup for a regular review (see above). If you don’t match the criteria or want additional exposure you can have a look at our advertising packages.

What is the answer to life, the universe, and everything?

Our preliminary research suggests it's somewhere between 40 and 45. We'll keep you posted on any new findings.

Submitting your startup

How do I submit my startup?

Go to this page.

What happens after I submit my startup?

We will review your startup to see if it matches the criteria and is a good fit. If your startup qualifies you will receive an email within about a week, after that it will take about two months to get featured. There's a paid option to skip the waiting queue. If you don't receive an email unfortunately that means your startup was not selected to be featured.

What are the selection criteria?

In short your startup should be pre-launch or recently launched without substantial press coverage, needs a custom designed, decent-looking landing describing the product and a way for people to sign up. For the full criteria please see this page.

I don’t match the selection criteria, will you make an exception?

No. These criteria are geared towards the preferences of our audience. Startups not matching these criteria would therefore have little benefit of getting featured.

I only recently launched, can I get featured?

Yes! We recently changed this policy. Recently startups can now be featured as well.

I don’t match the selection criteria, what should I do?

You could try to change things so you do match the selection criteria. We have seen startups change from a template layout to a custom design and do really well on BetaList. We also have seen many startups use a custom design, and still not qualify because the design was still not up to our standards.

How do I write a good pitch?

The 'one-sentence pitch' is what we'll share on Twitter and throughout the site. It's important to get it right for optimal exposure. A good pitch captures the attention of your target audience. You do this by clearly articulating your value proposition. The main benefit a user gets from using your product. If the value is self evident simply describing the product might be enough. The best way to improve your pitch is to use it in real life at meetups and conversations with customers as you can iterate on the fly. You know when you have a good pitch when people immediately get it and are excited to hear more. Note that this is different from people being confused and asking for clarification. Good pitches make every word count. Don't use words like "new", "better" or "revolutionize" as they communicate little. Instead just state what is better or how it revolutionizes. Don't use taglines. Just do it might work for a world brand like Nike, but if you had never heard about them before, that type of slogan wouldn't be enticing at all. Stick with a clear and descriptive one sentence pitch.

Submitted, but not (yet) featured

How can I see the status of my startup submission?

Visit your dashboard. If you don’t see your submission, make sure you are signed in with the same account as you used when submitting your startup

It has either not been reviewed yet, or wasn’t accepted.

Why has my startup not been reviewed yet? How long does it take to get reviewed?

If we think your startup is a good fit for BetaList you will receive an email within about a week. After that it will take a few months before you get featured since we have quite a backlog to work through. If you are in a hurry you can choose for the paid ‘expedited review’ to skip the waiting queue.

I’m in a hurry. How can I get featured quickly? How do expedited reviews work?

We offer a solution for startups that want to skip the waiting queue. It’s called an ‘expedited review’ and will get your startup submission reviewed by our team in a matter of days. Please submit your startup first. If your startup qualifies, you'll be sent further details. If your startup is already qualified you can expedite your submission via the dashboard.

Why was my startup not accepted?

Most likely your startup did not meet the selection criteria. Unfortunately we cannot respond to any inquiries about this due to the number of submissions we receive each day.

Already featured

Do a happy dance. Then read this.

The Trending Startups section on the homepage showcases the most popular, recently featured startups. We take a few metrics in mind, including how many tweets a startup post has received. We’re not disclosing the exact algorithm, but the more engagement your startup post receives, the higher its chances of getting trending.

Will my startup be included in the newsletter?

The newsletter does not include all featured startups, but only the most popular ones. Please note it takes at least 24 hours between a startup getting featured and being included in the newsletter. This way we can fairly determine the popularity of a startup.

How well did my post do? How does it compare to other startups?

The number of pageviews or sign ups a startup gets when getting featured on BetaList varies a lot from startup to startup. Some get just a few dozen sign ups, while others get hundreds or even more. It all depends on your target audience, your value proposition and the effectiveness of your landing page. We recommend not getting hung up on these numbers.

How do I edit my post?

Only the BetaList team can edit featured startups. Visit your dashboard and click the link to request an edit. Include the edits you’d like us to make for you.

We generally only feature each startup once, with one exception: if you were previously featured as pre-launch startup you're eligble to get featured again when you launch.

User Accounts

How do I create an account?

Visit the homepage and click the sign up button at the top right.

Why do I need to sign in with Twitter?

By connecting with Twitter you don’t have to remember another password. We won’t tweet on your behalf without your explicit approval. We don’t consider merely connecting with your Twitter account to be approval of that.

Why does it say my email address is already in use?

You probably already have an account, linked to a different Twitter account. Please use a different email address, or abort the sign up process by signing out and sign back in with your other Twitter account.

How can I change my email address?

Please email us with your request. Include your previous email address and the new one.

How can I change the Twitter account associated with my BetaList account?

Currently this is not possible. Simply sign up for a new account.

How do I delete my account?

Please send us an email with your request.

Payments

Why was my credit card charged even though my startup hasn't been featured?

When you choose a paid submission we don't immediately charge your credit card, but we do verify you have enough balance. This is known as an 'authorization'. Your card won't actually be charged until we 'capture' the payment however, which only happens if your startup will be featured. The reason you might still see a charge on your credit card statement is because some banks confusingly display this 'authorization' as a charge. If that's the case for you, you should automatically see a 'refund' seven days later.