6 ms·

Show HN: Reddit search engine for startup founders

113 points by thefedoration 4y ago

InCityDreams 4y ago
Completely free to try No credit card required So how much is it (going to be)? Thankfully my kids are now aware of 'free to try' and 'no credit card required'.....to try, i presume, but not 'to actually use'. Skipped, on principle.
- SyneRyder 4y ago
  There's a Pricing link at the top of the page, and it's also included mid-way down the page. $19/mo Starter plan, $39/mo Pro plan (Tracks keywords & more advanced search) and $99/mo Team plan (multiple users, shareable search result reports).
- rco8786 4y ago
  That seems like a strange principle. Nowhere does it say it’s free, and the pricing details are plainly available. 3 tiers, 19, 39, 99/mo after the trial.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
sillycube 4y ago
I am using rss to track reddit search already. What's better here?
gnicholas 4y ago
Can OP or another employee provide some background here? I feel like most Show HNs have one of the founders explaining a bit in the HN discussion page. One thing I'd like to understand better is how to avoid problems with mods. My startup had some very popular posts on LPT and YSK, but both were taken down. Some of the mods said that the reasoning given by other mods was bogus, and that we were just being targeted. Since then, I've never tried engaging on reddit much, since it seems like even successful posts can be taken down without rhyme or reason. Any insights into how to avoid these sorts of problems, either with your tool or in general?
- PUSH_AX 4y ago
  The spirit of Reddit is to share things you’ve found that you think are cool or suited to the sub. This falls down when people start self promoting their stuff. The thing is there are lots of cool things people have created that should be shared, but if you open the floodgates then you also get the other 90% of spammy garbage. So generally there are blanket rules about this kind of thing.
  - dmitriid_y 4y ago
    > This falls down when people start self promoting their stuff. Pinterest manages it just fine. And Reddit crossposting hints at the fix: sever content from specific subreddits and instead have content be tagged with relevant subreddits and attributes. Something being paid-content would just be another tag that could be optionally filtered.
- Maxion 4y ago
  Reddit is not a platform for self-promotion, and moderators there are very keen for it not becoming such a place. Each subreddit is moderated differently by completely volunteer moderators. How things are in one subreddit does not really tell you how it is in another. In broad terms, directly engaging as a company on Reddit by creating a post is generally frowned upon. What works better is to respond to posts in the comments hwhere your company would be relevant. But it is very hard to toe the line between spamming advertisements, and engaging with the community. 90% of companies I see trying to engage on Reddit seem to do it with metrics such as ROI or engagement in mind, rather than simply trying to make a community a better place. If you go by the former, you'll have your posts removed and maybe even banned from the community. If you do the latter, then you will make some headway. E.g. Do not promote your business selling router bits, DO make a lengthy post explaining the differences between router bits and how to choose one that's right for you.
  - gnicholas 4y ago
    Appreciate this detailed reply! Just for additional context, I wasn't going around spamming — I made a post on LPT when my startup launched, and then on YSK at the suggestion of a mod who thought my very popular post was unfairly taken down on LPT. Each post had over a thousand upvotes and an 85% +/- ratio, and was generating good conversation. It was super frustrating to lose those posts, which were driving tons of traffic! I can see that I would have been much better off letting one of my startup's users, or someone who had seen our Show HN, post to reddit and get the ball rolling. That would have generated the same type of publicity, and I would have been able to jump into the comments and answer questions in the same way. Lesson learned!
pplonski86 4y ago
Is there a similar service based on StackOverflow?
- thefedoration 4y ago
  Not as far as I know, but that would be quite interesting
  - leaflets2 4y ago
    Or Facebook communities But maybe they are harder to discover (eg because FB search is horrible, is it not). Or LinkedIn, but maybe over there one finds mostly recruiters and job applicants, hmm
thefedoration 4y ago
Hey folks - I made GummySearch, which is an audience research toolkit for Reddit. Thanks for checking it out! It's a tool to quickly find online communities on Reddit where your target customers hang out, what their pain points are, what solutions they need, and what they are eager to pay for. You can use it to quickly ideate/validate business opportunities, research your audience, and even find potential customers from Reddit when they are discussing topics related to your business. If you'd like to take it for a spin, it's free to try and only takes a couple minutes to see results for your target audience. Let me know what you think! Curious to hear your feedback.
annagrigoryan2 4y ago
I hate to be that typical hackernews commenter that says "Oh this is already done for free by this thing". But I use this open source project https://anvaka.github.io/redsim/ https://anvaka.github.io/redsim/ for that purposes. Unless there's something else I don't see here, i think this open source thingy gives all you need.
- thefedoration 4y ago
  That's a nice free tool to discover subreddits related to one that you already know about, and the map is pretty cool too! However I'm pretty sure it doesn't let you search conversations on Reddit, categorize threads in ways that could be useful to founders (pain points, solution requests), get notified of conversations related to your business, or show you the growing categories of communities. If you find a free tool that does this, I'd love to see it!
- sellmethepen 4y ago
  honestly it could be useful for the OP... and you never know how big the market is like for some of these services (perhaps they can build on that OSS project)
sellmethepen 4y ago
this is pretty cool! i've definitely been digging through reddit threads - I like that you also index 'deleted' posts. how much are you looking to charge for the service?
- thefedoration 4y ago
  Thanks! I have 2 pricing plans currently. One for those ideating/validating businesses ($19/mo), and one for those using Reddit for customer acquisition ($39/mo).
  - leaflets2 4y ago
    Any free trial? I didn't see, had a quick glance
    - thefedoration 4y ago
      Yes completely free to try for a week, no CC required! And if you need more time just send me an email.
      - leaflets2 4y ago
        Thanks, in my case, now is not the time, but in two months I hope Meanwhile, best wishes

113 points by thefedoration 4y ago

Completely free to try No credit card required So how much is it (going to be)? Thankfully my kids are now aware of 'free to try' and 'no credit card required'.....to try, i presume, but not 'to actually use'. Skipped, on principle.

SyneRyder 4y ago
There's a Pricing link at the top of the page, and it's also included mid-way down the page. $19/mo Starter plan, $39/mo Pro plan (Tracks keywords & more advanced search) and $99/mo Team plan (multiple users, shareable search result reports).
rco8786 4y ago
That seems like a strange principle. Nowhere does it say it’s free, and the pricing details are plainly available. 3 tiers, 19, 39, 99/mo after the trial.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

sillycube 4y ago

I am using rss to track reddit search already. What's better here?

gnicholas 4y ago

Can OP or another employee provide some background here? I feel like most Show HNs have one of the founders explaining a bit in the HN discussion page. One thing I'd like to understand better is how to avoid problems with mods. My startup had some very popular posts on LPT and YSK, but both were taken down. Some of the mods said that the reasoning given by other mods was bogus, and that we were just being targeted. Since then, I've never tried engaging on reddit much, since it seems like even successful posts can be taken down without rhyme or reason. Any insights into how to avoid these sorts of problems, either with your tool or in general?

PUSH_AX 4y ago
The spirit of Reddit is to share things you’ve found that you think are cool or suited to the sub. This falls down when people start self promoting their stuff. The thing is there are lots of cool things people have created that should be shared, but if you open the floodgates then you also get the other 90% of spammy garbage. So generally there are blanket rules about this kind of thing.
- dmitriid_y 4y ago
  > This falls down when people start self promoting their stuff. Pinterest manages it just fine. And Reddit crossposting hints at the fix: sever content from specific subreddits and instead have content be tagged with relevant subreddits and attributes. Something being paid-content would just be another tag that could be optionally filtered.
Maxion 4y ago
Reddit is not a platform for self-promotion, and moderators there are very keen for it not becoming such a place. Each subreddit is moderated differently by completely volunteer moderators. How things are in one subreddit does not really tell you how it is in another. In broad terms, directly engaging as a company on Reddit by creating a post is generally frowned upon. What works better is to respond to posts in the comments hwhere your company would be relevant. But it is very hard to toe the line between spamming advertisements, and engaging with the community. 90% of companies I see trying to engage on Reddit seem to do it with metrics such as ROI or engagement in mind, rather than simply trying to make a community a better place. If you go by the former, you'll have your posts removed and maybe even banned from the community. If you do the latter, then you will make some headway. E.g. Do not promote your business selling router bits, DO make a lengthy post explaining the differences between router bits and how to choose one that's right for you.
- gnicholas 4y ago
  Appreciate this detailed reply! Just for additional context, I wasn't going around spamming — I made a post on LPT when my startup launched, and then on YSK at the suggestion of a mod who thought my very popular post was unfairly taken down on LPT. Each post had over a thousand upvotes and an 85% +/- ratio, and was generating good conversation. It was super frustrating to lose those posts, which were driving tons of traffic! I can see that I would have been much better off letting one of my startup's users, or someone who had seen our Show HN, post to reddit and get the ball rolling. That would have generated the same type of publicity, and I would have been able to jump into the comments and answer questions in the same way. Lesson learned!

pplonski86 4y ago

Is there a similar service based on StackOverflow?

thefedoration 4y ago
Not as far as I know, but that would be quite interesting
- leaflets2 4y ago
  Or Facebook communities But maybe they are harder to discover (eg because FB search is horrible, is it not). Or LinkedIn, but maybe over there one finds mostly recruiters and job applicants, hmm

thefedoration 4y ago

Hey folks - I made GummySearch, which is an audience research toolkit for Reddit. Thanks for checking it out! It's a tool to quickly find online communities on Reddit where your target customers hang out, what their pain points are, what solutions they need, and what they are eager to pay for. You can use it to quickly ideate/validate business opportunities, research your audience, and even find potential customers from Reddit when they are discussing topics related to your business. If you'd like to take it for a spin, it's free to try and only takes a couple minutes to see results for your target audience. Let me know what you think! Curious to hear your feedback.

annagrigoryan2 4y ago

I hate to be that typical hackernews commenter that says "Oh this is already done for free by this thing". But I use this open source project https://anvaka.github.io/redsim/ https://anvaka.github.io/redsim/ for that purposes. Unless there's something else I don't see here, i think this open source thingy gives all you need.

thefedoration 4y ago
That's a nice free tool to discover subreddits related to one that you already know about, and the map is pretty cool too! However I'm pretty sure it doesn't let you search conversations on Reddit, categorize threads in ways that could be useful to founders (pain points, solution requests), get notified of conversations related to your business, or show you the growing categories of communities. If you find a free tool that does this, I'd love to see it!
sellmethepen 4y ago
honestly it could be useful for the OP... and you never know how big the market is like for some of these services (perhaps they can build on that OSS project)

sellmethepen 4y ago

this is pretty cool! i've definitely been digging through reddit threads - I like that you also index 'deleted' posts. how much are you looking to charge for the service?

thefedoration 4y ago
Thanks! I have 2 pricing plans currently. One for those ideating/validating businesses ($19/mo), and one for those using Reddit for customer acquisition ($39/mo).
- leaflets2 4y ago
  Any free trial? I didn't see, had a quick glance
  - thefedoration 4y ago
    Yes completely free to try for a week, no CC required! And if you need more time just send me an email.
    - leaflets2 4y ago
      Thanks, in my case, now is not the time, but in two months I hope Meanwhile, best wishes