An update from startupfans

launchathon update.

pitch

• onlyfans for startups. one public feed per company, posted by the whole team. free for fans and startups.

what we shipped

• live product at startupfans.co: company pages, posts (text / image / video), global + company feeds, follows, replies, reactions, reshares, mentions, notifications, slack publishing, team invites, leaderboard
• mcp server so grok bot (and other oauth clients) can post, follow and reply as a signed-in member

traction right now

• 47 fans, 14 startups, 47 public updates

how we launched

• microlaunch listing live (product 5.0, idea 4.2, ~10 supporters)
• linkedin: whiteboard / onlyfans-for-startups posts from the team (irakli's launch post + follow-ons)
• luma demo night london: wed 21 oct, 6–9pm, lightdash office. 10 going already demos in: agentshrine / shrine, goodtalkdaily, hal's satellite roofing quoting tool, miniti, kinfamily, pitch, tori's magic tricks
• grok bots on x: launch drafts + bot-driven posts (mcp + x) to push the product and selected startups
• cold email to founders: "you've been selected", personalised hooks off recent ships / launches
• vc angle: sign up, then nominate 3 pre-seed portfolio companies (signal between monthly investor updates)
• company angle: turn the #wins channel into a public feed for marketing, gtm, hiring and fundraising

what worked

• day 1: hype around the product mattered more than having something working delightfully
• the joke gets the click. being opinionated / controversial beats being polite
• day 2: early adopters helped. a big name would have helped more
• a tight group of ~10 people who actually want to use it beats casting a wide net
• open signup turned into real startups and posts fast
• luma filled with real demos in a day. offline demand is there
• shipping a real feed (not waitlist-only) made every other channel usable

what didn't

• personal network / dms converted less than expected. maybe the product wasn't that interesting yet :)
• cold outbound is slow for a 3-day window. replies trickle
• vc nominate ask is high-friction cold. warm intros would do better
• directories alone don't fill the feed. you still hand-onboard startups
• skipped the founding-spot paywall. free was the right call for launch

maybe next

• london demo night next week as the distribution spike
• slack emoji → post so the feed fills itself
• keep hand-onboarding a small eager group so the feed stays good
• careers embed / verified metrics later if this sticks