Live community map — updated as founders list products
Where startup founders hang out
Every founder community worth knowing — from r/startups to the rooms where funding and growth war stories get traded.
18
Communities mapped
5
Platforms covered
2
Live listings analyzed
The short answer
Startup founders concentrate in r/startups, r/Entrepreneur, and r/ycombinator on Reddit, Hacker News, and Indie Hackers. They engage most with tactical content — hiring lessons, fundraising post-mortems, growth experiments — and they'll test any tool that promises leverage a small team lacks.
Subreddits where startup founders hang out
- Redditr/startupsThe main founder sub — weekly threads exist specifically for promotion
- Redditr/EntrepreneurBroader than tech — good fit if your tool serves any small business
- Redditr/ycombinatorYC-adjacent founders — the most tech-forward founder room on Reddit
- Redditr/netsecdiscussing vulnerabilities
- Redditr/webdevsecuring web apps
- Redditr/ecommerceprotecting online stores
- Redditr/shopifyShopify security
- Redditr/videoeditingeditors share techniques
- Redditr/WeVideocloud editors
- Redditr/youtubecreatorscontent creators
Forums startup founders actually read
Communities for startup founders
Facebook groups for startup founders
LinkedIn communities for startup founders
How to actually reach startup founders
Founders buy leverage
A startup founder's scarcest resource is people. Tools that let three people do the work of ten sell themselves — frame around leverage, not features.
Use the weekly promotion threads
r/startups and r/Entrepreneur run recurring threads where self-promo is not just allowed but expected. It's the one place a straight pitch works.
Founder pain changes with stage
Pre-PMF founders want users; post-PMF founders want retention and hiring. Know which stage your tool serves and lead with that stage's vocabulary.
Your buyers are in these rooms.
List your product on OnlyFoundrs and we map exactly where its customers hang out — subreddits, Discords, and communities checked for dead links. Free, live in minutes.
Common questions
Where do startup founders hang out online?
Reddit (r/startups, r/Entrepreneur, r/ycombinator), Hacker News, Indie Hackers, and platform-native communities like the ones founders themselves build on OnlyFoundrs.
What's the best community for startup founders?
r/startups for breadth, Indie Hackers for bootstrapped founders, Hacker News for the most technical crowd. Pick based on who your tool actually serves.
How do I get founders to try my product?
Show up where they already are with something useful — answer questions, share real data, then let them discover what you built. Founders investigate people they find interesting.
Are founder communities saturated?
With pitches, yes — with useful answers, no. Every founder community has ten times more people asking than answering. Be the answerer.