Founders Want to Be Featured: Make It Easy for Them
praneetbrar7
Why Founders Absolutely Want to Be Featured — And How You Can Make It Effortless
Every day, hundreds of founders launch new products, hustling to get visibility on platforms like Product Hunt. Their inboxes fill up with congratulations, feedback, and, yes, cold pitches. But here’s the truth: most founders actually want to be featured in directories, blogs, and niche platforms — they just don’t want to jump through hoops to do it.
As a directory owner, content creator, or reviewer, your biggest opportunity isn’t just hunting down new products. It’s about lowering the barrier for promising founders to say, “Yes, I’d love to be featured!” This is where making it easy for founders — and using tools like Nurturing Mails — can set your platform apart while accelerating growth.
The Founder’s Mindset: Visibility Matters
Why Founders Appreciate Discovery Opportunities
For early-stage startups, especially those launching on Product Hunt, every new backlink, mention, and feature is a signal to users, search engines, and potential investors. Getting listed in respected directories or mentioned in curated content is not just an ego boost—it’s growth fuel.
- SEO Benefits: Quality backlinks improve domain authority and search engine rankings.
- Trust Signal: Directories like UNO Directory help validate the product as notable and trusted.
- Initial Traction: Discovery platforms can drive relevant traffic early in the product’s life cycle.
Platforms such as Aura++ and Praneet Brar’s blog are prime examples of how curated visibility can accelerate a product’s journey. These founders are actively looking for more ways to be noticed — but all too often, the friction is just too high.
What Makes It Hard for Founders to Be Featured?
Even if a founder is excited about being featured in your directory or blog, here’s what usually stops them:
- Too many steps or submission forms
- Unclear value proposition (“Why should I care?”)
- Cold pitches that feel spammy or generic
- Lack of timing — messages arrive too late after momentum fades
Founders are swamped during launch week. They don’t have 30 minutes to explore your website or fill out a 10-step form. Reducing friction at this crucial moment is not just helpful — it’s what unlocks massive conversion increases.
Enter Automation: Personalized, Timely Outreach at Scale
This is where a tool like NurturingMail’s automated outreach features take center stage. It was built for solopreneurs, indie hackers, and directory owners who want to grow by engaging the right audience — founders launching now on Product Hunt.
What Makes Nurturing Mail Effective
- Daily monitoring of fresh Product Hunt launches
- Personalized emails tailored with founder & product names
- Congratulatory tone that feels human and relevant
- Emails sent at staggered intervals (every 15-20 minutes) for deliverability
Want more details on how it works? Check out NurturingMail’s feature breakdown.
Proof in Performance
| Metric | Before NurturingMail | After NurturingMail |
|---|---|---|
| Weekly Directory Submissions | 12 | 31 |
| Submission-to-Conversion Rate | 7% | 18% |
| Email Open Rate | 22% | 49% |
Learn more about plans and pricing options at NurturingMail pricing.
Use Cases: How Directory Owners Can Win Founders Over
Make Submission Ridiculously Easy
Streamline your submission flow. One-click Google logins. Pre-filled forms. If you’re pitching a founder, give them a direct link to submit — ideally with fields already populated from their Product Hunt or Twitter bio.
Highlight the Value — Quickly
Don’t just say, “Submit to our directory.” Instead, say:
- “Get early SEO boost with a backlink from a niche directory”
- “Be seen by 3,000+ weekly visitors in AI tech”
- “Join 150+ startups who already pitched on our blog”
Position your platform as where important voices get heard.
Automate but Keep It Personal
This is the magic of NurturingMail. You send beautifully personalized, timely emails — without spending hours a day. Read user testimonials in the FAQs section and see how it helped others grow submissions by over 150%.
Real-World Example: The Growth of a Niche Chrome Extension Directory
One user recently built a high-traffic Chrome Extension directory from scratch. Here’s how they did it using NurturingMail:
- Selected startups on Product Hunt tagged “Chrome Extension”
- Set up automated emails with congrats copy and a CTA to submit
- Used NurturingMail’s inbox delivery features to achieve 50%+ open rate
- Grew from 0 to 300+ vetted submissions in 45 days
This kind of traction would normally require a freelance outreach assistant — or hundreds of hours. Why not do it in minutes?
The Bottom Line: Meet Founders Where They Already Are
So many founders WANT to be featured. They celebrate every tweet. They hustle for every backlink. If you show up with the right timing, empathy, and low-friction process — you don’t need to convince them. They’ll say yes.
Candidates for Outreach
Using tools like NurturingMails allows you to intelligently filter new startups based on niche tags, making this tactic perfect if you own or operate directories like:
- SaaS-focused aggregators
- No-code or low-code tools listings
- Indie hacker resource hubs
- Marketplace summary platforms
Want to test out different niches? NurturingMail is a low-lift, high-impact way to experiment. Explore how you can segment outreach in their features page.
Helpful Resources and Tools to Streamline the Process
Beyond using NurturingMail, here are other websites and tools that help reduce friction and increase outreach success:
- Hunter.io – Find emails quickly to expand your founder outreach list.
- Mailmeteor – Send smaller scale, personalized emails through Gmail.
- Typefully – Build your Twitter presence and DM potential founders with visibility offers.
- Zapier – Automate onboarding of submissions to spreadsheets or CMS.
Final Thought: Frictionless Outreach Is the Future
If you want founders to say yes, all you need to do is show up the right way. Personalized. Relevant. Timed with intent. And above all — easy.
By automating outreach through services like NurturingMail