Ever since Zuck Dawg made it look super easy to become one of the world’s richest entrepreneurs, everyone and their mom wants in on the action. The result? A lot of startups.
Between developing a platform, raising capital and building a team, it’d be the understatement of the year to say that startuppers don’t have the bandwidth to do PR to get their name out there. And while the TechCrunches of the world are great, they can’t possibly cover every Pandora for Cats that pops up. For that, there’s BetaBait.
Based out of Bridgeport, Conn., BetaBait is a web platform that helps startups find beta testers by connecting them with early adopters. “For startups, we wanted to give them a fighting chance,” explains Cody Barbierri, cofounder of BetaBait.
Launched two months ago, BetaBait now has more than 1,000 startups listed in their directory who are connected with 5,000 early adopters. The site allows users to sign up with an email address and then receive a daily email listing all the newest startup apps that have been submitted to BetaBait in the past 24 hours. Once featured in the daily email, all the apps are slated into BetaBait’s online discovery network, each boasting a profile page, social sharing links and a feedback section in which users can provide recommendations to make the apps better.
Last week, BetaBait launched a complete site redesign for easier navigation. The new layout features a new voting system, which allows users to rate apps and push them to the top of the homepage, similar to Reddit or Hacker News. Apps can be sorted by topical categories such as business, entertainment and music, allowing early adopters to more easily vet which apps they would like to explore. Barbierri and the team also revamped the email options and added an RSS feed, “for those who don’t like email,” he says.
In addition to the new platform, I’d love to see the site vet the apps by city, so that users can check out which apps are being developed right in town, facilitating easier connections between early adopters and developers.
In the spirit of beta testing, BetaBait is also promoting Early Adopters Day, a day, as its name suggests, honoring early adopters. The site reads:
Dear President @BarackObama,
As an early adopter, we are the millions of individuals behind the growth of many of the newest startups today, which helps to drive this great nation’s innovation and economy.
To show appreciation for our willingness to always try something new and tell a few friends, I support making September 20th, 2012, the first annual:
National Early Adopters’ Day
Sign the petition here, and get exploring with BetaBait’s new platform. Who knows, you just might help vet out the next Instagram for Hamburgers.
