I compiled a list of 60+ subreddits where you can post your startup
So far two channels have brought most of our customers:
LinkedIn cold outreach (using high-intent leads delivered by IbexAI) -- 60% of customers
Reddit inbound marketing -- 30% of customers
The latter has been an extremely strong organic channel, but finding subreddits that actually let founders post without getting banned is a mess. Most lists online are outdated or recycle the same 10 subs. So I went sub by sub and built my own list. Sharing it here with the community so you can save the hours it took me to build it.
60+ subs, sorted by use case, with sizes and direct links to each sub and its rules (respect the rules!).
Hope it saves someone a weekend.
This is incredibly helpful. Reddit is such a powerful distribution channel, but navigating self-promotion without getting banned is a complete minefield. Compiling a vetted list with the rules already checked is a massive time-saver. Really appreciate you sharing this.
Saved it. Thanks for dropping so much gold 😭😭 also best of luck with your IbexAI product... I really feel this is solving quite a big problem, and indeed only really solvable with AI. I think it'll go to the moon 🚀
Very kind, thank you
Matt, this is gold - thank you for actually doing the work and sharing it properly instead of hiding it behind a signup form.
The outdated lists point is spot on. Spent time this week trying subs from other lists - - half were dead or had completely changed their rules.
One thing I'd add - your account history matters as much as the subreddit rules. I've been building karma on r/gardening for a week before mentioning I'm building an AI garden planning app. The difference in how people respond when you have context versus going in cold is night and day.
Saving this. Really useful.
My new project Emusic Tools, search it on Google if you want
useful list. one risk it skips, posting the same launch across multiple of these in a short window tends to flag the account even when each post passes individually. auto-mod increasingly shares signals across subs. space across 2-3 weeks or rotate angles.
This is one of those posts that deserves way more attention than it gets. Reddit has been the single most underrated distribution channel for B2B products over the past two years and the reason most founders miss it is exactly what you described. The good lists are stale and the active subs have rules that change constantly.
We have seen this with our own clients. The ones who invest 30 to 60 days of genuine participation before ever mentioning their product see a completely different response than the ones who try to post and pray. The karma and comment history act like a trust signal that mods and users pick up on instantly.
One thing I would add to this. Subreddit-specific post formatting matters more than people think. A post that performs on r/SaaS will get buried on r/smallbusiness because the audiences have completely different expectations for how value gets delivered. Short tactical lists vs longer narrative posts, for example.
very impresionant
Great take, Matt. SaaS isn't dying, it’s just becoming way more 'compute-heavy.'
In 2026, the real battle isn't 'No-Code vs Code' anymore, it’s Infrastructure Efficiency. I see so many founders unintentionally burning their margins on Vercel/AWS bills because of AI agent scaling/optimiznig that has basically become my full-time obsession lately.
Thanks for the insights (and that subreddits list is a goldmine)!
Right on. Thank you for this. I've been looking for places to share about the new home searching platform I created.
Thanks for sharing! Btw in some of the subreddits that you listed is prohibited self promotion. Maybe the rules has changed in the meantime... :)
super useful, thanks for sharing
Thanks bro. really needed it
Great community gift! Thanks for taking the time to compile and share for free. I will benefit from your efforts. Many thanks.
Much Appreciated
saving this, thanks!
Saved for later. Thank you
Saved this. Reddit is literally my next move this week
launching an AI YouTube thumbnail tool and r/NewTubers
r/SideProject are at the top of my list.
Quick question: when you post to multiple subs, do you space
them out across days or same-day? The 24h "no cross-promo"
rules are confusing me.
Navigating Reddit without getting banned is basically a high-stakes sport, so your curated map is a total life-saver for the community! That 30% organic pull is such a strong signal that you’re solving a real-world pain point people actually want to discuss. Thanks for doing the manual grind so we can all skip the "archaeology" phase!
Which subreddit on your list ended up being the most surprisingly friendly for your first post?
Honestly, r/SaaS was surprisingly decent for a first post. People there can smell fake promo from miles away, but if you frame it as “here’s what I tested / learned” instead of “buy my thing,” they engage pretty well. Smaller niche subs were even better though, less traffic, but way more genuine conversations and conversions.
My team and I jumped into Reddit too, but I’m pretty sure I’m still a 'ghost' over there. Maybe it’s because I haven’t dropped any of my 'what I tested and learned' stories yet? Man, the learning curve is real.
On the flip side, even though Indie Hackers didn’t bring in huge traffic, the deep convos I had there helped me meet some truly amazing makers. It’s wild how different the DNA of each community is, even when they’re both full of 'real' users.
By the way, I see your post just hit 51 likes! Huge congrats. Care to slide the secret sauce over to my side? I promise I won't tell anyone else. 😉
This is incredibly useful — I've been trying to figure out which subreddits would actually let me post without getting banned. Bookmarking this. Thanks for putting it together!
This is genuinely useful.
Nice and valuable , Thanks !
This is insanely valuable. Thank you so much!
Thanks for this. Saved me a lot of time.
Useful share. Reddit seems powerful when done right, but the moderation/rules side can be intimidating for small founders. Appreciate you compiling this.
This is genuinely useful, the gap between 'subreddits that exist' and the ones that won't ban on sight is real and painful. The Linkedin + Reddit combo you're describing is underrated as a full-funnel. Linkedin warms the lead, Reddit builds the credibilty that makes cold outreach convert. Thanks for putting in the legwork.
How do you find these kind of posts for your specific use case? For example, I'm building an "AI Chatbot for your
Docs, SaaS & Support Site". How can I find the posts related to it?
I usually don’t search for the product directly, I search for the pain points around it.
For your case, I’d look for posts like:
“support tickets are killing us”
“users don’t read docs”
“best way to handle customer support”
“how to build AI support bot”
“intercom alternative”
“zendesk too expensive”
“customers asking same questions repeatedly”
“how to make docs searchable”
Then I filter by:
people actively complaining
posts with engagement
founders asking for recommendations
teams already paying for support tools
Subreddits like r/SaaS, r/startups, r/selfhosted, r/webdev, r/Entrepreneur, and even framework-specific communities work surprisingly well.
The biggest mistake is searching “AI chatbot” directly. Most good opportunities are hidden inside problem-oriented discussions, not tool discussions.
You're not looking for posts directly but for people and companies that are followed by people who are likely interested in your product. So you start with people and companies in your niche that have a decent following on LinkedIn.
Feel free to book a free demo call here and we can guide you through it: www.getibex.com
Matt, this is exactly the kind of resource that separates signal from noise. Going sub-by-sub with current rules is a real moat — most lists are copy-pasted from 2022 and half the subs have changed their policies.
One thing I'd add to the framework: "account warmth" is more nuanced than just karma. From what I've seen, Reddit's anti-spam algo weights four things:
Account age + karma ratio (not just total)
2. Cross-sub participation (variety signals a real user)
3. Comment-to-post ratio (post-only = marketer flag)
4. Recency gap (sudden burst of activity after dormancy looks suspicious)
The same post from a "warm" account vs a cold one can get 10x different results even on promo-friendly subs.
Two questions:
Have you noticed any subs on the list changing their moderation stance recently? I'm curious if the "founder-friendly" window is narrowing as more people discover these channels.
2. With your 60/40 LinkedIn/Reddit split — are you seeing Reddit traffic convert at similar quality to LinkedIn outbound, or is it more top-of-funnel awareness?
Great work. Saving this.
Hi, would it be possible for you to share this list with us? We're planning to start a startup/web3. Thank you very much.
Hi, thank you ! Excellent initiative!
Please could you share the list with us ?
Matt, this is bookmark material. I run an LMS in Brazil that's processed roughly 9M students over the last decade... the sub-by-sub legwork you describe is exactly where most founders quit and just blast 10 generic lists.
One angle worth adding to the framework: which sub matters less than the post format within the sub's culture. Same product pitched as "I built X" tends to get throttled. Pitched as "here's what broke + the 4 numbers I now watch" tends to land. Reddit's algo + community both filter for vulnerability before they filter for relevance... authoritative-tone posts read as marketing even on subs that technically allow them.
Two questions if you've kept the data:
1. Of those 60 subs, do you know which 5-10 actually drove the 30%?
Pareto usually hits hard here, but the long tail probably matters the next time you launch and aren't yet known in the top 5.
2. Outbound on LinkedIn at 60% vs Reddit inbound at 30% is an unusual ratio for indie hackers... most I talk to are inverse. Is that because IbexAI is doing the heavy lifting on lead quality, or because your ICP self-selects out of Reddit?
Saving the list. Curious to hear the format breakdown.
It's because our targeting on LinkedIn is so effective. We only reach out to people with high-intent. That's what makes all the difference and it's exactly what we built IbexAI for - to identify those high-intent leads on a daily basis.
Incredibly useful! Thank you
This is super useful, especially the breakdown between LinkedIn outreach vs Reddit inbound.
I’ve been thinking about Reddit as a channel, but what you said about “promo-friendly subs turning into noise” really resonates. A lot of those places feel like everyone is broadcasting and no one is actually engaging.
I’m working on a small project where interaction is the whole point (people vote on difficult choices), so signal vs noise really matters.
Curious, did you find that smaller, more niche subreddits performed better than the bigger “startup” ones? Or was it more about how the post was framed?
Honestly, both mattered, but framing was probably the bigger lever.
Big subs gave more reach, but also way more skepticism. People scroll fast there and instantly ignore anything that smells like “founder marketing.” Smaller niche communities had less traffic, but the conversations felt more real and the conversion quality was noticeably better.
What worked best for me was:
posting observations/results instead of pitching
showing the problem before mentioning the product
making the post feel discussion-first
replying genuinely in comments instead of dropping links and disappearing
For your project specifically, I’d actually lean niche first. Communities around decision-making, relationships, productivity, psychology, entrepreneurship, even career advice could work better than generic startup subs because your product is interaction-driven, not just another SaaS utility.
Reddit rewards posts that feel like they belong there already. Once people feel “this was made for this community,” engagement changes completely.
Helpful since self promotion can get you booted...Thanks!
Nice. Good job!
Nice, claude keep suggesting I use Reddit, but never really felt confident in the HOW. Thank you!
This is awesome! Thanks for sharing your experience and the list!
Title: Built a real-time crypto arbitrage scanner — 2 months in, $X MRR
Body:
Started building this 2 months ago. It watches 5 exchanges via WebSocket and
alerts you on Telegram when there's a profitable spread (after fees).
Stack: Python/FastAPI, React, PostgreSQL on a single Hetzner VPS.
Live at arb-signal . com— 30-day free trial.
Some learnings:
- Hardest part wasn't the code, it was payment integration
- Dodo Payments was easier than Stripe for non-US founders
- WebSocket vs REST polling: 100x less load on exchanges
Open to feedback / questions.
Manual research is the real moat. Finding subreddits that won't instaban you is a nightmare huge thanks for doing the heavy lifting, Matt.
This is gold, saved me from spending a weekend doing exactly this. Reddit has been on my radar for a while but the "post and get banned" cycle killed the motivation.
Quick question — any subs on the list that surprised you? Like ones you wouldn't expect to be founder-friendly but actually are?
It’s refreshing to see data-backed channel breakdowns paired with actionable community resources.
Most generic subreddit lists are indeed outdated or overly saturated, so your hands-on, vetted collection fills a real gap for early-stage founders.
Reddit inbound consistently drives higher-intent, engaged users compared to generic outreach, and curating niche, rule-friendly communities is the key to sustainable growth here.
Really appreciate you open-sourcing this curated list—definitely a high-value asset for every solo builder.
Thank you! Going to have a look through this today. One question, since self promotion is allowed on these, do you not find that most of them just devolve into everyone yelling and no one listening? So many of the "promo allowed" subreddits get about 10 posts an hour and none of them have any interaction because no one actually goes there to be involved in the community. They go there to self-promote.
This is super helpful, thank you! I'm also building in public — just launched an AI astrology app (AstroPillar) that fuses Eastern BaZi with Western natal charts. Looking for beta testers if anyone's curious!
Outstanding and good work keep sharing
very useful for budding entrepreneurs. thanks!
this is so good for startup like is thanks and i will contact you
Looking forward to connect :)