Startup Discovery Platforms - a way to find underground products.

There are many cool tools out there that are waiting to be discovered.
Newsletters like The Slice, The Land of Random, Trends.VC, Web Tools Weekly, The Daily Carnage, RadReads, Spring Up Stories, etc. do a great job of highlighting the underdogs.

If you ever get curious and want to uncover a product that is perfect for you, here is where you should start.

Startup Ranking put together a list of the best directories for new products.

Going through the list, some may be familiar and others may not. Jotting down a list of the best ones along with a little snippet review.

1. Reddit easily the best place to find gems.
   Subreddits:

• r/roastmystartup
• r/SideProject
• r/smallbusiness
• r/startups
• r/beta
• r/digitalnomad
• r/indiebiz
• r/design_critiques
• r/alphaandbetausers
• r/Emailmarketing
• r/EntrepreneurRideAlong
• r/growmybusiness
• r/IMadeThis
• r/shamelessplug
• r/Socialpreneur
• r/apps/
• r/Business_Ideas
• r/digitalnomad

2. AlternativeTo is a great site that hosts ~90K apps.
   The best part is that you could search for a product and the alternatives are crowdsourced. (Plus, you could segment by device, browser, price, etc.)

Similar concept: alternative.me

3. AddictiveTips is a great website to find new products and get really awesome tips for all your devices. They also have a newsletter that is read by over 35K people where you could get tips directly to your inbox.

(Just note: sometimes the loading time is a little glitchy)

4.AngeList is easily misinterpreted to be a recruitment platform, however, there are so many great companies here to discover. When a profile is created, they share product info, culture + people, funding, and more.

(If you are a startup, it's a great way to learn from others and cross-reference funding information.)

5. Slant is one of the coolest platforms. The concept here is to search "what are the best..." Anything can be searched and all the answers are crowdsourced. Alternatively, search a tag or keyword. Users can also ask a question, follow questions and tags (get updates when a new tool is mentioned), and create a custom feed of tag words that you could always add or delete.

*Side note: Slant released Lustre which is a chrome extension to help you find and buy the right product. Aside from giving you the lowest price, Lustre will also analyze the reviews in your cart, allow you to view Reddit discussions and/or YouTube reviews before purchase, and give you recommendations/ alternatives based on your selected items. Going to try it out and review this.

6. ProductHunt Not sure there is much to say here because, honestly, can't write a product discovery post without mentioning product hunt. If you need anything, start here.

7. [Mashable](You may or may not know that Mashable has a great list of products for what you are looking for. It's hidden, for sure, but if you head over to the primary navigation and hover on "Shop," you'll see a list of the "Best of." You could also search on the top right corner, type "Best Of" and pick you poison. I know that "Best Of" and "Top 10s" have a bad rep, but honestly if you do a little bit of manual work, you can easily find really neat tools.

*Here's an example: Best of the nice internet in 2020, so far

8.StackShare.Io If you are a developer, product lover, and/or stack enthusiast, StackShare will get you all giddy inside. You could search for new tools, compare apps side-by-side, and, the best part, browse stacks.

*If you need a new tool or your company is looking for something to try, you could click on any company's profile and look at the tools/apps/platforms they are using to develop their product. Prominent companies are on here, you could easily browse and follow different tools for updates.
An example: https://stackshare.io/pinterest/pinterest

9. Finally, the newsletters that are killing the tool recommendation game because there is really nothing better than a real-life recommendation from someone you trust.

• Artificial Intelligence Digest: AI Digest is a weekly newsletter with the five most interesting stories in artificial intelligence 🤖, machine learning 🚜, and data science 👩‍🔬.

• Ask Leo!: Articles that help you solve problems, stay safe, and increase your confidence with technology — delivered to your inbox, once a week.

• Behind the Curtain: Tools, methods, org, and processes of the most successful organizations and top-performers never shared before. No bullshit.

• Board of Innovation: We transformed a lot of leading innovation management theory into hands-on, easy-to-use, actionable innovation tools. Feel free to browse or download our tools.

• Dense Discovery: A weekly newsletter helping you be productive, feel inspired, and think critically.

• SpringUp Stories: My daily-ish newsletter collects useful news and insights from the Maker and NoCoder community, helping you to generate new ideas and hopefully providing inspiration to build and launch your project.

• Emergent: We know you're busy. We've got the time. Every month we'll curate the best products, readings, tools, and more—delivered straight to your inbox.

• Weekly Google Sheets Tips: Join over 30,000 other data analysts, digital marketers, and educators getting the best content in their inboxes!

• Hackerpreneur: Subscribe to the weekly newsletter for indie entrepreneurs & makers who live and work on their terms. Every week, you’ll get hand-picked startup resources & essays exploring the future of work in the exponential age.

• Hearing Voices: This week's news about voice computing apps, delivered directly to your inbox.

• Influence Weekly: The weekly report the Influencer Marketing industry reads every Friday. Hear from industry leaders and trailblazers. Stay up to date on what works. Better understanding of best practices. Access breaking industry news. Completely free.

• Mindful Entrepreneur: I've been reviewing digital tools since 2012, I’ve traveled the world teaching entrepreneurs how to use technology to grow their businesses, and I've published 250+ newsletters featuring curated business apps, trusted by insiders at Google, WeWork, Harvard University, Cambridge University Press, and more.

• NoCode.Tech: Curated newsletter, featuring the latest free tools, resources, discount codes, and reading lists for non-tech entrepreneurs. Delivered to your inbox every month.

*Newsletter Tools Guide: A quick guide to designing and sending a newsletter, without touching code. (If you are thinking of creating a newsletter, check this out.)

• The Viget Newsletter: A curated periodical featuring thoughts, opinions, and tools for building a better digital world.

• Webdesigner Depot: exclusive freebies and news.

• Zapier: Stick with the tools that work for you. Zapier connects more web apps than anyone, and we add new options every week. We integrate with apps such as Facebook Lead Ads, Slack, Quickbooks, Google Sheets, Google Docs, & many more!