We submitted Oculta to 15 startup directories. Here's what we learned.
When we finished building Oculta, we assumed getting users would be the hardest part.
Instead, the first challenge was getting discovered.
Over the past couple of weeks, we've been submitting Oculta, our macOS app for invisible notes during meetings and presentations, to as many high quality startup communities as we could find.
Some approved us within hours.
Others took days.
Some brought backlinks.
Some sent traffic.
Some generated almost no results.
Here's what we've learned so far.
• Every directory has different submission requirements. Having screenshots, a demo video, founder story, logo, and concise descriptions ready saves a lot of time.
• Most directories don't drive immediate downloads. Their biggest value is long term SEO and credibility.
• Launching on multiple platforms compounds over time. Every listing creates another place where people can discover your product.
• Writing thoughtful descriptions matters more than we expected. We ended up rewriting our positioning several times before we found messaging that clearly explained what Oculta does.
We're still early, so this isn't a success story yet.
It's simply part of the process of building a product in public.
If you've launched on directories that actually brought users, I'd love to know which ones were worth your time.
The directory play is smart for SEO but slow for immediate traction. The compounding kicks in later. For early downloads the channels that tend to work faster are niche communities where your exact user hangs out curious who you’ve identified as your core buyer for Oculta?
That's exactly the hypothesis we're testing now.
Directories have been great for SEO, backlinks, and refining our messaging, but we don't expect them to become our main acquisition channel.
Our initial users are mostly professionals who spend a large part of their day in video calls: sales teams, founders, educators, recruiters, customer success, and content creators. We're now trying to figure out which of those groups has the strongest need and is easiest to reach.
Have you found any niche communities that consistently convert well for your products?
The segments that tend to convert fastest are the ones where the problem is most acute and frequent for Oculta that’s probably sales teams and recruiters since they’re on calls all day and the stakes of saying the wrong thing are highest. For niche communities, LinkedIn groups for SDRs and sales professionals, r/sales, and specific Slack communities for sales teams are where those people actually talk. They’re reachable and they buy fast when the pain is real. Are you on Telegram, Discord or email? Would love to connect and dig into this properly.
One thing that stood out was how submitting to directories ended up becoming a positioning exercise.
Sometimes the biggest value from distribution isn't the traffic—it’s being forced to explain your product clearly enough that someone unfamiliar can understand it in a few seconds.
That surprised us too. Every submission was almost like a usability test for our positioning. If someone didn't immediately understand what Oculta did, we knew the copy still needed work.
Have you had a similar experience with any of your products?
That's exactly the implication I was thinking about.
I think there's one strategic business decision sitting underneath your reply that becomes much more significant as Oculta grows, but I don't think I can do the reasoning behind it justice in a thread.
Happy to explain what I mean if it's useful. What's the best email to reach you on?