Prodottiny

Prodottiny is a curated directory of startups mainly focused on the Italian market. The site is in Italian, but the startups listed don’t have to be.
Still, I’ll keep this post general ☺

The idea came from a slightly selfish need: I’ve been working on a startup with three other people, and as we started thinking about where to promote it, I noticed a gap. The well-known platforms (Product Hunt, Betalist, even Indie Hackers) work great for international projects, but much less for “local” ones.

Of course, the goal of (almost) every startup is to scale. But in the early stage, or when you’re just validating an idea, it’s normal to start with your domestic market.

And sometimes this never changes. Maybe it’s an events app focused on a specific area, or a problem that exists only in a particular place. Even some large startups are tied to local contexts. JetHR, for example, helps automate HR processes and payroll while dealing with bureaucracy, and bureaucracy is extremely local.

But this is only part of the issue. In Italy, unlike in many other parts of the world (Silicon Valley being the extreme example), we lack visible examples. It’s harder to see someone “close to you” (geographically, culturally, or linguistically) who has managed to launch something meaningful, or at least tried.

These connections happen through proximity. Geographic, linguistic, cultural. I like the idea of building a small community where founders feel more “reachable”, maybe just a couple of clicks and an email away, if they want to be.

It’s a modest goal, but we’re doing our best to do it well. Wish us luck! 🤖