Everything you need to use Simply Startup, whether you're browsing and getting involved or running your own startup's listing. Pick the guide that matches what you're doing.
What Simply Startup is
Simply Startup is a discovery and collaboration network for early-stage founders and the people who want to help build with them — not a crowdfunding site. There's no payment processing, pledges, or donations anywhere in the app. Compensation terms shown on a listing (equity, pay, revenue share, etc.) are informational only; any real agreement happens between the people involved, outside the platform.
Two ways people use the site
Standard user
Anyone with an account: browsing startups, applying to roles, messaging, and managing your own profile.
Full access to browsing, messaging, applying, and your own profile and settings.
Startup owner
Anyone whose account intent includes "Post a startup"
Adds the ability to create a startup and access its private dashboard.
Co-manager
A team member an owner has granted management access to
Can manage a specific startup's listing and workspace without being its owner.
Tip
Accounts aren't locked into one context. Anyone can switch on the ability to post a startup from Account Settings → Account → "What are you here for?" at any time — you don't need a separate account.
Create your account
Every feature on Simply Startup — browsing, applying, messaging, posting a startup — starts with an account. Sign-up takes under a minute and there's no payment step anywhere in the flow.
Sign up
From any page, select Sign up in the top navigation.
Enter your name, email address, and a password (minimum 8 characters).
Choose what you're here for — see the table below. You can change this later.
Select Create account.
Check your email for a verification link and select it to verify your address.
Intent
What it unlocks
Get involved
Browse, like, follow, and apply to startups. This is the default and works for most people.
Post a startup
Everything above, plus the ability to create and manage your own startup listing.
Both
Full access to everything — browsing and posting.
Note
Choosing "Get involved" doesn't lock you out of posting a startup later. Switch it any time from Account Settings → Account → "What are you here for?" — no need to create a second account.
Log in
Select Log in, enter your email and password, and select Log in. If you have two-factor authentication turned on (see Account settings & security), you'll be asked for a verification code as well.
Forgot your password?
On the login page, select Forgot password?
Enter your account email and submit the form.
Follow the reset link sent to your inbox to set a new password.
Warning
Five failed login attempts in a row temporarily locks your account for 15 minutes as an anti-abuse measure. If this happens, wait and try again, or reset your password.
The Discover page is the main way to browse every published startup on the platform.
Search and filter
From Discover, use the search box to match a startup's name or description, or narrow results with the filters:
Category — the industry or space a startup operates in.
Stage — from Idea and Planning through Prototype, MVP, Early Development, Launching, and Established.
Opportunity type — show only startups looking for a specific kind of help (Developer, Designer, Marketing, and so on).
Location — including remote-friendly listings.
Sort results by newest, most viewed, or most liked.
Open a listing
Each startup's public page shows its pitch, stage, team, open opportunities, and any progress updates or partnerships. Some listings limit who can see the full write-up:
Visibility
What you'll see
Public
The full write-up is visible to everyone, signed in or not.
Members only
You'll need to be signed in to read the full problem/solution/progress write-up.
Request access
You'll see a summary and a Request access button; the founder approves or denies each request individually.
Like a startup
Select the heart icon on a listing to like it. Liked startups appear under Liked Startups from your account menu, and the founder sees your like in their analytics (without your identity being singled out beyond a count).
Liking and following are separate systems that do different things — here's the distinction.
Action
What it does
Like
A one-off signal of interest. Adds the startup to your Liked Startups list. No ongoing notifications.
Follow
An ongoing subscription. You're notified whenever that founder posts a progress update, and the startup appears in your Following list.
Notifications
The bell icon in the top navigation opens your notification feed. Notifications cover things like new messages, replies to your comments, changes to an application you submitted, team invites, and updates from startups you follow.
Control which categories reach you from Account Settings → Notifications, where each notification type can be toggled independently.
Opportunities are the roles founders post on their listings — developer, designer, marketing, and more.
Find and apply
Browse all open roles from Opportunities in the top navigation, or find one on a specific startup's page.
Open a role to read its description and compensation type (paid, equity, revenue share, and so on — informational only, arranged directly between you and the founder).
Select Express interest and include a short note if prompted.
Track your status
Once you've applied, the listing shows your current status instead of the apply button — there's no need to reapply. A founder moves your application through:
Beyond individual startup listings, Simply Startup has a few community-wide spaces.
Events
Browse virtual and in-person meetups, AMAs, and demo days from Events. Select an event to see details and RSVP; your RSVP count shows on the listing. Anyone can host an event from the same page — optionally linking it to a startup you own.
Community discussion boards
Open Community to post or reply in discussion threads, grouped into General, Advice, Introduce Yourself, Feedback, and Resources.
Launches
The Launches leaderboard highlights startups that have officially launched, ranked by upvotes from the community.
Blog
The Blog carries articles published by the Simply Startup team.
Everything under your own control lives in Account Settings, organized into tabs.
Tab
What's there
Profile
Name, bio, location, links.
Skills & Experience
Skills, interests, and past experience entries.
Notifications
Per-category notification toggles.
Security
Two-factor authentication and active sessions — see below.
Accessibility
Light / Dark / System appearance.
Account
Email, account intent, password, and account deletion.
Turn on two-factor authentication
On the Security tab, select Enable two-factor authentication.
Scan the QR code with an authenticator app (or enter the code manually).
Enter the 6-digit code the app generates to confirm setup.
Save the single-use backup codes shown — each one lets you sign in once if you lose access to your authenticator app.
Once enabled, logging in asks for a verification code after your password.
Manage active sessions
The Security tab also lists every device currently signed in to your account. Revoke any single session, or use Sign out everywhere else to keep only your current device signed in.
Tip
Signing in from a device Simply Startup hasn't seen before triggers an in-app notification, so an unexpected one is worth investigating from this list.
Choose light or dark mode
On the Accessibility tab, pick Light, Dark, or System (matches your device automatically). The choice is saved to this browser.
Change your password or delete your account
Both live on the Account tab. Deleting your account is permanent and signs you out immediately; any startups you own remain but are anonymized from your profile.
Two separate paths depending on whether something's wrong with the platform or with someone's behavior on it.
Submit a support ticket
For anything about your account, a bug, billing questions, or general feedback, open Support from your account menu and choose a category: Bug, Account, Billing, Feedback, or Other. Staff reply on the ticket, and you're notified when they do.
Report content
To flag a specific startup, user, or conversation for the moderation team, use the Report option where it appears (on a startup page, a user's profile, or inside a message thread) and choose a reason: Spam, Scam or fraud, Inappropriate content, Harassment, Misleading information, or Other. Reports go straight to our team's review queue for follow-up.
Post the roles you need filled, then track everyone who expresses interest.
Post a role
From Opportunities in your startup's navigation, add a role with a type (Developer, Designer, Marketing, and so on), description, and compensation type. Mark a role Filled or Closed once you're done hiring for it.
Manage applicants
Every person who expresses interest shows up under Applicants, grouped by role. Move each one through a status as you review them:
NewReviewingAcceptedPassed
The applicant sees their current status on the listing automatically — no need to message everyone individually just to update them.
Team members show up publicly on your listing; some can also help manage it.
Add a team member
From Team, add a person by name and role. They'll appear on your public listing under the team section.
Grant management access
By default, adding someone to the team just lists them publicly — it doesn't give them any control. To let a team member help run the listing and workspace, turn on Can manage for them.
Access level
Can do
Owner
Everything, including transferring ownership or deleting the startup.
Co-manager (Can manage on)
Everything an owner can do except transfer ownership, delete the startup, or grant/revoke other people's management access.
Team member (listed only)
Shown publicly on the listing; no dashboard access.
Two ways to show outside progress on your listing — one is a running log, the other a plan.
Post updates
From Updates, write a progress update for anyone following your startup. Updates can be saved as a draft or scheduled for a future date, and everyone following you is notified the moment one goes live.
Roadmap
The Roadmap page is a public timeline of milestones — past and planned — so visitors can see where you are and what's coming next.
Your startup's dashboard is the control center for everything covered in this guide — here's how it's laid out.
Navigation
Across the top sit five grouped tabs: Overview, Startup, Content, Workspace, and Insights. Selecting a tab other than Overview reveals a second row of links for every page in that group, so you always know which section you're in without scanning a long flat list.
The Overview page itself
Header — your listing's name, status, and quick links to share it or view the public page.
Profile stats — views, likes, messages, and opportunity views at a glance.
Health score — a rough signal of how active your listing is, based on engagement, recent momentum, update cadence, and roadmap progress.
This week in your workspace — a banner summarizing recent activity across your private tools; select it to open the full weekly digest.
Needs your attention — anything genuinely waiting on you (new applicants, a vendor renewing soon, pending partnership or access requests) surfaced in one place.
Manage your startup — a dense grid of tiles, one per tool, grouped by category (Hiring & team, Content, Workspace, Finance & ops, Strategy & intel, Insights & settings). Select any tile to jump straight there.
Use the search box in the header bar to jump straight to any task, investor, wiki page, or other item across your whole workspace instead of hunting through tabs.
Under the Workspace tab sit tools for running the startup day-to-day. Everything here is private to you and anyone with management access — none of it is ever shown on your public listing.
Tasks
A simple Kanban-style board with To Do, In Progress, and Done columns for tracking work.
Investors
A lightweight CRM for tracking investor conversations through Contacted, Meeting, Term Sheet, Committed, or Passed.
Fundraising
Track an open or closed funding round against a goal amount, and log convertible instruments (SAFEs or notes). A public progress bar can optionally show on your listing.
Workflows
A visual, node-based canvas for sketching out processes — useful for anything from an onboarding flow to a product pipeline.
Expenses
A categorized spend ledger (software, payroll, marketing, legal, and more) so you have a running number for what you're spending.
Wiki
A lightweight internal knowledge base for onboarding docs, SOPs, and decisions, organized by category and autosaving as you type.
Vendors
Track subscriptions and contracts — billing cycle, renewal date, and who owns the relationship. Anything renewing within 30 days is flagged automatically.
OKRs
Quarterly objectives with nested key results and a status of On Track, At Risk, Achieved, or Missed — separate from day-to-day tasks.
Competitors
A running log of competitors and notes about them, so research doesn't stay scattered across bookmarks.
KPIs
Define your own metrics — MRR, churn, CAC, or anything specific to your business — and log entries over time with a trend sparkline.
This Week (weekly digest)
A single page rolling up everything that happened across every workspace tool in the last seven days.
A few ways to point traffic back toward your listing.
Embed a badge
At the bottom of your Overview page, copy the provided HTML snippet and paste it into your own site to show a "Featured on Simply Startup" badge that links back to your listing.
Launches
Once you've officially launched, your listing is eligible to appear on the site-wide Launches leaderboard, where the community can upvote it.
Verified badge
A checkmark badge our team can add to a listing after review, signaling extra confidence in a startup. It's granted at our team's discretion and can't be requested directly from the dashboard.
Ownership transfer — hand the startup to another account. Only the current owner can do this.
Danger zone — permanently delete the startup, its opportunities, team, and message history. This can't be undone.
Warning
Deletion is permanent and immediate. Consider unpublishing instead if you just want the listing hidden temporarily — that's handled by our team, so contact support if you need this without deleting.