Where to launch your startup in India: every free and paid option
When I was getting ready to put overbid.in out, I made a list of every place I could launch it. The list got long, and most of it was scattered across old threads and other people's advice. So here it is in one place, with what I think each one is good for. Some of these are free and cost you time. Some cost money. One of them is mine, and I'll say so when we get there.
One thing before the list. Launching isn't one day. You'll get more out of showing up in several of these places over a few weeks than doing all of them on the same morning.
The free options
Product Hunt
Product Hunt is the best known launch site. You post your product, people upvote it, and the day's most voted products rise to the top. It works best when you already have people ready to show up and support you on the day. The audience is global and leans towards tech, so it suits SaaS and tools more than a D2C brand selling in India. I wrote more about it in Product Hunt vs pay-to-rank.
Show HN
Hacker News has a "Show HN" section for things people have built. The crowd is technical and honest, sometimes very honest. If you've made a developer tool or something clever under the hood, it's worth a post. If you sell kurtas, skip it.
Reddit can send real people, but every subreddit has its own rules, and many don't allow self-promotion at all. Read the rules before you post, and read them again. Subreddits for SaaS, startups and Indian founders often have a weekly thread where you're allowed to share what you've built. Use those. A plain post that tells your story and asks for feedback does far better than an ad.
Indie Hackers
Indie Hackers is a community of people building their own businesses. People there like hearing how you built something and what you learned, more than a pitch. A good post about your first month can bring you a few early users and some useful advice.
LinkedIn and X
For B2B products in India, LinkedIn is hard to ignore. Your first customers are often people who already know you. Write about what you're building as you build it, not just on launch day. X is similar but smaller in India, and stronger if your users are developers or other founders.
WhatsApp and Telegram groups
This is the most Indian item on the list, and often the one that works best. There are groups for founders, for local businesses, for every city and every trade. Don't spam them. Be a member first, help when you can, and share your product when it actually answers someone's question.
Google Business Profile
If you have a shop, an office or a service in a city, set up your Google Business Profile. It's free, and it's how people nearby find you on Google Maps and in search. It won't help a pure online product much, but for a local business it might matter more than everything else here.
Startup directories
There are hundreds of sites that list startups. Some still get visitors and some are abandoned. Before you spend an evening submitting to forty of them, open each one, check that it's still being updated, and look at whether anyone seems to be reading it. A handful of good ones is worth more than a long list of dead ones.
Startup India
The government's Startup India portal is where you register for DPIIT recognition, which can make you eligible for some benefits. It's worth doing once you're a registered company. It's not where customers will find you, though, so don't count it as a launch.
The paid options
Google and Meta ads
Search ads on Google catch people who are already looking for what you sell. Ads on Instagram and Facebook are better for showing people something they didn't know they wanted, which is why so many D2C brands live there. Both let you start small. Both can also eat your money quickly if you don't watch them, so set a daily limit and check it every day at first.
Creators and newsletters
Paying a creator or a newsletter in your niche to mention you can work well, because their audience already trusts them. Ask for real numbers before you pay, like how many people open the newsletter or watch the posts, and start with one small deal before you sign up for more.
overbid.in
This one is mine, so take my opinion with that in mind. overbid.in is a public leaderboard of Indian brands where the order is decided by money: the most rupees behind a brand this week puts it on top. A spot starts at ₹49, paid by UPI or card, with GST included. Your spot links to your site or Instagram, it's marked as sponsored, and you get your own brand page with a click count, so you can see whether anyone came. The board starts again every Monday, so you can try it for a week without committing to anything. Here's how it works in more detail.
I built it because most of the free options above reward people who already have an audience. Paying for a spot is a different deal: it's small, you can see exactly what you got, and you can stop any time.
Where I'd start
If you're building software, I'd write one honest post on LinkedIn or X, share it in the Reddit and WhatsApp groups where it's allowed, and plan a Product Hunt launch once a few people are using it. If you're a D2C brand, I'd start with Instagram, your Google Business Profile if you have a shop, and a couple of small creator deals. Either way, put the same link in every place and look at which ones actually send people.
If you'd like to try overbid.in too, type your website or @handle on the board and pick a category. If I missed a place that worked for you, write to me at hello@overbid.in and I'll add it.
Ankit