About r/startups
In its own words:
Welcome to /r/startups, the place to discuss startup problems and solutions. Startups are companies that are designed to grow and scale rapidly. Be sure to read and follow all of our rules--we have specific places for common content and requests.
Community guide
r/startups (#519, about 2.1 million) — , the place to discuss startup problems and solutions. Startups are companies that are designed to grow and scale rapidly. Be sure to read and follow all of our rules--we have specific places for common content and requests. Collected rules highlight Relevant Content Only; No direct sales, advertisements, or promotion; Submissions Serve a Specific Purpose, among 9 listed. Activity mix in sample: text:193. Bu.
What belongs here
Stay on the community’s stated focus: , the place to discuss startup problems and solutions. Startups are companies that are designed to grow and scale rapidly. Be sure to read and follow all of our rules--we have specific places for common content and requests. Rule themes include: Relevant Content Only; No direct sales, advertisements, or promotion; Submissions Serve a Specific Purpose; Feedback Has a Place. Description or directory pointers also mention r/startups.
How it differs
Neighbor communities called out in the public description include r/startups. Use those when your post is a better fit elsewhere; this page only paraphrases publicly listed distinctions.
Before you post
Common flairs in the sample: I will not promote, ban me. Recent sample composition: text:193. Bu. Format-sensitive rules to read first: Rules for Links in Comments/Discussion; Sharing Your Blog is To Start a Discussion, Never For Self-Promotion. Treat subscriber and posts-per-day figures as directory snapshots, not live Reddit counters.
SubMouse Editorial
The community was created on Jan 25, 2008, which makes it 18 years old. Since Oct 26, 2026, it has gained 2,743 subscribers (+0.13%). Among the 12 communities on our entrepreneurship list it is number 3 by size. It sits just behind r/reallifedoodles (#518) and ahead of r/tennis (#520) in our ranking.
What sets r/startups apart
Compared with other large communities, r/startups leans heavily on text posts (100% of recent posts; the typical Top 100 subreddit sits at 35%). People mostly look and upvote here rather than comment — about 6.3 comments per post, against 13.3 for a typical large subreddit. It is also one of the faster-growing big communities: its 0.81% gain since Sep 19, 2026 beats 93% of the Top 100. Its rhythm is strongly tied to time zones: the busiest hour (16:00 UTC) sees about 3.0× as many posts as the quietest (00:00 UTC).
Subscriber growth
Between Sep 19, 2026 and Nov 2, 2026, r/startups grew from 2,129,930 to 2,147,214 subscribers (+17.3K, +0.81%). That is about 393 new members per day. The chart uses our weekly snapshots (9 so far), so it gets longer every week.
What r/startups talks about
We read the titles of 193 recent posts (Oct 29–Nov 4), the words that come up most are “promote”, “founders”, “startup”, “business” and “start”. Other frequent themes are looking, handle, b2b, equity, marketing and founder. Recurring phrases include “cold start”, “start problem”, “amsterdam engineer” and “engineer options”. By format, 100% are text posts.
Popular post flairs: I will not promote (189), ban me (2).
Activity and best time to post
r/startups gets about 31 new posts a day. The public archive holds 282,287 posts and 1,769,884 comments in total, about 6.3 comments per post. Last week the busiest day was Monday (36 posts) and the quietest was Thursday (20). Posting peaks around 16:00 UTC and is lowest around 00:00 UTC.
Rules of r/startups
The moderators of r/startups list 9 rules. In short:
- Relevant Content Only
- No direct sales, advertisements, or promotion
- Submissions Serve a Specific Purpose
- Feedback Has a Place
- Rules for Links in Comments/Discussion
- Do Not Solicit PM Requests / Post DM Notices
- Sharing Your Blog is To Start a Discussion, Never For Self-Promotion
- Always Be Kind and Supportive
- No Unscheduled AMAs
How to join
Open reddit.com/r/startups and press “Join”. Read the community rules in the sidebar before you post: every subreddit is run by its own volunteer moderators.
Frequently asked questions
How many members does r/startups have?
r/startups has 2,147,214 subscribers (Nov 2, 2026), which makes it the #519 safe-for-work subreddit in the SubMouse ranking. It added 17,284 members between Sep 19, 2026 and Nov 2, 2026.
How old is r/startups?
r/startups was created on Jan 25, 2008, so it has been around for 18 years.
How active is r/startups?
Very active: r/startups gets about 31 new posts a day (average of the last four weeks). Over its lifetime the archive counts 282,287 posts and 1,769,884 comments. In a sample of 193 recent posts we counted 133 different authors.
When is r/startups most active?
Based on post counts from Oct 29, 2026 to Nov 4, 2026, the busiest day was Monday and the quietest Thursday, and most posts arrive around 16:00 UTC, with the fewest around 00:00 UTC. More posts also means more competition, so a quieter hour can help a post get noticed.
What is r/startups about?
The community describes itself as: “Welcome to /r/startups, the place to discuss startup problems and solutions. Startups are companies that are designed to grow and scale rapidly. Be sure to read and follow all of our rules--we have specific places for c…” Recent post titles often mention promote, founders, startup, business and start. Most posts are text posts (100%).
Is r/startups safe for work?
Yes. Reddit does not mark r/startups as an 18+ (NSFW) community. SubMouse lists safe-for-work subreddits only.
How do I post on r/startups?
Join the community on Reddit first, then use “Create post”. r/startups accepts text posts only. It has 9 posted rules, starting with: “Relevant Content Only”; “No direct sales, advertisements, or promotion”; “Submissions Serve a Specific Purpose”. Moderators remove posts that break the rules, so read them in the sidebar before posting.
Which communities are like r/startups?
Communities with similar topics include r/Entrepreneur (5.3M), r/lifehacks (14.6M), r/PhotoshopRequest (2.4M), r/DestinyTheGame (3.4M) and r/likeus (2.8M).
Stats from public data (data updated Nov 2, 2026; activity, rules and archive totals via the Arctic Shift archive, Nov 6, 2026). Point and comment counts are archive snapshots and can be lower than on Reddit today. SubMouse is an independent directory and is not affiliated with Reddit or the moderators of r/startups.