Who does it serve and what problem does it solve?
Instead of relying on public funding databases, it uses the signal of "who a top VC just followed" to find founders who haven't raised yet, billed by the number of accounts tracked, with a very low entry point ($1/account/month, newsletter $29/month).
Target Audience
Venture firms and investors who invest at seed and earlier stages and need to spot entrepreneurs early
How does it charge?
subscriptionTracking custom accounts costs $1/account/month with a $100/month minimum and 16% off for annual billing; tracking Poach's preset Top VCs list is about $100/month (73% cheaper than buying one by one); the two newsletters, Top VCs and Europe Insights, are $29/month each; free trial available
The above describes historical pricing. Check official website for current prices.
Where do users come from?
Traffic estimate: direct is the top channel at 40.58%, followed by organic search (counted as SEO using a rank-based estimate of about 44.6%), with referrals under 9%. Nearly all search terms are people's names and niche topics (faiz hilaly, devansh priyadarshan, steven pang orbit, top tier vcs in israel), matching the VC Directory and Founder Directory pages on the website, which is long-tail search captured by directory pages. In 2025-05 the founder described it under the HN thread 'Ask HN: How are you acquiring your first hundred users?': he sent many emails and LinkedIn DMs, and each newsletter issue @-mentions the founders and investors it features on Twitter, bringing a small but steady amount of exposure. Existing users come back through the daily email and the newsletter. Revenue record has no founder-reported channels.
Channel share, initial acquisition, and growth drivers are distinct; correlation does not imply proven causation.
What remains to be verified?
The following are research questions, not established market opportunities.
- What do target users actually pay for? Is there direct user feedback or paid interview evidence?
- Are these historical prices still active today? What are the conversion, retention, and fulfillment costs?
- Is the "Traffic estimate: direct is the top channel at 40.58%, followed by organic search (counted as SEO using a rank-based estimate of about 44.6%), with referrals under 9%. Nearly all search terms are people's names and niche topics (faiz hilaly, devansh priyadarshan, steven pang orbit, top tier vcs in israel), matching the VC Directory and Founder Directory pages on the website, which is long-tail search captured by directory pages. In 2025-05 the founder described it under the HN thread 'Ask HN: How are you acquiring your first hundred users?': he sent many emails and LinkedIn DMs, and each newsletter issue @-mentions the founders and investors it features on Twitter, bringing a small but steady amount of exposure. Existing users come back through the daily email and the newsletter. Revenue record has no founder-reported channels." channel still viable? What resources do indie devs need to test it?
- Whose needs are competitors failing to meet? Find specific evidence before deciding on your angle.