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Spot Startups: requirements, how to submit, and what you actually get

Visit

Two free queues, and only the one paid for with a badge carries a followed link

spotstartups.com
Spot Startups homepage
Eligibility

Who Spot Startups accepts

You need
A live product URL
A thumbnail logo
A Google account or an email sign-up
You'll be rejected if
Nothing published about who is refused; their own line is that it does not matter how early you are.
SaaSAI toolsMobile appsMarketplacesSide projects
What you actually get
A card on a daily startup board where 'a handful of new founders get their spotlight' each day, with a thumbnail, a 160-character one-liner, up to three of 23 categories and tags, credited to your display name as the founder. The Standard Queue lands on the homepage when approved with no followed link; the Priority Queue's badge is what turns the link dofollow, plus a category comparison and analytics on the listing. No review time is published for either lane.

How to submit to Spot Startups

  1. Sign in
    Continue with Google, or email and password. The account is created by the same click and the Google name becomes your founder name until Settings changes it.
  2. Say whether you are the maker
    Maker or Spotter. Then the product URL, with a Fetch Website Info button that fills the preview.
  3. Fill the listing
    Name, a 160-character short description, a thumbnail logo, up to three of 23 categories, comma-separated tags, an optional long description in a rich-text box and an optional screenshot.
  4. Pick a submission speed
    Standard Queue (free, no backlink, no followed link) or Priority Queue (free with their badge, faster review, dofollow). Priority shows the badge snippet and a Verify badge now button, and the page says to complete verification to submit.

Spot Startups requirements

Product website URL
Product name
Short description
160 characters
Thumbnail logo
Categories
up to 3 of 23
Tags
comma separated
Long descriptionoptional
Website screenshotoptional
Their badgeoptional
Priority Queue only, verified before submit

Gotchas

The link is conditional: Standard Queue lists you with no followed link, and the dofollow belongs to the Priority Queue, which will not submit until their badge is verified on your site.
Your display name is printed as the founder and starts as the Google account's name, so Settings is the first stop; the country field there says it is for payment routing although nothing is for sale.

Let your agent submit to Spot Startups

Connect SubmitMap to your AI over MCP and this page stops being something you read and copy. Your agent asks for the Spot Startups playbook and gets the brief for this exact form, with the values already taken from your submission pack instead of placeholders you fill in by hand.

What it does for this platform
Checks your product against the 4 Spot Startups rules above, so you find out you would be rejected before you open a tab.
Hands your agent all 9 fields this form asks for, 3 of them optional, already filled from your pack.
Types it into Spot Startups in your own browser, and stops for you when the form wants a sign-in.
Records what it sent, so the dashboard can answer "did I ever submit to Spot Startups?".
Connect your agentHow this worksTools and endpointsWorks with Claude Code, Claude, Codex, Cursor, VS Code and Hermes.

Spot Startups FAQ

How long does Spot Startups approval take?
Spot Startups does not publish how long approval takes.
How much does it cost to submit to Spot Startups?
Submitting to Spot Startups is free.
Does Spot Startups give a dofollow backlink?
No, links from Spot Startups are nofollow. The site has a domain rating of 29.
Does Spot Startups require a backlink to your site?
No, Spot Startups does not require a link back from your site.
What gets you rejected from Spot Startups?
Nothing published about who is refused; their own line is that it does not matter how early you are.