The Global Startup Distribution Benchmark
First-party data on what it actually takes to list a startup across the world's directories — measured over our live catalog of 727 directories and our own operational runs. No survey, no estimates: these are counts over real rows. We report what the data honestly supports and withhold what it doesn't.
1 · The economics of getting listed
Most of the directory world is free to list on — but a real slice charges, and a meaningful share we haven't yet price-verified. Across 727 directories:
2 · How much can actually be automated
The honest counter to "just automate 1,000 submissions": only 17.5% of directories can be submitted end-to-end by an agent. The rest need your account, a human editor's judgement, or a captcha/community step a bot shouldn't touch. Each directory's classification is on the automation policy page.
3 · Friction & authority transparency
4 · Operational snapshot · early, small sample
This is our own dogfood data, and the sample is small: 8 product across 1,000 submissions. That is not enough to responsibly publish acceptance rates, time-to-approval, or indexation rates — so we withhold them until the sample is representative (10+ products). What we can show honestly is the funnel:
Note the honest zero: 20 submissions have captured proof, but none are yet directory-confirmed live — editorial and indexing lag is real, and we won't call a listing "live" until we've re-checked the destination and found the product actually there. Rate metrics stay withheld until the sample grows.
Methodology & limitations
- Source. Every number is a live aggregate query over our own
directories,submissionsandagent_runstables, recomputed on every page load. There is no separate spreadsheet to drift. - Structural metrics (pricing, automation class, editorial/captcha prevalence, coverage) are over all 727 active directories — a large, stable sample.
- Operational metrics come from real submission runs and are honestly small right now. We deliberately withhold rates below 10 products rather than publish a number a single product could swing.
- Privacy. Only aggregate counts are shown — never per-customer or per-product detail.
- Known gap. Verified domain-authority data currently exists for 13.8% of directories; authority-weighted metrics will sharpen as enrichment continues.
Refreshed live on every request · first-party data · © 2026 StartupAmplify