How It Works
There are two parts to the Discovering Startups process.
First, we will review any legitimate tech startup that wants their story told. If you would like to have your startup reviewed, simply submit your startup information here.
We reserve all rights to edit the information provided to us as we see fit before publishing, as well as hold final say as to what constitutes a "legitimate tech startup." Often times, there are companies that simply do not fit our definition of "tech startup," and so we choose not to publish them.
That being said however, we do make an earnest attempt to publish any startup who submits their information to us. Depending on the volume of submissions, a startup could be reviewed in as little as a day, or as long as a few weeks. Please be patient and send us an email if we have not responded or reviewed your startup in over a week.
Secondly (for those who wish to participate), Discovering Startups holds a monthly contest for all of the startups reviewed in a given month. Startups are pitted against each other in a competition for the votes of Discovering Startups' readers. The startup in a given month with the most votes will be selected as the "Best of Discovering Startups" winner for that month. They will be featured in a Discovering Startups news post, receive a "Best Of" award from Discovering Startups (which they can display on their website or blog), as well as be featured in potential additional press from our partners. Additionally, there are three Finalist awards given out each month to the companies who garner the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th places in vote count for the period.
There is also a monthly Editor's Pick award. This award is roughly the equivalent to the “Best of Discovering Startups” award, and it is given to the company that the Discovering Startups' staff recognizes as their favorite for either demonstrated growth or potential. There is no official policy for picking the recipient, other than it should be given to the company that demonstrates the most potential as seen by the industry veterans on our staff. The only requirement for eligibility is that a startup must have at least 15 votes. The reason is that we still want the companies to be vetted first and foremost by our readers. After that, we will pick the recipient that we feel best reflects the nature of the award.
On top of the rewards that DiscoveringStartups offers it's respective monthly winners, there are additional possible rewards which can be earned from our partners. For example, through our partnership with PeerBackers.com (an entreprenurial crowd-funding site) the monthly Best-Of winner is eligible to be showcased as a featured company on the PeerBackers website, and any of our winners are eligible to be automatically included in their service if they wish. Please see our partners page for more details.
Monthly periods of voting will end at 10:00pm EST on the last day of each month and will include all the companies from 22nd of the preceeding month until the 21st of the current month.For example, a company that is published on the 28th of March will be considered part of the April contest. Voting for April would officially end on April 30th at 10:00 pm EST. This lessens the disadvantages of those companies published later in the month by allowing them an additional week of voting.
Discovering Startups holds final rights over the contest, the exact nature of the prizes given, and has sole determination over the winner(s) of the contest.
No additional action is necessary to enter the contest. Once we review your startup, anyone may come and vote for it. We consider automated methods of voting as cheating and have final discretion over disqualifying or modifying the vote count of suspected cheaters. However, we encourage you to invite your friends, users, and customers to vote for you. We will even provide a "Vote for Us" badge upon request which you can place on your website or blog.
Thank you and we welcome any you might have.
We look forward to sharing your start-up with the world!
