What are micro startups communities?

Communities for founders building small, profitable SaaS products and info businesses without chasing venture scale. You will find discussion focused on idea validation, customer acquisition, and building sustainable revenue as a solo operator or small team.

Where do most micro startups communities live?

Reddit is the most common platform in this report (33% of 12 listings).

Are most of these communities free?

50% are free to join. The rest require payment, an application, or both.

How big is a typical micro startups community?

Among listings with public size data, the average is 94K members and the median is 1K. The median is usually the better signal for a typical group because a few large ones inflate the average.

What do these communities usually include?

Forum is the most common (67%). Others that show up often include live chat, online/offline events, and paid community.

How does Hive Index collect this data?

Listings are submitted by community builders and researchers, reviewed for relevance, and updated with platform, feature, member, review, and traffic data where available.

Where can I see the full list?

The full directory is on Hive Index's Micro Startups topic page, where you can filter by platform, size, features, and more.

Micro Startups Communities Report: Stats, Platforms,...

Executive Summary

We analyzed 12 micro startups communities listed on Hive Index to understand where people gather, what these groups offer, and which communities attract the most interest.

The big picture: In this smaller sample, micro startups communities are broad and fragmented, with many small groups and a few very large outliers.

Source: Hive Index community database · Updated 2024-04-04

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Communities: 12
Platforms: 7
Avg members: 94K
Median members: 1K

Where Micro Startups Communities Are Hosted

Reddit
4(33%)
Discord
2(17%)
Slack
2(17%)
Independent Platforms
1(8%)
Circle
1(8%)
Campfire
1(8%)
Facebook
1(8%)

Format mix

Forum / feed-based
6(50%)
Chat communities
4(33%)
Private membership
1(8%)
Other platforms
1(8%)

Forum / feed-based is most common (50%), but chat communities is also well represented (33%).

Reddit leads (33% of listings).

Audience Size & Access

Community size

Tiny
<20 members
1(8%)
Small
20-100 members
1(8%)
Medium
100-1,000 members
3(25%)
Large
1,000-10,000 members
2(17%)
Huge
10,000-100,000 members
2(17%)
Massive
100,000-1M members
2(17%)
Gigantic
1M+ members
0(0%)

1 community has unknown member counts.

Free vs paid

The average is much higher than the median (94K vs 1K), which usually means a few large groups are pulling the average up.

How Micro Startups Differs From Other Categories

Micro Startups is less free-to-join, smaller, more chat-heavy, and more paid or gated, compared with typical Hive Index topics.

Metric	Micro Startups	Hive Index average
Free to join	50%	85%
Median members	1K	25K
Average members	94K	669K
Paid or apply-to-join	50%	15%
Live chat	58%	38%
Discord share	17%	16%

Feature Mix

Common features appear in at least 15% of listings.

Common Features

Forum
67%
Live Chat
58%
Online/Offline Events
58%
Paid Community
50%
Member Perks
42%
Newsletter
33%
Courses
25%
Pairing
17%

Niche Features

Tools
8%

Live Chat appears on 58% of listings.

What Visitors Click

Outbound clicks / mo: 165

Platform supply vs. clicks

Platform	Communities	Share of communities	Outbound clicks	Share of clicks
Reddit	4	33%	9	5%
Discord	2	17%	128	78%
Slack	2	17%	7	4%
Circle	1	8%	13	8%
Campfire	1	8%	6	4%
Facebook	1	8%	2	1%

Share is calculated within this topic.

Discord gets 78% of clicks but only 17% of listings, so visitors click it more than you'd expect from supply alone.

Most-clicked formats

Chat communities
135(82%)
Private membership
13(8%)
Forum / feed-based
11(7%)
Other platforms
6(4%)

Most-clicked features

Online/Offline Events
159(96%)
Live Chat
154(93%)
Member Perks
153(93%)
Forum
151(92%)
Newsletter
150(91%)
Paid Community
28(17%)

Most-clicked size ranges

Large
133(81%)
Medium
14(8%)
Massive
8(5%)
Tiny
4(2%)
Small
3(2%)

Top-clicked listings

Lunadio
127(77%)
Micro SaaS HQ
13(8%)
Small Bets
6(4%)

Most clicks go to chat communities and private membership communities.

Trends

Founded year

2013

2017

2021

2022

2023

4 communities have no founding year on file.

Most listed groups were founded around 2021.

Community Quality & Ratings

Only 3 communities have ratings so far, so read this as a small sample.

5.0 average rating across 3 communities.

Rated examples

Methodology & FAQ

Methodology

This report uses communities in the Hive Index database tagged as Micro Startups. We exclude removed or suppressed listings. Member counts, traffic, features, reviews, and ratings may vary by source and are updated periodically.

•We only have a handful of listings so far, so treat these numbers as directional.
•Last updated 2024-04-04

FAQ

: Communities for founders building small, profitable SaaS products and info businesses without chasing venture scale. You will find discussion focused on idea validation, customer acquisition, and building sustainable revenue as a solo operator or small team.
: Reddit is the most common platform in this report (33% of 12 listings).
: 50% are free to join. The rest require payment, an application, or both.
: Among listings with public size data, the average is 94K members and the median is 1K. The median is usually the better signal for a typical group because a few large ones inflate the average.
: Forum is the most common (67%). Others that show up often include live chat, online/offline events, and paid community.
: Listings are submitted by community builders and researchers, reviewed for relevance, and updated with platform, feature, member, review, and traffic data where available.
: The full directory is on Hive Index's Micro Startups topic page, where you can filter by platform, size, features, and more.

Keep exploring

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All Micro Startups communities

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