I built a tool directory that doesn't pretend every founder has the same needs
The Problem I Saw
Every time a founder asked me "what CRM should I use?" I'd mentally run
through a checklist: Are they solo? Pre-seed? Series A? Because Pipedrive
at pre-seed is perfect. Pipedrive at Series A is a nightmare.
But all the tool directories (Product Hunt, G2, Capterra) ignore this.
They show you the "top CRM" globally—which is usually built for mid-market
teams with 200 people.
So I did the thing: built SoftRankings.
What It Is
A SaaS directory organized by company stage (Solo/Indie → Seed → Series A
→ Enterprise). Every product is scored across 6 dimensions:
- Complexity (can you get value in 30 min or does it take a week?)
- Pricing (is the pricing founder-friendly or enterprise-y?)
- Integrations (does it work with your other tools?)
- Team Size (is this for solo or for 50 people?)
- GTM Motion (self-serve or sales-led?)
- Adoption Pattern (bottom-up or org-wide rollout?)
Different stages weight these differently. Solo/Indie founders care most
about Complexity + Pricing. Series A cares about Integrations + Team Size.
Why This Matters
When you shop by stage first, you immediately eliminate 70% of the noise.
You see tools built for people like you, not hypothetically the "best" tool.
Current State
1,000+ products live. I score them manually with the SSIE engine (AI +
founder feedback). Founders can claim their product profile and see
analytics broken down by stage.
Launched Jan 1, 2026. Growing steadily.
What I'm Learning
Biggest surprise: Founders didn't realize stage-fit was the primary filter
they were looking for. They kept saying "just show me what pre-seed founders
use"—and that's now the core feature.
Next
Building out the dashboard so founders can see where their product actually
fits (not where they think it fits). That data is gold.
Would love feedback. Hit the site, check your stage, lmk if it's useful.
Why we built WhatsApp into our social API (and what was wrong with everything else)
Stage-fit is a really useful lens. I’d make the weighting model very visible on each product page, because that’s what turns this from another directory into something founders can actually trust.
Nicely done.
What I'd be careful with is that a reply can sometimes feel like validation while leaving the original question unresolved.
That's usually where things start getting interesting.
Because the visible outcome changes before it's clear what actually changed.
Love this approach! Treating company stage as the primary filter is such a game-changer compared to traditional directories. Finding a tool that matches your current complexity and budget limits saves so much trial-and-error time.
Interesting insight. Stage-fit seems more important than feature lists for early-stage teams.
Nice work! this is exactly the kind of product that would have saved me so much time early on.
I love that you treated stage as the primary filter instead of pretending one size fits all. The six dimensions feel thoughtful and practical, and weighting them by stage is a clear winner. Manual scoring plus founder feedback sounds like a great way to keep quality high while the AI learns.
Two quick suggestions:
Make the stage-weighting explanation super visible on product pages so founders immediately trust the recommendation.
Add a tiny “how founders like you actually use it” section with 2–3 real examples per stage to turn the abstract fit into concrete workflows.
Excited to see the dashboard analytics, that will be gold for both founders and founders of tools. I checked my stage and already found a few options I hadn’t considered. Keep it up.