r/ExperiencedFounders: rules, karma requirements and posting culture

Who posts here

The rules set the bar at three years as a founder and ban questions a search would answer, so threads assume you know what a seed round, a term sheet or due diligence is. First-time founders are asked to keep to the weekly thread, and the submit page sends beginner questions to r/Entrepreneur and r/startups.

• Founders who have run a company for a few years and want to talk to peers who have too.
• Founders raising money or talking to investors, asking people who have done it.
• Students and researchers looking for founders to interview. The rules ask them to get the moderators' approval first.

Karma and account requirements

What it takes to get a post through in r/ExperiencedFounders.

What you can post

What happens to a new post

Where the most recent posts ended up. Sample size: 280.

• Stayed up88%
• Removed by Reddit's filters10%
• Deleted by the author3%

Reddit counts a removal by the subreddit's own AutoModerator rules as a moderator removal, so that share is not all human. Held by AutoModerator means the post is waiting in the mod queue.

The rules, in the mods' words

1. 1

   Do not participate unless experienced (3+ years)

   If you have less than 3 years of experience as a founder, do not make a post, nor participate in comments threads except for the weekly “Ask Experienced Founders” auto-thread. No exceptions.

2. 2

   No General Business Advice

   This sub is for discussing issues specific to experienced founders. Any business advice thread must contain questions and/or discussions that notably benefit from the participation of experienced founders. Business advice threads may be removed at the moderator's discretion based on responses to the thread.

3. 3

   No Low Effort Posts/Venting/Bragging

   No Low Effort Posts, Excessive Venting, or Bragging. Using this subreddit to crowd-source answers to something that isn't really contributing to the spirit of this subreddit is forbidden at the moderator's discretion. This includes posts that are mostly focused on venting or bragging; both of these types of posts are difficult to moderate and don't contribute much to the subreddit.

4. 4

   No Surveys/Advertisements

   If you think this shouldn't apply to you, get approval from moderators first.

5. 5

   No Google-able questions

   Example: "Which website builder should I use, What books on start-ups should I read, How do I get my first customer". Most of these are trivially searchable on Google or other subreddits. If you must post something like this, please frame it in a larger discussion - what are you trying to accomplish, what have you already considered - don't just crowd-source out something you want to know.

These are the rules as archived in January 2025. Rules change. Check the sidebar before you post.

The culture

r/ExperiencedFounders has been around since December 2022 and has about 10,000 members. It is quiet: under one new post a day, and a typical post gets two comments. About 88% of posts in our sample stayed up. Most of the rest, about 10%, were taken down by Reddit's own spam filters before anyone saw them, and no post in our sample was removed by a moderator.

About 70% of posts are text. The typical one runs to about 155 words and sets out the situation before it asks anything, and about a third of titles are questions. Replies are short, around 33 words.

The rules draw one line, and it is experience. Anyone with under three years as a founder is asked to stay out of the main feed and use the weekly thread. The submit page sends beginner questions to r/Entrepreneur and r/startups and progress updates to r/EntrepreneurRideAlong, so a post that reads like it came from someone in their first year is out of place.

What lands

• Questions that only someone who has been through it can answer: raising after the first round, selling the company, hiring senior people, handing off work you have always done yourself. That is the test the rules set.
• Posts that give context first: years in business, team size, revenue or stage, and what you have already tried.
• A question a search could answer, turned into a real discussion. The rules ask you to frame it around what you are trying to accomplish instead of asking it bare.

What gets removed or ignored

• Posts from founders with under three years of experience. The rules ask them to comment only in the weekly Ask Experienced Founders thread, and the submit page says their posts will be removed.
• General business advice that does not need experienced founders to answer it.
• Questions a search would answer, like which website builder to use or which startup books to read.
• Low effort posts, venting and bragging.
• Surveys and advertisements the moderators have not approved first.

The unwritten rules

• Lead with how long you have been at it and what the business does. The rules turn on experience, so say yours up front.
• Write it out. The typical post is about 155 words and the typical title about 12, and a one-line question reads like it belongs somewhere else.
• Keep links out of comments. Only about 5% of comments carry one, so a reply that points to your own site stands out.
• Expect a couple of replies, not a crowd. A typical post gets two comments, so ask something specific enough to answer in one.

Self-promotion

The rules ban surveys and advertisements unless the moderators approve them first. There is no ratio or self-promotion allowance beyond that, so a post that asks a question and then pitches your product counts as an advertisement. If you want to talk about your company, message the moderators before you post.

How people write here

Typical post length

155 words

Typical title length

12 words

Titles phrased as a question

30%

Typical comment length

33 words

Comments that include a link

5%

Posts that carry a flair

0%

Common questions