A field guide to subreddit rules for founders

The single most common way founders get burned on Reddit is posting the same thing in five subreddits without reading a single sidebar. Each community sets its own rules, they vary wildly, and they change. What earns upvotes in one place gets you removed and banned in the next.

So before any list, the real skill is reading a subreddit’s rules quickly, because whatever I write here will drift, and the sidebar is always the source of truth. Treat everything below as a starting map, then go check the actual rules before you post.

How to read a subreddit’s rules in thirty seconds

Every subreddit tells you how it feels about promotion if you look. On desktop, the rules sit in the right sidebar and under a Rules tab. On mobile, tap the community name and open the about or rules section. Three things to scan for:

1. A rule that mentions promotion. Look for the words “self-promotion,” “promotion,” “advertising,” or a ratio like 9:1. If a rule bans it outright, believe them.
2. Stickied threads at the top. A pinned post named something like “Share Your Startup,” “Feedback Friday,” or “Self-Promo Saturday” is the community telling you exactly where promotion is allowed, and by implication, that it’s not allowed anywhere else.
3. Whether link posts are even permitted. Some subs allow text posts only. If you can’t post a link, that’s a strong hint about how they’ll react to a pitch.

Thirty seconds of this saves you from the most common permanent ban there is.

Tier 1: promotion is the whole point

These exist for exactly what you want to do. Traffic quality is usually lower than the founder communities, but they’re the safest place to post a product directly, and good for testing a pitch.

• r/shamelessplug. More or less anything goes, as long as you tag your post appropriately.
• r/SaaS_Promotions. For SaaS products, and last I checked posts are expected to include pricing. Direct announcements are the format, not the exception.
• r/roastmystartup. You’re inviting people to tear your product apart, which is the point. Best for honest landing-page, pricing, and concept feedback, if you can take it.

Tier 2: founders welcome, if you bring a story

This is where the good audience is. These communities like founder content, but only when it’s a real story with substance, not a bare link. The reliable formula is a launch or a milestone, with a metric or a lesson, ending in a genuine question.

• r/SaaS. More tolerant of product talk than most, but it draws a clear line. A name, a link, and a one-line pitch reads as spam. The same product wrapped in your numbers, a challenge you hit, or a specific question is welcome.
• r/SideProject. Built for showing what you’re making. Launch stories and works in progress do well here.
• r/microsaas and r/EntrepreneurRideAlong. Milestone posts are the native format. “Here’s what happened when I hit $1k MRR” lands; “check out my tool” doesn’t.
• r/indiehackers. Founder-friendly for launches and build-in-public updates, framed as sharing rather than selling.

The pattern across all four: end with a question or a request for feedback. It changes the post from an ad into a conversation, which is the entire difference.

Tier 3: discussion first, promotion only in the thread

Big, valuable communities that are strict about where promotion goes. You’re welcome to participate all you like. Promotion lives in a designated thread, or it gets removed.

• r/startups. Strict. Promotion belongs in the stickied “Share Your Startup” style thread, and posts pushing your product outside it get removed, sometimes with a ban. Read the pinned posts before anything else.
• r/Entrepreneur. Lighter moderation, but the community itself downvotes obvious promotion into the ground. Lead with a lesson, not a link.
• r/growmybusiness. Generally more tolerant of promotion when it’s framed as asking for business help rather than announcing a product. Check the current rules, since this one’s norms are looser and less documented.

Tier 4: treat these as read-only

The big general communities where your buyers hang out but self-promotion is unwelcome or outright banned. The move here isn’t to pitch. It’s to listen. Subreddits like the large marketing and small-business communities are excellent places to find people describing your problem and understand how they talk about it. Mine them for leads and language. Just don’t try to sell in them, because that’s a fast removal and it burns the account you’ll want later.

The rules that apply everywhere

Whatever tier you’re in, a few things never change, and I went deeper on them in the post about what actually gets you banned:

• Message the moderators before you post if you’re unsure. A one-line modmail is cheaper than a ban.
• Disclose that you built the thing. Every time.
• One thoughtful post beats five copy-pasted ones. The copy-paste is what the spam filter is watching for.

Picking the right subreddit matters less than most people think, and being a real member of it matters more. A mediocre post in the perfect subreddit still flops. A genuine, useful one in a decent-fit community does fine. The list above just helps you not waste the first attempt getting removed. The harder question, which communities are actually full of your buyers, is the one worth spending real time on.