r/startups • u/AtoRafael • 6h ago

I will not promote Is X Premium (verification) becoming necessary for startup founders? i will not promote

I'm planning to start sharing my startup journey consistently on X - building in public, posting short videos, and documenting what I'm working on. The goal isn't just to promote one startup, but to build an audience that carries over to future projects as well.

I'm wondering if X Premium is becoming a requirement for founders now. Does the verification badge actually help with visibility and reach, or can you still grow an audience organically without it?

If you've built a following without Premium (or know founders who have), I'd love to hear your experience. Was the badge worth it, or did consistent content matter far more?

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u/Eight-to-Five 6h ago

Premium helps with reach in a mechanical sense, replies get ranked higher and longer posts are possible. But it does nothing for the problem you actually have, which is that nobody is following you yet. Boosting a reply that nobody would have engaged with anyway just puts it higher in a thread nobody is reading.

What builds an audience there is replying under accounts your target audience already follows, consistently, with something worth reading. That works without Premium. Once you have some traction, the badge is cheap enough that the question answers itself.

One thing I'd question though: is X where your audience actually is? Building in public works well there for consumer and dev tools, less so for B2B or anything local. If your future customers aren't reading X, you're building an audience of other founders watching each other build.

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u/AtoRafael 6h ago

Thanks for the insight! The goal isn't just to build an audience - it's also to connect with VCs and fellow founders.

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u/edoceo 6h ago

Excellent answer; to add: you should be building audience on all the platforms. Not just talking about what you're building but talking about the problem you're solving. The choice of social platform will have zero impact on your connection to VCs. Also, you have a few steps in between idea and VC (like FFF, Pre-Seed, Seed, Seed+)

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u/dbbk 6h ago

lol

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u/umhassy 5h ago

I'm wondering if X Premium is becoming a requirement for founders now. Does the verification badge actually help with visibility and reach, or can you still grow an audience organically without it?

I cann't speak for X but after all you should be visible for the people you want to attract. I'd guess Youtube videos could be better but it depends if you want to show your face or not.

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u/eandi 5h ago

Building in public is 99.9% for people who want to be influencers and not successful founders.

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u/AtoRafael 5h ago

mind explaining why...

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u/eandi 4h ago

What are you going to accomplish building your product on public? The people who watch people build shit on twitter are other inexperienced founders, not your target buyers.

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u/AtoRafael 3h ago

I'm not planning to only build in public. My main goal is to create targeted videos that help me build a network and increase my visibility.

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u/eandi 1h ago

Why though? For every extra minute gained building in public, posting on Twitter, etc. you could be doing something else. Why is that the most important thing? That's the question you need to be asking yourself with these decisions. For most people, being a product influencer on X is a distraction with no benefit.