Your Startup Won’t Scale Until You Close the Validation Gap

Today, you can nomad your way around the world, living in homes owned and cared for by individuals/families looking to make passive income thanks to Airbnb. The company’s product-market fit seems so obvious now but, once upon a time, multiple investors shrugged the idea off, insisting that “no one would want to stay in a stranger’s home.”

Or take Netflix. The streaming giant once begged Blockbuster to buy them for $50 million. Blockbuster laughed them out of the room. Fast-forward a decade, and Netflix became the company that disrupted Blockbuster into extinction.

If there’s a pattern in these stories, it’s that being ignored is often the first chapter in a startup’s story. So don’t beat yourself up for being overlooked at first. However, eventually, the right people must discover and champion your cause if you’re going to scale.

Why do Good Startups Get Ignored?

Short answer: The Validation Gap

This is the space between a Startup having a viable product and the outside world (investors, customers, press, or partners) believing it’s viable.

You know your startup lives in this space when:

• You have early traction, but no one outside your bubble knows or cares.
• The customers you’ve painstakingly acquired love you, but investors aren’t buying it.
• You’re “real” to you and your users, but “invisible” to the broader market.

I can hazard a guess as to what your next question is:

Why does the validation gap exist?

• It’s a very Noisy World: Ideas come to us all, and thousands of founders turn them into startups every month. Without strong validation, yours may never rise above the noise.
• Lack of backing from a trustworthy third party: Most investors won’t care about your product/service until other trustworthy people or establishments tell them that they need to.
• Thin Digital Footprint: This is self-explanatory. If you’re not publishing stories, data, or insights, you simply don’t exist online.
• Weak storytelling: Metrics are great, but a narrative that communicates momentum and credibility is even better.

The Validation Gap is a tricky, sunken place.

But it’s not a death sentence for your business. Here’s how to close it.

How to Close the Validation Gap

1. Consistently Publish Your Story (Somewhere People Will Actually Read it)

Your company blog is a great start. But, if we’re being honest, most of the time, only your employees and a handful of early customers actually read it. To really put yourself out there, you need to publish where a large, tech-curious audience already hangs out.

There are plenty of platforms out there, but with over 4 million monthly readers and a constantly updated library of tech-focused insights, HackerNoon is one of the best places to share your story with the world.

2. Collect Third-Party Validation Like Infinity Stones

Validation creates a flywheel: once one respected outlet, award, or community signals your value, others follow. Apply for awards. Enter contests. Even small recognitions are powerful credibility boosts. This is something we understand all too well. The latest edition of our Startups award, Startups of The Year 2024, recorded over 4.3 million votes to crown top startups in over 100 industries and regions.

One of our Startups of The Year, Spacecoin, took things a step further by partnering with HackerNoon to launch the inaugural Spacecoin Writing Contest, which has since then brought in hundreds of stories from writers who interacted with the company enough to write about it.

Influencer marketing Startups like ViralMango also demonstrate this principle well. They built traction by amplifying authentic creator voices across multiple networks, letting others validate them publicly. It’s a reminder that credibility spreads faster when it’s shared by communities, not just self-declared by founders.

3. Be Loud About Every Milestone & Expand Your Distribution

Some founders bury their best traction in pitch decks. Don’t. Every milestone—first 100 users, first paying customers, product launch, R&D breakthroughs, everything—is a story worth telling. And you need to tell it everywhere you can.

Publish consistently, then repurpose for different audiences: turn an article into a video essay for YouTube, break it down into bite-sized posts for text-first platforms like X, or adapt it into visuals for Instagram and LinkedIn. The more formats you use, the further your story travels.

Do it all with HackerNoon

The Validation Gap is where most good startups stumble. That’s why we created a special Business Blogging package for startups, designed to help you share your story with a dedicated audience of technologists, investors, and builders who care.

Here’s what you get:

• Backlinks to your website (yes, including CTAs)

• A personalized Tech Company News Page featuring your logo, intro, call-to-action, and socials. Take a look at the Accredify company page for an idea of what to expect.

• Full editorial support to make your story shine

• Multiple permanent placements on HackerNoon and social media promotions

• Stories converted into audio format and distributed via audio RSS feeds

• Automatic translation into 12 languages for global reach

• Your brand also gains domain authority and SEO via canonical links, and the story is distributed across 8 different relevant keyword/tagged pages for better organic discoverability.