We profile startups that apply to be profiled. We reach out to others, but the majority are from our queue of applications. If you know anyone at Qumulo, we'd love for them to apply at seattle.started.in/apply/.
Also, our site is not meant to be a repository, but more of an in depth look at each startup. We only profile 1 startup each week, so you are seeing the work of only 13 months.
Firstly, once someone closes the window, they don't see the pop-up for at least another 2 months. We hope this cuts down on the annoyance factor.
We are seeing pretty good engagement and tracking the numbers. Our bounce rate for July 3rd (the day we hit HN front page) was <0.3%. I mention this day specifically for a couple reasons:
1. We had significant traffic and sample size for that day
2. 92+% of our traffic was from new users (the only ones who would see the pop-up)
We've only been using the box for a couple of weeks and will keep monitoring the numbers and the comments.
We'll be launching a jobs board soon. The map will be on there. Also, each profile is tagged with a part of town (e.g. Downtown, South Lake Union, Bellevue, etc).
I'll take this into consideration as we make improvements to the site. Thanks for the feedback!