Business Directory

A Business Directory is a collection of companies—such as agencies or consultants—providing professional services rather than software products. A prominent example is GoodFirms. These platforms often appear on “curated lists” of where to promote B2B SaaS, misleading founders into spending time on long submission forms only to be rejected because product companies are ineligible.

Business directories serve the professional services industry by helping potential clients find and vet agencies, consultants, and service providers. They typically feature detailed company profiles including case studies, client testimonials, team size, hourly rates, and project portfolios. The focus is on human expertise and project-based work delivery rather than software products.

While these platforms are valuable for service businesses, they create the same frustration for SaaS founders as B2B Marketplaces—discovering after completing lengthy applications that software products don't fit the platform's model. This parallel confusion across multiple platform types consistently wastes founder time and highlights the critical importance of verifying eligibility criteria before investing effort in submissions.

For software companies, the key is identifying directories specifically designed for product listings rather than service providers. Business Directories differ fundamentally from Company Directories in their purpose: Business Directories actively promote and market services to potential clients, while Company Directories provide business intelligence data for investors and analysts without any promotional intent.

This misalignment highlights the importance of understanding why SaaS companies should skip service platforms. The key indicators that a platform is a Business Directory include requirements for hourly rates, team size information, project portfolios, case studies of client work, and descriptions of service offerings rather than product features.

Software companies encountering these requirements should recognize they're on the wrong type of platform. Understanding the difference between service and software platforms can save hours of wasted effort. Business directories are designed for companies that deliver services through human labor, not technology products that users can purchase and use independently.

The confusion stems from how these platforms are often miscategorized on directory lists and in AI recommendations. Many “places to list your startup” compilations include Business Directories without clearly noting they're for service providers only. This leads to a frustrating cycle: founders find the platform on a recommended list, invest time in Submission, and only discover the mismatch when rejected.