Marc Köhlbrugge

Serial maker behind BetaList, WIP and Startup Jobs, shipping online for 20+ years

@marckohlbrugge Portugal89K followersDirectory Makers Community Builders AI Builders SaaS Founders

About Marc Köhlbrugge

Marc Köhlbrugge is a Dutch serial maker, originally from the Netherlands and now living in Portugal, who has been building things on the internet for more than two decades, going back to early projects like PimpMyMSN for MSN Messenger. He is best known for BetaList, the startup discovery platform he bootstrapped around 2010 that helps early-stage founders get their first users and gives early adopters a look at upcoming products.

He later turned a Telegram group chat of makers into WIP, a social network and accountability community where makers log their daily todos and help each other ship. He also runs Startup Jobs, a job board for startups, and owns buildinpublic.com, reflecting his long association with the build-in-public movement.

Marc ships new products constantly — from AI tools like Room AI and Yay to niche utilities such as Handle Horse, Submit.co, Domain Book and Trademarc. A handful have been sold, including PR.co, Story AI and Tweet Photo, which he wrote openly about selling for $30,000. He builds most products himself with Ruby on Rails and shares the process almost daily on X.

Products by Marc Köhlbrugge

BetaList

betalist.com

Startup discovery platform where early-stage startups get their first users and early adopters find new products.

WIP

wip.co

Social network and accountability community for makers who log daily progress and ship together.

Startup Jobs

startup.jobs

Job board for startup jobs.

Room AI

roomai.com

Generates interior design ideas for your rooms with AI.

AI Jobs

aijobs.app

Job board for AI roles.

Submit.co

submit.co

Directory of places where you can submit your startup.

Domain Book

getdomainbook.com

Guide on how to get great domain names.

Yay

yay.camera

Take photos with AI filters.

Trademarc

trademarc.com

Daily trademark monitoring across app stores and registries.

Handle Horse

handle.horse

Notifies you when a desired X/Twitter handle becomes available.

Sessy

sessy.do

Open-source email observability for AWS SES.

Tweet Photo

tweet.photo

acquired

Automatically posted Instagram photos natively to Twitter; sold for $30,000.

PR.co

pr.co

acquired

Tool for creating press releases and newsrooms.

Story AI

storyai.cc

acquired

Generates AI stories.

Builds indie alternatives to:Product Hunt Indeed

Exit story

Tweet Photo

→ Kevin (maker of CreatorKit and Top Nine) · 2020

$30K

Tweet Photo earned little and was a small part of Marc's portfolio, and he had other priorities. He also saw platform risk because the product depended on Twitter and Facebook APIs.

by Marc Köhlbrugge

Marc Köhlbrugge's journey, 2010–20213 milestones · self-reported

First product
Exit
Launch / milestone
Started 2010

2010First product: Launched BetaList (originally at BetaLi.st) to showcase…
2020Exit: Sold Tweet Photo for $30K
2021Milestone: Hosted a Reddit AMA marking 11 years of bootstrapping…

Timeline

2010 — Launched BetaList (originally at BetaLi.st) to showcase upcoming startups.
2020 — Sold Tweet Photo for $30,000, half upfront and half tied to future revenue, and wrote about it publicly.
2021 — Hosted a Reddit AMA marking 11 years of bootstrapping BetaList alongside WIP and Startup Jobs.

How Marc builds

Ship often — many small launches teach you more than one big plan.
Build in public and let a community keep you accountable.
Great domain names are an underrated asset for small products.
Keep a simple, boring default stack so you can focus on shipping.
Help founders get their first users early, before launch day.

Learn from Marc Köhlbrugge

[community]

WIP

Paid community of makers who share daily progress and keep each other accountable.

by Marc Köhlbrugge

[book]

Domain Book

His guide to finding and acquiring great domain names.

by Marc Köhlbrugge

[template]

Tweet Photo got acquired

Behind-the-scenes post on building and selling a small side project.

by Marc Köhlbrugge

[podcast]

How BetaList is helping startups get their first users (Mixergy)

Interview with Andrew Warner about the early growth of BetaList.

by Marc Köhlbrugge

Marc Köhlbrugge FAQ

Who is Marc Köhlbrugge?

Marc Köhlbrugge is a Dutch serial maker living in Portugal who founded BetaList, WIP and Startup Jobs and has shipped dozens of other products over 20+ years.

What is BetaList?

BetaList is a startup discovery platform Marc launched around 2010 where early-stage startups can get their first users and early adopters can try new products.

What is WIP?

WIP (wip.co) is a social network and community for makers that grew out of a Telegram group, where members log their todos and progress to stay accountable while shipping.