Rules & FAQ

Pick a country on the globe, paste your product address (or your social profile) and stake. Each country has a board: the product with the highest total of active stakes is #1 and colors the country in its brand color, with its name on the globe. A stake stays active for 24 h.

You must beat the #1 by at least 10% (and at least $1). Example: if the #1 totals $20, you need $22. What your product already staked in that country counts: you only pay the difference. The exact amount is shown before payment.

Your product joins the country board at its rank, visible in the country panel. If the #1 expires before you, or you add another stake, you can move ahead.

24 hours from payment. Each stake has its own timer: a product’s total drops as its stakes expire.

The first 100 claims of an empty country are free, for 24 h. Limit: once per product and once per visitor. Anyone can then outbid you.

Payments go through Stripe Checkout. Startupia never sees your card number. Stripe e-mails you a receipt.

A stake buys a place on the board for 24 h, not a guaranteed #1: being outbid does not give a refund. You get a full refund, to the card used, in two cases: a duplicate payment, or a technical error that kept your startup off the globe. A startup removed for breaking the rules is not refunded. Write to us within 14 days from the contact page.

It fills the countries where your startup is #1 and outlines your name on the globe. You pick it with your first stake; after that, only the owner (the e-mail that paid) can change it from “My startups”.

The ✓ proves the startup controls its website: its owner added a meta tag or a DNS TXT record shown on its page. Nobody can pose as a known brand with a verified badge.

Yes, if you gave an e-mail with your stake: you get a message with the amount needed to take #1 back (6 e-mails a day at most, unsubscribe link in each one).

It measures its track record on Startupia: 1 XP per dollar staked (free offer excluded), 50 XP per country where it was #1 and 5 XP per day spent at #1.

Yes: each startup page gives an embeddable badge (a live SVG image, for example “#1 in France”).

Startups, SaaS, apps, tools, shops, creators, open-source projects… Not accepted: adult content, gambling, scams, pirated software, weapons, drugs, hate, and anything illegal. Non-compliant products are removed without refund.

Aim for free countries (ivory on the globe): the minimum stake is enough to be #1 there. Big countries and those in your market are usually more contested.

Links are marked rel="sponsored", as search engines require. The value is visibility and clicks, not SEO.

Change the color from “My startups” (sign-in by e-mail link). For anything else, write to us from the contact page with the website address and the e-mail used for payment.