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Question 1
I’m Thijs, a software engineer and builder from the Netherlands. I like working on problems where data and distribution come together. The things I’m drawn to usually have one thing in common: they help people understand something that is currently unclear. That can be website authority, startup traction, revenue, backlink quality, or whether a product is actually worth paying attention to. I like building practical tools that turn messy signals into something people can act on.
Question 2
Right now I’m mostly focused on VerifiedDR. VerifiedDR helps founders understand and grow their website authority. It tracks Domain Rating, introduces TrueDR as a more realistic authority score, and helps users find high-impact opportunities like partnerships, backlinks and authority fixes. I’m also working on related projects around founder visibility and distribution. AgentMRR is a leaderboard for agentic startups with verified revenue. AgentReacher is an AI social scheduling tool. They are different products, but the common theme is similar: helping builders get discovered, prove credibility, and grow distribution.
Question 3
With VerifiedDR I had the opportunity to acquire this domain while it was already getting 3k visitors per month with a DR of 42. I knew I could scale a project with existing demand and optimize its conversion for higher MRR. In terms of the product itself: People talk about DR as if it's the holy grail. It's absolutely not and VerifiedDR proves this in a very meta-like way. At the moment we have hundreds of websites with a super high DR than almost do zero traffic, meaning zero conversions. On the other hand we have niche websites with low DR, but they pull a ton of traffic from a few high quality backlinks. There is huge discrepancy between DR and actual authority. The result of this is a new metric called TrueDR, which actually is a good proxy of a website's authority score as it considers the right kind of variables such as traffic, backlink quality, domain age and a whole lot of other trust signals that discount spammy backlinks and boosts authorative sources.
Question 4
I used to think the product value was mostly in the data itself. Now I think the real value is in translating the data into outcomes. Users want to know what to do next, why it matters, and whether it is working. With VerifiedDR, that changed how I think about the product. Tracking DR or TrueDR is useful, but the bigger opportunity is helping people increase authority: which partnerships to pursue, which backlinks are worth getting, which pages or trust signals are holding them back, and how to prove progress.
Question 5
One moment was when websites started coming to me specifically because of the partnership feature. That told me VerifiedDR was not just being seen as a score or leaderboard. People were starting to understand it as a way to create actual growth opportunities between websites. Another signal was seeing users care about the difference between DR and TrueDR. When people started asking why a site had high DR but lower TrueDR, it showed that the core idea was landing: not all authority is equal, and people want a better way to understand quality.
Question 6
The main thing I’m working through is positioning. VerifiedDR already has a lot of useful pieces: DR tracking, TrueDR, website verification, partnerships, backlinks, authority recommendations, and Agent Workflows for actionable SEO / GEO / AEO outcomes. The challenge is making the value instantly clear without making the product feel too broad. I’m also thinking through how much should be self-serve software versus a more outcome-driven product. Users want authority growth, not just analytics, so I’m figuring out how far VerifiedDR should go in actually helping them get results. The blocker is not a lack of ideas. It is deciding what to make obvious first.
Question 7
Do not confuse building features with creating value. It is easy to keep adding things because it feels like progress. But users usually care about a very specific outcome. They want more customers, more traffic, more trust, more sales, or less work. The earlier you can connect your product to a clear outcome, the better. A simple product that solves a painful problem clearly is better than a complex product people have to study before they understand why it matters. Also, distribution matters earlier than you think. Building is only half the work. Getting people to understand, trust, and repeatedly use what you built is the other half.