Atta Ur Rehman Shah
@attacomsian
Built StartupBase (9 years, 10K listings) and Dethrone, the pay-to-rank feature for startups.
Last updated · Content reviewed
Atta Ur Rehman Shah is a solo founder and software engineer from Pakistan who runs Fore Studio, his own product studio. He built StartupBase, a platform for launching and discovering products, in 2017. Over nine years it grew to nearly 10,000 listings and 13,500+ users. In 2026 he rebuilt it as StartupBase 2, adding AI-assisted submissions, weekly rankings, and Dethrone - a pay-to-rank feature where users bid to hold the number one spot. His personal site has 561 published articles, all written by him.
Our take
Atta is interesting because he took the opposite path from the Outbid.lol copycats. Instead of cloning the mechanic on a new domain, he embedded a pay-to-rank feature (Dethrone) into a platform that already had nine years of listings and users. That is a meaningful difference: Dethrone has context, not just bids.
By the numbers
Boards tracked
1
Combined revenue
$1,080
Top bid
$100
StartupBase listings
10K+
StartupBase users
13.5K+
Articles published
561
Boards on this directory
From tutorials to products
Atta started publishing programming tutorials on his personal site in 2018. The archive is 561 articles deep, covering Java, JavaScript, Node.js, and Spring Boot. He transitioned from freelancing through Fore Studio to building his own products, stopping client work to focus entirely on shipping.
StartupBase and its nine-year run
He launched StartupBase in 2017 as a simple product directory. It grew to nearly 10,000 listings and 13,500 users organically. In 2026 he rebuilt it from scratch as StartupBase 2, adding richer product pages, AI-assisted listing creation, daily and weekly rankings, reviews, and a blog.
Dethrone - pay-to-rank inside a real directory
Dethrone is StartupBase's pay-to-rank feature: pay to displace whoever holds the number one spot. Unlike standalone .lol boards, Dethrone sits inside a platform with years of listings and established traffic. The mechanic is the same; the context is not.
Frequently asked questions
- Who built StartupBase?
- Atta Ur Rehman Shah, a solo founder and software engineer from Pakistan. He launched StartupBase in 2017 and rebuilt it as StartupBase 2 in 2026.
- What is Dethrone?
- Dethrone is a pay-to-rank feature inside StartupBase where users bid to hold the number one spot on the launch rankings. Unlike standalone pay-to-rank boards, it sits inside a platform with nine years of listings.
- What is Fore Studio?
- Atta's product studio, which he transitioned from client work to self-owned products. It runs StartupBase, AcquireBase, and several other tools.