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Curated list·31 startups·Updated 2026-06-12

Startups Launched in 2023

Every indie startup in our directory that launched in 2023 — a snapshot of what new founders shipped that year, across SaaS, AI, fintech, and developer tools.

At a glance

31
Matching startups
1
Pro listings
24
Unique founders
23
Solo / small teams

Top picks

  1. 1
    Pretzel

    Pretzel

    Productivity

    A modern, end-to-end-encrypted email client.

    Pretzel is a privacy-first email and calendar client for power users — built by a small indie team.

    founded 2023

  2. 2
    MagicSchool

    MagicSchool

    Education

    An AI platform for teachers.

    MagicSchool gives K-12 teachers 70+ AI tools for lesson planning, IEP writing, and assessments. Used in thousands of schools.

    founded 2023

  3. 3
    Helicone

    Helicone

    Developer Tools

    Observability for LLM applications.

    Helicone is an open-source LLM observability platform — logs, caching, and analytics for OpenAI and Anthropic apps.

    by Justin Torre · founded 2023

  4. 4
    Langfuse

    Langfuse

    Developer Tools

    Open-source LLM engineering platform.

    Langfuse provides traces, evals, and prompt management for LLM apps — fully open-source and used by thousands of indie AI builders.

    by Maximilian Deichmann · founded 2023

  5. 5
    Quivr

    Quivr

    AI / ML

    Open-source second brain.

    Quivr is an open-source, self-hostable second-brain tool powered by GenAI — Stan Girard's massively popular OSS project.

    by Stan Girard · founded 2023

Full ranking

  1. 6
    Magic Hour
    Magic Hour

    AI video generation for creators.

    AI / ML
  2. 7
    BoltAI
    BoltAI

    Native AI chat client for macOS.

    AI / ML
  3. 8
    Glif
    Glif

    Build AI mini-apps with no code.

    AI / ML
  4. 9
    Sweep
    Sweep

    AI-powered junior dev that fixes bugs.

    AI / ML
  5. 10
    Aptabase
    Aptabase

    Open-source, privacy-first analytics for apps.

    Developer Tools
  6. 11
    Tweetdeck Alternative — Spruce
    Tweetdeck Alternative — Spruce

    Modern social media scheduling.

    Marketing
  7. 12
    Doppler
    Doppler

    Faster screenshots and screen recordings on Mac.

    Productivity
  8. 13
    Magic Patterns
    Magic Patterns

    AI-powered design and prototyping for product teams.

    AI / ML
  9. 14
    Bruno
    Bruno

    Offline-only, git-friendly API client.

    Developer Tools
  10. 15
    Polar
    Polar

    Merchant of record for developers.

    Fintech
  11. 16
    Wisp
    Wisp

    A blog that grows your business.

    SaaS
  12. 17
    IndiePage
    IndiePage

    A profile page for indie makers.

    Marketing
  13. 18
    ShipFast
    ShipFast

    Launch your startup in days, not weeks.

    Developer Tools
  14. 19
    TypingMind
    TypingMind

    A better UI for ChatGPT, Claude & more.

    AI / ML
  15. 20
    Photo AI
    Photo AI

    Create AI photos of yourself in any scene.

    AI / ML
  16. 21
    Tabby
    Tabby

    Self-hosted AI coding assistant.

    Developer Tools
  17. 22
    shadcn/ui
    shadcn/ui

    Beautifully designed components you can copy and paste.

    Developer Tools
  18. 23
    Pickaxe
    Pickaxe

    No-code AI apps in minutes.

    AI / ML
  19. 24
    Granola
    Granola

    The AI notepad for meetings.

    AI / ML
  20. 25
    Aider
    Aider

    AI pair programming in your terminal.

    AI / ML
  21. 26
    Continue
    Continue

    The leading open-source AI code assistant.

    AI / ML
  22. 27
    Pika
    Pika

    The idea-to-video platform.

    AI / ML
  23. 28
    Vapi
    Vapi

    Voice AI for developers.

    AI / ML
  24. 29
    Mistral AI
    Mistral AI

    Frontier AI in your hands.

    AI / ML
  25. 30
    v0
    v0

    Generative UI from a text prompt.

    AI / ML
  26. 31
    Lovable
    LovablePro

    Turn your ideas into full-stack applications with AI

    AI / ML

Notable founders in this list

How we built this list

  • Founded in 2023 (based on founder-reported launch year).
  • Only active, live products — no pre-launch placeholders.
  • Spans every category we track.
  • Useful for retrospectives, trend analysis, and "what shipped this year".

Category mix in this list

17 AI / ML7 Developer Tools2 Productivity2 Marketing1 Education

Newest entrants

Frequently asked

How do you know when a startup launched?

Founders self-report their founding year when they submit to Startup Spotlight. We don't independently verify it, but it lines up with the directory listing date for the vast majority of submissions.

What counts as a "2023 startup"?

Any active startup whose founder reported 2023 as the founding year. This includes pre-revenue launches, soft launches, and full public launches — anything that was publicly buildable in 2023.

Get on this list

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See the full Productivity category → Productivity