I stand by what I said -- it is a really good idea!

>It is a challenge as startups transition all the time in different ways - funding rounds, IPOs or the dreaded deadpool - and I'm trying to figure out the best way to represent it. At this time, I'm using a combination of manually vetting,

I think that it's noble that you'd take it upon yourself to do this task manually, but this task may turn out to be too time-consuming and unsustainable into the future -- you might wish to consider outsourcing it and/or automating it with AI and/or automating it via trusted users who are entrusted to perform those updates... or of course, you could just continue to do it yourself...

>to soliciting public feedback through "edit this profile" button and showcasing the latest state. Rather than deleting entities that are no longer startups, I tag them with statuses like Public, Acquired, Shut Down, etc., and surface that on the profile page.

I think that's a good idea! More information, more transparency, more historical auditability, more information in general!

>Long-term, I'd like this to behave more like a "historical record" of startups over time (dare say wikpedia for startups but presented differently?), not just a snapshot of "current startups". That way acquisitions, failures, and IPOs become first-class signals instead of reasons to delete data.

It sounds like you are well on your way! I fully support that! "Wikipedia for Startups" sounds great, and if I needed to give a VC an elevator pitch of what you do in 60 seconds, or heck, 10 seconds or less, I'd phrase it exactly that way... "Wikipedia for Startups" (sounds great and communicates quickly!) or "Wikipedia for Startups but presented differently" (as you said!) or maybe "Wikipedia for Startups but presented with our own custom enhancements!" (sounds even better and would make the party on the other end ever more curious about it!).

But yes, looks great in general, I saw you're taking job listings (great idea, will help you monetize for the long haul!), and I think you're on a great track! (and of course, the world does very much need a "Wikipedia for Startups", however it is presented! :-) )

(Also, don't forget that Joel Spolsky made million$ when one of his interns added job search to his blog and Stack Overflow -- so the job search is a great way of monetizing and sustaining your vision, long term!)

So, wishing you a lot of luck!

It's brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, I say!