SocialCrawl

What makes it different

SocialCrawl gives developers access to live, clean public web data through a single API — like Plaid for platform data — covering 44+ platforms and 325 endpoints with one standardized format, one API key and one billing system. It's built for AI agents and enterprises that need reliable social, news and e-commerce data.

Founder Selene Lee spent nine years in academia, completing a PhD in neuroscience at Oxford in 2023, before leaving research in 2025. SocialCrawl is her fifth product after four failed AI consumer apps — and it's making about $12.5K a month on a usage-based model where credits never expire. She co-founded it with Oscar Lee, an AI PhD researcher.

Selene built her distribution before launch: posting on X every day from 3 followers to 2,200+, building in public so the audience knew the product — and its creator — on day one. Her WhatsApp founder communities brought hundreds of sign-ups on launch day.

The playbook, in their own words

• Built the first version in 2 weeks; first paying customer within 48 hours of launch — charged from day one source ↗
• 5th product after 4 failed AI consumer apps; founded Ridio in 2024, left academia summer 2025 source ↗
• Started her X account with 3 followers and posted every day; now 2,200+ followers — built in public so launch day arrived with a warm audience source ↗
• Usage-based model, credits never expire: revenue accelerated when Growth customers upgraded to Pro; now onboarding enterprise clients source ↗