Domain verification

Anyone can type a company's name into a form. Without a check, someone could list a startup they have nothing to do with. Domain verification makes sure the person publishing a listing controls the website it points to.

The editor's Ownership section shows the domain and offers these ways:

• Email code. Enter an address on the domain, such as ravi@acme.co.in. A six-digit code is sent to it; enter the code to verify. If your account's own confirmed email is already on the domain, it verifies at once with no code.
• Tag on the website. Add <meta name="ventmark-verification" content="<token>"> to the <head> of the domain's home page, such as https://acme.co.in/, then click Check website. Site builders have a place for this: custom code or head code in the site settings (Framer, Webflow, Wix), a header-code plugin in WordPress. It must be in the page as the server sends it, not added later by a script.
• File on the website. Or serve a plain text file at https://acme.co.in/.well-known/ventmark-verification.txt containing ventmark-verify=<token>.
• DNS record. Add a TXT record named _ventmark.acme.co.in with the value ventmark-verify=<token>, using the token shown in the editor, then click Check record. Most DNS providers want just _ventmark as the name and add the domain themselves. The editor has a copy of the instructions to send whoever manages your DNS.
• Support. A page on someone else's platform, such as an app-store listing, a profile or a repository, can't carry any of these. Write to hello@useventmark.com and support will check by other means and keep a note of how. We usually reply within 2 working days.

You don't have to wait on the page. A pending record, tag or file is checked again on its own for seven days, and you get an email when it's found. When we load your website for the check, we fetch only the home page and that one file, over https, as VentmarkVerifier.

The check is tied to the registrable domain: acme.co.in for https://app.acme.co.in/pricing. So:

• Changing the subdomain or path keeps it. Moving from acme.co.in to app.acme.co.in/start needs nothing new.
• Another domain needs its own verification.
• A website on a hosting platform's address, such as acme.vercel.app or acme.github.io, is verified by the tag or the file for that address alone: the platform owns the domain. Another page on the same address keeps it.
• A live listing can't move to a domain that isn't verified. Unpublish, change the website, verify, then republish.
• Listings published before 19 October 2026 stay up and are asked to verify the next time they are republished.

It proves that the person who published the listing could read email at the domain, publish on its website or change its DNS, or satisfied support by another route, at the time they verified.

It does not prove:

• that the details in the listing are true;
• who the founder is, or that the company is registered;
• any revenue, user or growth figure;
• that the startup is for sale at a fair price.

Revenue is a separate check, based on payment data. See what verified revenue means.