The proliferation of the internet across the world has been one of the biggest achievements of technology in the last two decades. The advent of internet technology gave many people a chance to display their talents for the world to see and take notice. However, like any good thing there is also another side to the coin, which in this case is the huge volume of talent on display.
What is it that famous apps like the group video mobile chatting app, Houseparty and the hugely popular $0 commission brokerage firm, Robinhood have in common? Both Houseparty and Robinhood launched their products on Product Hunt from where they got their initial traction; the kind of traction which resulted in funding from acclaimed investors. Product Hunt comes into the picture by giving deserving product creators a platform to display their wares.
Before we dive into the journey of Product Hunt, we need to understand what Product Hunt does primarily. Product Hunt is a website/platform which lets users share their own products and discover other products. Users can comment and vote (upvote and downvote) various products which they think are useful or not. A product with the most upvotes in a day reaches the top of the list for that day. Simply put, the more attractive and useful a product is, means the better the chance for it to be discovered by other users. Products are mainly classified and organized into four categories namely technology (web apps, mobile apps etc.,) games ( PC, mobile and web,) books and podcasts.
Product Hunt: The Beginning
Product Hunt was founded by Ryan Hoover in 2013 but initially Product Hunt was completely different than what it is right now. Before Product Hunt kicked off, Hoover was a Product Director at a gaming company named PlayHaven. Hoover was an active blogger and used to talk about tech products and answer questions from his audience about his thoughts on new things on TechCrunch, Hacker News, Redditt and Twitter. Product Hunt initially began as an email list using LinkyDink, a tool for creating an email digest.
Interested contributors submitted links of new products which would be included in the email newsletter and subscribers would receive the newsletters containing all the new products.
What began as a side project grew into Product Hunt. Hoover realised he had an excellent idea on his hands and one which would be helpful for everyone. Founders are using the platform (Product Hunt) as a launch pad, investors are using it as a scouting ground while tech enthusiasts are able to stay updated on new technology.
Once Ryan Hoover realised the potential for what Product Hunt could be, he reached out to his friend Nathan Bashaw for help with designing the original Product Hunt. The platform was designed over a Thanksgiving break and rolled out. Hoover and Bashaw tested the waters by seeking feedback from users about Product Hunt and also at the same time making them invested in the decision making process.
Five days after gaining feedback from initial users, the first Product Hunt beta was rolled out followed by gaining the first 30 users. Bugs were identified and corrected all the while collecting constant feedback and in a span of a week the users grew to 100. It was then that Product Hunt was publicly launched for the public. At that moment, Ryan Hoover however did not go for press publicity but instead worked on making Product Hunt as engaging as possible while retaining their users. Later a couple of strategically placed articles in the press worked wonders while reaffirming that Product Hunt was not just one of Hoover’s experiments.
Since the public launch, Hoover kept a keen eye on promising users and engaged with them and also collaborated with influencers in the tech space to promote Product Hunt. Twenty days after the public launch of Product Hunt, there were 2000 users on the platform.
Once Product Hunt started gaining traction, it was not long before venture capital firms came knocking on their doors.
AngelList Acquisition
Since Product Hunt began in 2013, there have been over 100 million product discoveries and 50,000 startups and makers introduced their product/service to the world on Product Hunt. AngelList is a U.S. website for startups, angel investors, and job seekers looking to work at startups. AngelList also helps startups with their challenges in fundraising and talent. Ryan Hoover used to browse AngelList to search for different startups that have been springing up.
Ryan Hoover and AngelList founder Naval Ravikant decided to meet and discuss Product Hunt after Naval reached out to Hoover over a text message. The meeting took place six months after Product Hunt was rolled out publicly. Ryan Hoover initially had a fear that AngelList might be a competitor to Product Hunt, as investors were using the platform to scout for promising startups. While Product Hunt’s focus was product discovery, Hoover took his time to learn about Naval’s vision for AngelList following which his fears were assuaged. It was then that Naval offered to invest in Product Hunt. Although the news was not publicly announced, both Product Hunt and AngelList have announced the acquisition on their company blog sites. AngelList had this to say about Product Hunt on their blog “Product Hunt will remain independent. It will maintain its playful, empathic and curious attitude (sic.)” AngelList acquired Product Hunt in November, 2016.
Today Product Hunt is used by product and app developers worldwide to display their creations in order to be launched or in the hopes of attracting investors. Stay tuned to Startup Stories to learn more about the revenue models of Product Hunt in the next article.
