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Product Hunt

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Product Hunt
Screenshot
Product Hunt homepage on April 18, 2019
Type of site
Product sharing
Available inEnglish
Founder(s)Ryan Hoover
CEORajiv Ayyangar
URLwww.producthunt.com
RegistrationOptional (required to vote)
LaunchedNovember 6, 2013
Current statusOnline
Native client(s) oniOS, Android, macOS, Google Chrome

Product Hunt is an American website to share and discover new products. It was founded by Ryan Hoover in November 2013.

Users submit products, which are listed in a linear format by day. The site includes a comments system and a voting system similar to Hacker News or Reddit. The products with the most votes rise to the top of each day's list.

Products are organized into four categories; technology products (web apps, mobile apps, hardware products, etc.), games (PC, web, mobile apps), books and podcasts. A submission simply requires a product title, URL, and tagline. As of 2016, according to Hoover, the website has led to the discovery of over 100 million products across 50,000 companies.[1]

The site also includes a daily email list that sends out yesterday's top tech "hunts" (products) as well as a featured collection. A version of the digest is also available for games and books.

Product Hunt is also available as an iOS app, macOS app, an Android app, and Google Chrome extension. The company's headquarters is in San Francisco.[2]

The site received funding from Y Combinator.

History

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2013

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Product Hunt launched on November 6, 2013, when it began as an email list[3] built using Linkydink.[4] The first version of the website was developed by Nathan Bashaw and Ryan Hoover over the Thanksgiving break in 2013.[5] On July 17, 2014, the company announced its Y Combinator backing.[6][7]

2014

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In Fall 2014, the company announced it would receive $6.1 million in Series A funding led by Andreessen Horowitz.[8][9][1]

2015

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On February 5, 2015, the company won the "Best New Startup" of 2014 Crunchie Award, an annual award given out by TechCrunch.[10]

In September 2015, the company added a podcast section to the site. However, in 2016, they put an end to it, stating that it would "distract from our main mission" of surfacing great products.[11]

In December 2015, the company launched an iPhone app.[2]

2016

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In November 2016, AngelList acquired Product Hunt for $20 million.[12][13]

2017

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In September 2017, Product Hunt launched "Ship", which is a suite of tools for makers to generate and capture demand for their products.[14]

2018

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In February 2018, Product Hunt released a new tech news aggregator app called "Sip."[15][16] Sip was shut down in 2019.[17]

2019

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In July 2019, the company launched "Launch Day" to help users monitor their entire launch in real time.

2020

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In October 2020, the company announced Josh Buckley, angel investor and founder of Mino Games, as its new CEO.[18]

2021

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In August 2021, the company announced Ashley Higgins, former GM, as its new CEO.[19]

2023

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In September 2023, the company announced Rajiv Ayyangar, former Tandem founder, as its new CEO.[20]

Shortly thereafter, the company laid off 60% of the team.[21]

References

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  1. ^ a b Konrad, Alex. "AngelList Acquires Popular Tech Discovery Site Product Hunt To Go After Startup Jobs Search". Forbes. Retrieved 2019-03-16.
  2. ^ a b Pierce, David (2015-12-10). "Product Hunt Is Tech's New Tastemaker, and It Has Big Plans". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2019-03-16.
  3. ^ Klein, Laura; Rutter, Kate (1 November 2016). Build Better Products: A Modern Approach to Building Successful User-Centered Products. Rosenfeld Media. p. 265. ISBN 978-1933820583.
  4. ^ Kia Kokalitcheva (2014-07-17). "Product Hunt's rise: From email experiment to launchpad for startups & VC deals". VentureBeat. Retrieved 2014-07-17.
  5. ^ Bashaw, Nathan (2014-06-25). "The Origin of Product Hunt". Let’s Make Things. Retrieved 2018-04-30.
  6. ^ Ryan Hoover (2014-07-17). "YC + PH". Archived from the original on 2014-07-20. Retrieved 2014-07-17.
  7. ^ Romain Dillet (4 June 2014). "Product Hunt Is The Social News Site Of Tech Products Read By Influential People". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2014-07-17.
  8. ^ Steven Tweedie (2014-10-08). "After Becoming A Must-Read For The Tech World In Less Than 12 Months, Product Hunt Is Getting $6.1 Million In Funding". Business Insider. Retrieved 2015-02-20.
  9. ^ Basich, Zoran (2014-10-08). "Andreessen Horowitz Backs Expansion Plans For Hot Tech Site Product Hunt". Wall Street Journal. "Wall Street Journal" owned by "News Corp".
  10. ^ Sarah Perez (2015-02-05). "Product Hunt Wins Best New Startup Of 2014". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2015-02-20.
  11. ^ "Why can't I post a podcast anymore?". Retrieved 11 January 2018.
  12. ^ Coren, Michael (2016-12-01). "Product Hunt was acquired and venture capital may never be the same again". Quartz. "Quartz" owned by "Atlantic Media".
  13. ^ Kokalitcheva, Kia (2016-12-01). "AngelList Acquires Product Hunt to Form a Startup Discovery Powerhouse". Fortune. "Fortune" owned by "Time Inc. (Meredith Corporation)".
  14. ^ "Product Hunt wants to help you ship your product with its new product Ship – TechCrunch". techcrunch.com. 14 September 2017. Retrieved 2018-06-03.
  15. ^ "Product Hunt has a news app called Sip (and it's a bit like Twitter Moments)". 2018-06-01. Retrieved 2018-06-01.
  16. ^ "Product Hunt launches no-spam tech news digest app Sip". 2018-06-01. Retrieved 2018-06-01.
  17. ^ "Sunsetting Sip: A Post Mortem". Product Hunt. 16 July 2019. Retrieved 2020-09-15.
  18. ^ "Product Hunt's New CEO: Josh Buckley". Product Hunt. 22 October 2020. Retrieved 2020-10-22.
  19. ^ "Ashley Higgins: Product Hunt's new CEO". 3 August 2021.
  20. ^ "Product Hunt maker, now CEO". 18 September 2023.
  21. ^ Perez, Sarah (2023-10-19). "Product Hunt cleans house with layoffs impacting 66.6% of staff". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2023-10-20.
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