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Any reason you don’t want to take a crack at building another product hunt? You’ve identified the problem, you have opinions and clearly care about this stuff. What’s holding you back?
The better conclusion (supported by the CEO's response in this thread) is that there may not be a clear reason for Product Hunt-type site to exist in 2024.
Any "Ranking of X" or "Curated List of Y" becomes useless and untrustworthy as soon as a cottage industry springs up around it where people can pay to boost their ranking or get on the lists. SEO, Amazon ratings, YouTube recommendations, even meatspace things like college rankings. This seems like The Big Problem that recommendation / discovery sites have been failing to solve for decades.
Any reason you don’t want to take a crack at building another product hunt? You’ve identified the problem, you have opinions and clearly care about this stuff. What’s holding you back?
"Let's see you do better" isn't a counterargument. The better conclusion (supported by the CEO's response in this thread) is that there may not be a clear reason for Product Hunt-type site to exist in 2024.
(I'm the CEO of Product Hunt) This isn't far off the mark, but I do want to push back on two things. One: "VC backed companies have the funds to be able to boost their launch on PH to guarantee their launch will be in the top 5." - absolutely not. We do not tolerate paying for votes or other means of artificially boosting score. Two: "its going to be a lot harder for you, the side hustler, the soloprenuer, the full t…
(I'm the CEO of Product Hunt) This isn't far off the mark, but I do want to push back on two things. One: "VC backed companies have the funds to be able to boost their launch on PH to guarantee their launch will be in the top 5." - absolutely not. We do not tolerate paying for votes or other means of artificially boosting score. Two: "its going to be a lot harder for you, the side hustler, the soloprenuer, the full t…
This post is certainly being critical, but I'm also not here to bring the hammer down. I am saying that it has grown very popular, and that makes it harder to get noticed. I know more than a few people have publicly complained on twitter about how their startup listing has been removed or bumped.
I also know there are a lot of scammers out there that PH has to battle against, trying to game the system. I know the people at G2.com when they started and were giving away free ipads for the top people with the most software reviews in a month, and someone tried to jump ahead by downvoting all the reviews of the people ahead of them in a month.
Clearly though expectations have changed. I'm certainly bummed for the 60% of the staff who were laid off. You can't just share your startup without some serious work beforehand or else you risk blowing your shot at 15 minutes of startup internet fame.
My point is not that PH is dying or not, but the game has changed and it has hurt makers who do this for the hope of making a full time living, and we're being crowded out by VC funded startups and previous PH launchers who have had past success (i.e. Tallyforms) that are "relaunching" and sucking up the little amount of attention available on PH. It's frustrating.
(I'm the CEO of Product Hunt) This isn't far off the mark, but I do want to push back on two things. One: "VC backed companies have the funds to be able to boost their launch on PH to guarantee their launch will be in the top 5." - absolutely not. We do not tolerate paying for votes or other means of artificially boosting score. Two: "its going to be a lot harder for you, the side hustler, the soloprenuer, the full t…
Compare that to our HN post requiring no additional lift, which resulted in ~10k unique visitors, no bots, and great critical feedback we couldn’t get anywhere else.
I do want an authentic PH! But it feels like a vanity landing page in its current state.
Key points: 1. There are many to launch but most of the sites don’t have the community or credibility that PH seems to have lost. 2. If you want what PH was 3-4 years ago you have to go somewhere else. 3. If you want to build the new Product Hunt you can’t just create a site where people can submit their product and launch. You need affordances that cultivate community. 4. Once you get traction you should expect some…
The point of marketing is to get your product in front of customers, not to get it front of members of a community of deadbeat marketers who think they’re doing their job when they get their product in front of non-customers. If your product is “one weird trick” to get your product on the top of Product Hunt that’s appropriate for Product Hunt, but that’s about it.
(I'm the CEO of Product Hunt) This isn't far off the mark, but I do want to push back on two things. One: "VC backed companies have the funds to be able to boost their launch on PH to guarantee their launch will be in the top 5." - absolutely not. We do not tolerate paying for votes or other means of artificially boosting score. Two: "its going to be a lot harder for you, the side hustler, the soloprenuer, the full t…