Product Hunt is an American website to share and discover new products. It was founded by Ryan Hoover in November 2013. It is owned by AngelList.
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 2017, 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
2013
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
In Fall 2014, the company announced it would receive $6.1 million in Series A funding led by Andreessen Horowitz.[8][9][1]
2015
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
In November 2016, AngelList acquired Product Hunt for $20 million.[12][13]
2017
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
In February 2018, Product Hunt released a new tech news aggregator app called "Sip."[15][16] Sip was shut down in 2019.[17]
2019
In July 2019, the company launched "Launch Day" to help users monitor their entire launch in real time.
2020
In October 2020, the company announced Josh Buckley, angel investor and founder of Mino Games, as its new CEO.[18]
2021
In August 2021, the company announced Ashley Higgins, former GM, as its new CEO.[19]
2023
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]
External links
References
- Alex Konrad. AngelList Acquires Popular Tech Discovery Site Product Hunt To Go After Startup Jobs Search Forbes, retrieved 2019-03-16^
- David Pierce. Product Hunt Is Tech's New Tastemaker, and It Has Big Plans Wired, 2015-12-10, retrieved 2019-03-16^
- Laura Klein, Kate Rutter. Build Better Products: A Modern Approach to Building Successful User-Centered Products Rosenfeld Media, 1 November 2016^
- Kia Kokalitcheva. Product Hunt's rise: From email experiment to launchpad for startups & VC deals VentureBeat, 2014-07-17, retrieved 2014-07-17^
- Nathan Bashaw. The Origin of Product Hunt Let’s Make Things, 2014-06-25, retrieved 2018-04-30^
- Ryan Hoover. YC + PH 2014-07-17, retrieved 2014-07-17^
- Romain Dillet. Product Hunt Is The Social News Site Of Tech Products Read By Influential People TechCrunch, 4 June 2014, retrieved 2014-07-17^
- Steven Tweedie. 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, 2014-10-08, retrieved 2015-02-20^
- Zoran Basich. Andreessen Horowitz Backs Expansion Plans For Hot Tech Site Product Hunt Wall Street Journal, "Wall Street Journal" owned by "News Corp", 2014-10-08^
- Sarah Perez. Product Hunt Wins Best New Startup Of 2014 TechCrunch, 2015-02-05, retrieved 2015-02-20^
- Why can't I post a podcast anymore? retrieved 11 January 2018^
- Michael Coren. Product Hunt was acquired and venture capital may never be the same again Quartz, "Quartz" owned by "Atlantic Media", 2016-12-01^
- Kia Kokalitcheva. AngelList Acquires Product Hunt to Form a Startup Discovery Powerhouse Fortune, "Fortune" owned by "Time Inc. (Meredith Corporation)", 2016-12-01^
- Product Hunt wants to help you ship your product with its new product Ship – TechCrunch techcrunch.com, 14 September 2017, retrieved 2018-06-03^
- Product Hunt has a news app called Sip (and it's a bit like Twitter Moments) 2018-06-01, retrieved 2018-06-01^
- Product Hunt launches no-spam tech news digest app Sip 2018-06-01, retrieved 2018-06-01^
- Sunsetting Sip: A Post Mortem Product Hunt, 16 July 2019, retrieved 2020-09-15^
- Product Hunt's New CEO: Josh Buckley Product Hunt, 22 October 2020, retrieved 2020-10-22^
- Ashley Higgins: Product Hunt's new CEO 3 August 2021^
- Product Hunt maker, now CEO 18 September 2023^
- Sarah Perez. Product Hunt cleans house with layoffs impacting 66.6% of staff TechCrunch, 2023-10-19, retrieved 2023-10-20^