General by Leon Hitchens on April 30, 2016
Product Hunt is a service where you can share and discover new products. The site was founded by Ryan Hoover in November of 2013, with funding from Y Combinator. The basis of the site is for users to submit a fresh podcast, an innovative app, other tech products, or wild gadgets. From there other users upvote the products onto the front page. The whole process feels a lot like Reddit but with a focus towards discovering products within the technology community.
There are hundreds of technology influencers who work at venture capital firms, to the founders of startups themselves. The close-knit community actively follows, comments, and shares new products that surface on the homepage. They’re more than happy to talk, give feedback on a product, or maybe invest if they’re a part of a VC or private equity company.
If you want to join the exclusive club of Product Hunter’s or you’re already hunting this feature will help you become a Product Hunt Ninja.
Anyone can join Product Hunt, but to comment or submit your products you’ll have to be invited. To get an invite you have to either create a product and have someone on Product Hunt submit your product. Then once you’re confirmed as a ‘maker,’ you get to comment and talk about your latest product. In addition to talking about your product, you’ll get to discuss and submit other products you find interesting on the internet.
We have a few extra invites for some folks who think they’d be able to contribute to Product Hunt’s growing library of products! Drop us a line, and tell us why you think you deserve an invite to PH.
A lot is being added to Product Hunt daily, and some stuff can slip by even the most devoted hunter. Lucky, there’s ‘collections,’ which are essentially like a playlist in Spotify or any music app. A ‘collection’ could cover* apps to help manage money, or have best products of each month, or showcase the *top podcast you listen to. The options are endless! I have a ‘collection’ where I hunt different product’s I’ve written about on Digital Bounds. I use it as a way to conversate with the maker, and get real feedback from users or product evangelist.
There is also a showcase of top ‘collections,’ which you can follow as more are added. This is an excellent way to follow competitors in your space or find a new app to create gifs.
My favorite collections:
Product Hunt is driven by conversation, along with a growing number of technology influencers. Some of these influencers lurk on the site, upvote and leave, but some are a part of Product Hunt’s AMA style live chats. The Slack team hosted a live chat, and there are hundreds of others planned for almost every day of the week.
These live chats let users talk with startup founders, successful founders, venture capital partners, and others in the technology world. They’re styled like AMA’s, and users can ask any questions you may have for them or about the company they work for.
Talking online can get boring when you’re inside and behind a screen. Product Hunt sometimes understands you’d want to grab a beer or talk to other users in real life. The meetups are community drive, meaning if you have the resources you could host your meetup. Ther’re upcoming meetups in Mexico, Chile, Canada, and dozens more slated but not planned out.
These meetups range in topics from a happy hour get together to startup pitches. These meetups can help you meet other technology lovers in your local community, or maybe you’re traveling and want to meet like-minded folks. Either way, these meetups are always fun, and can help network if you’re looking to launch your startup soon.
Product Hunt does an excellent job of curating and producing content around all the products hunted each day. They have a blog, where stories of users are told. The stories are fun and sometimes give you the inside look of a successful company. Their newsletter is a great way to recap the previous day from all the trending news. The newsletter is always playful, with tons of emojis, and tons of amazing undiscovered apps.
Product Hunt is an amazing community to be apart of. I’ve become highly active in the community and use it when I cover tech news. If you enjoy discovering new apps, podcasts, games, books, or products this community is your gold mine, and there are dozens of tools to help you mine for the best products.
If you use all these tips, they’ll help you become a Product Hunt ninja, and maybe along the way you’ll become an influencer.
To follow us on Product Hunt where we are @hustlinhack, @sunnyismoi, and @leonhitchens! Also, tell us in the comments below what’s your favorite product on Product Hunt!