How to attract the next generation of Makers?
As many of you are likely aware, Product Hunt has always been a place for builders, founders, and tech enthusiasts to discover and share what’s new. But as the startup landscape evolves, so does the next generation of Makers.
I’d love to hear your thoughts - how can we make Product Hunt more appealing to first-time founders, students, and emerging Makers? Are there specific challenges they face that we have the chance to address?
Some questions to get your mind thinking:
What are newer Makers looking for in a platform like Product Hunt? Or missing?
Are there specific types of content, discussions, or features that would encourage more participation?
How can we better support those launching their very first product?
If you’re a newer Maker yourself (or recently were), would especially love to hear your perspective!
Replies
Hey Ben! That's great that you're trying to help out new Makers! I'm a new Maker myself and one of my biggest struggles is to get my first users who in the best case also provide valuable feedback on how to make the product better. It's not such much about how many users you can find but how qualitative users you can find as they make the biggest difference for the future of your product.
I signed up for product hunt as a "marketing channel" or "outreach channel" to find people whom my platform could be helpful for. Especially in the beginning it's as an Indie Maker just too much to also put money down to "warm up" a paid advertising channel to find your first users. My passion is building and so having a quick and successful outreach via for example PH to find the first users would mean the world to me!
For more participation I would say that it's about the results that you get (#firstusers) that make the biggest difference in the first place. But also maybe something like an idea validation feature would be helpful as it's not always clear when you get no engagement if your idea is just not good or if it's because no one has seen it.
For the support for those who're launching their first product it's a little bit hard for me to recommend anything. You're already doing an amazing job with making it easy and fast to launch your product. Though, as I said, when you get real results you're way more likely to keep sticking to PH than when you're not having success at all.
I hope that this helps!
A unique way to help new Makers could be PH launching something similar to LinkedIn Learning or YC School. It could feature mini-course style content created by PH team or experienced PH community members. The topics could be product development, marketing, sales, fundraising, etc.
Product Hunt
@rohanrecommends Oooh I like that. Could try and reach this audience over social media like IG, TikTok, LinkedIn, etc. Sometimes a video is easier than lines of text 🧠
@aaronoleary maybe something to think about for future social posts.
minimalist phone: creating folders
Through my prism, many people out there could benefit from some knowledge and networking. I think we need "tighter" relationships. Rohan's note is also valid.
Product Hunt
@busmark_w_nika oh yes, very much in agreement here. Knowledge is power and community is something we all desperately need more of in today's day and age.
Considering Product Hunts current community, what are some ways we could improve the tightness? I know in the past there have been demo nights all over the world for people to meet up. I wonder if there's some way we could encourage people to connect with others in their area on their own? Or if we had ambassadors of sorts that drove that stuff 🤔
minimalist phone: creating folders
I think that guys who are constantly remote working would welcome some boot camp or so (maybe trying to ask through some poll or create a waitlist or ticket sale) – because when you are lacking colleagues and want to meet with like-minded people in the industry, some guys are more likely to travel to experience something like that.
It's hard to say. SF is far away from Europe, and as I remember, those meetups were mostly in the US or the Asian continent. Would be great to see what others think about that.
Encourage hands-on creativity from a younger age. Kids like to tinker introduce them to DIY kits, coding games and maker spaces early on.
@brigid_stewart A Product Hunt for kids!?!? I'm on board.
Last year, when I joined PH (my friend explained what it is, how it works, and all the basic stuff), I learned everything about PH either from the community or by trying things myself (like launching a product, connecting with people in the community, sharing feedback with makers, and offering support to good products, etc.).
One thing that new makers or students need is a friend who can help them at every stage (feedback on how to set up a PH profile, how to make connections with other makers, their product launch strategy, or even on the smallest things like how to improve a tagline, and 1,000 other things).
Recently, I saw there is a help section which is quite good, but it's a little boring. To make it more fun, we could introduce Kitty in the chat, because she won't judge new makers for asking stupid questions :)
P.S. We all love Kitty, and every new maker will fall in love with her too❤️
Product Hunt
@gamifykaran hahaha thanks for being honest about our help center - it's literally an initiative of mine at the moment to update it!! Gradually making my way through 😤
Once that's done, you may see our chat option in the lower right get a little makeover similar to what you mentioned - great minds think alike 😉
I also recently learned that the cat's name is Puddy! Your "Product Hunt Buddy" I guess?
@ben_griese I know, there are lot of new things on PH, I am kind of falling in love with PH all again. All the best for the help chat Ben.
Whattttt then who is Kitty!!! her sister or mother, just kidding. I think its time to introduce Puddy to the community 🧡
New Makers might appreciate a Launch 101 section guides, case studies, and a checklist to simplify the process.
Product Hunt
@hazel_mathew thanks for the feedback! We do have our Launch Guide [https://www.producthunt.com/launch] - is there anything there you feel that may be missing?
Brutal Teardowns
@hazel_mathew @ben_griese How accurate is the guide? Eg, it says to hunt things yoursef, but my understanding is that when a well-known Hunter hunts something that it a) automatically hits the front page (is this still a thing?) and b) It goes out to that Hunter's existing network on PH, which is usually quite extensive.
I think newer Makers are looking for more than just a place to launch they want a supportive community. Adding mentorship, resources, and more guides for first-time founders would be super helpful. Maybe even live Q&As or office hours with experienced Makers could make a big difference. It’s about creating a space where beginners feel they’re not alone in the process.
Product Hunt
@ashish_parmar13 Totally agree! Product Hunt should be used for more than just launching - we should have a clear path. What do you do at each point of your product's journey, right? That's not always super clear. Having a community space for mentorship and improving our resources are definitely top of mind for that.
We're new makers so here’s our take. We've built a B2C product, and our main goal now is visibility. Based on research and talking with people, PH (+ Hacker News) really is the only way to achieve that—especially since we don’t have an existing audience on Twitter, Reddit, or other platforms.
But come launch day, it is daunting, especially when competing with established companies and with a couple hundred products. So, we need eyeballs but it's really hard to get them; a potential solution is adding tags for first-time founders or student-led startups, giving bootstrapped makers more visibility while still letting the product speak for itself.
Additionally, a tag-based feed (rather than just categorising by product type) could highlight standout products within each tag, making it easier for users to discover great new products and reviving interest in hidden gems.
Forums and the expansion of have been a great addition to Product Hunt. When I think Product Hunt, I think of LinkedIn for creators or startup founders. If Product Hunt created a better News feed with sorting, it would certainly facilitate more networking. I've seen a few talk about videos, trainings, and tips, that would be great. Educationals on how to navigate and be successful on Product Hunt since that's all the AMAs.
CodeDesign.ai
It could be easier with mentorship, quick crash courses, and Q&A hangouts. Have to make it feel like a community where they're supported.
I am a new maker working on our MVP currently. I must say Product Hunt provides a very active and engaged community compared to other forums and makes it easy to learn from the experiences of others.
One thing i noticed is that some of us new to PH do not understand exactly how a product is initally 'hunted' - Is it best to hunt ourselves, or find a hunter, how we can utilise a tight network to promote the launch etc. An intro video/demo of how to take advantage of PH would be very useful.
Perhaps there's a way to get face to face with launch experts and people that are just a bit more experienced with GTM. There are so many articles and videos but having a mentor like style could be super useful.
New Makers are looking for community, mentorship, and real feedback—not just a place to launch but a place to learn and grow.
1.Many first-time Makers struggle with finding the right guidance. Perhaps featuring more mentorship opportunities on the platform—whether through live Q&As with experienced founders or creating spaces for collaboration—could make a huge difference.
2.New Makers often face challenges in standing out, especially with limited resources. Creating a way to highlight and celebrate first-time launches, whether through badges or featuring emerging products more prominently, would help bring attention to their hard work.
3.Having more interactive discussions or ways to easily collaborate with other Makers can create that sense of community.