I'm the Product Hunt CEO, and I've launched 8 times on PH. AMA (unfiltered)
Product Hunt changed my life. A year ago I stepped in as CEO, and a couple weeks ago we launched Product Forums (which you're reading this on!). Before that I founded and launched @Tandem (virtual office - YC S19), and @Cryptagon.io.
Ask me anything about Product Hunt, launching, startups, YC, or what we're trying to do with forums!
Replies
Vela Terminal
Would ProductHunt launch its venture fund?
This Song Plants Trees
In the past Product Hunt was a great place for people to discover new interesting products and for makers to get traction for innovative and exciting ideas.
e.g I had #1 product of the day despite having no social media presence and not hassling people to vote for me. It opened a lot of doors for me. I met some great people through the community.
Now it seems your launch's goal is to drive traffic to Product Hunt;
Using existing audiences to 'win'.
Spamming contacts for an upvote.
Bots.
How to solve this?
the last few products I made haven't been featured despite being interesting and original. (My previous launches were all top 5, I've been nominated for a Golden Kitty and won a Silver Kitty) Even if they were featured I doubt they would do well because i think most upvotes originate from existing off-site audiences.
Do people actually come to Product Hunt anymore to find products or just to launch and get a backlink and a badge?
@matthew_gordon discoverability of products has changed over the last 10 years. I think it's mainly about the launch, backlinks and badges.
This Song Plants Trees
@taniabell Isn't it supposed to be 'The place to find your new favorite product' not the place to get a high DR-backlink (at least until the Google algorithm gets updated)? or an increasingly meaningless badge?
I think Product Hunt can solve this but it takes a combination of very careful Hacker News style modding and community outreach.
Graphify
@matthew_gordon Hey, I haven’t been on Product Hunt for that long, so it’s really interesting to hear that it used to be easier for unknown but genuinely good products to become Product of the Day.
I launched about two weeks ago with no community and only a handful of followers from being active in the forum and commenting on other launches. Ended up at #6, which I honestly didn’t expect. But looking at the top spots, they were all taken by companies that had either launched multiple times before or already had a strong community backing them, which made it really hard to compete.
I get why people now feel like PH is more about leveraging existing audiences than discovering hidden gems, but I’m curious, if you could change something about how launches work today, what would it be?
This Song Plants Trees
@hussein_r Congrats on your launch! That's great. I think better curation and moderation and building a makers community on site would be a good start. Maybe be a bit more opinionated about what makes it to the frontpage. More hackathons and festivals.
Graphify
@matthew_gordon Thanks! I totally agree, better curation and a stronger on-site maker community would definitely help. Right now, a lot of visibility comes from external reach rather than discovery within PH itself.
I love the idea of hackathons and festivals to bring makers together and surface more original projects. Maybe even themed launch days where indie makers get more of a spotlight?
Do you think more active moderation (like PH being more selective about what gets featured) would make things feel more gatekept?
Trickle
I see that forums are a great way to stay connected with the community even when a product isn’t actively launching. But I ran into two issues:
I can’t find a way to create a Product Forum for my product @Trickle myself. Is this feature not available yet?
On mobile, it still shows Discussions instead of Forums, which might be a bit confusing. Any plans to make mobile and desktop consistent?
Would love to hear your thoughts. Thanks! 😊
Product Hunt
@victoria_wu https://www.producthunt.com/p/trickle-3
2. Yes, we have plans to make them consistent!
Trickle
@rajiv_ayyangar Wow! Thank you so much! That would be great! Looking forward it!
Producta
What would your top 1 advice be for somebody launching today? (I'm launching today btw 😬)
Product Hunt
NEWOLDSTAMP
@rajiv_ayyangar what do you mean by 'go big'?
SalesPopup
What are the exact criteria used to choose what product to feature?
The guidelines are not clear and sometimes not even respected
Example: many duplicate products gets featured while other innovative ones did not, and I even saw infoproducts getting featured sometimes
Product Hunt
Product Hunt
@nico_jeannen we feature products that we believe our community should know about. Put another way, when I see a launch on Product Hunt, I want to feel that I'm, somehow, better for knowing about it. Sometimes the reason we featured something isn't always apparent from the launch description itself - for example, when there's an unusual level of craft, or something distinct in the approach. That said, if you look closely, each product that we feature has a reason.
Do we get it right 100%? No - but we (mainly @gabe ) do our best. We've made an effort to describe our guidelines, but I'm not sure I can make it clearer than that: https://help.producthunt.com/en/articles/9883485-product-hunt-featuring-guidelines
One thing I'll say: expect our bar to rise, not lower. There are more talented makers than ever before, and AI is enabling even more people to make software. The bar for compelling apps is rising, and our standards need to rise with it.
If you're making software, take this as a challenge to make something distinctive, that solves an unsolved problem, or solves a problem in a new way.
What are the top three heavy lifts for Product Hunt do you intend to accomplish by the end of 2025?
Triforce Todos
What's the big vision for Product Forums?
Product Hunt
@abod_rehman there are many directions it could go, but right now it's quite simple: I love talking about and thinking about cool products, and I've met many good friends through jamming on products - I want to create the best place on the internet for that.
minimalist phone: creating folders
What is the most challenging thing for you personally in running the Product Hunt platform?
Product Hunt
@busmark_w_nika It's been tough to balance improving what's here with building the next phase of PH. I see the potential to build something that - I know this seems audacious - makes the current product hunt appear almost like a footnote (helping everyone figure out what product to use), but also as a long-time Product Hunter, I have lots I want to improve about the leaderboard and experience of launching.
Product Hunt
@busmark_w_nika What's been amazing is to have a team of people - some new, some Product Hunt veterans, who are thought-partners in creating that future, while being grounded in our strengths.
Hey @rajiv_ayyangar I have a few questions for you.
1. Do you feel like YC was a critical part of your journey? How would have Tandem played out without it?
2. What do you think is the single most important trait of successful launches on Product Hunt? How do you make it to the top of the upvotes?
Product Hunt
@marc__milberg 2) build something people want and describe it / showcase it in a clear, compelling way. I like to think of “promise-market fit” as a piece of “product market fit” - you need to make a clear and novel promise to users, that your product then needs to fulfill. Product Hunt is, at its core, a test of promise-market fit. Do people want this?
1) YC was critical for us. Above all we learned what speed looks like - it’s not about writing more code or building more features. It’s about how quickly you identify, and answer the most important questions in a startup.
A key moment for us was when @gustaf pushed us to launch on Product Hunt well before we felt ready. “You need to find out whether people want this more than you need to know whether you can build it.”
There were numerous other lessons we learned from YC, and many lifelong friends. But overall I think my takeaway was: speed. Also: launch sooner!
Ok, here’s one: Why is there such inconsistency in choosing featured hunts?
Let me give you an example: my latest launch, I reached out to support, ticked every box, put forward a full / complete launch. Delayed it numerous times to ensure it was good. Once again, not featured.
A week later, in comes a copy-cat product, gets featured.
Can you not see how disrespectful of builders this system is?
Product Hunt
@zeeb0t what was your latest launch and the copy-cat? Hard to give context without specifics.
@rajiv_ayyangar I’ve attempted to launch my product three times on ProductHunt, each time with new features. My product uses AI to power web scraping.
Launch history:
August 13, 2024 – https://www.producthunt.com/products/instantapi-ai#instantapi-ai
November 22, 2024 – A free version of the above
January 28, 2025 – A no-code version as a Chrome extension (https://www.producthunt.com/products/instantapi-ai#ai-web-scraper)
If you look at the content of my launches, you’ll see I automated data extraction for web scraping, then put in significant effort to make it accessible for non-coders. Yet none of these were ever featured.
I noticed there were a few products using AI for scraping at the time—some before, some after. I initially assumed PH might be tired of the topic. Then I saw a YC-backed team (Firecrawl) launch a similar approach. Their product got 2nd of the day on January 20th, 2025. They adopted key ideas I’d published months earlier, and I’d been working on this concept since early 2024. That makes me think PH isn’t actually uninterested in AI web scraping—there might be another reason mine hasn’t been featured.
Here is their launch: https://www.producthunt.com/products/extract-by-firecrawl#extract-by-firecrawl
I admit my first two launches weren’t perfect, which is why I put so much effort into the no-code extension. When Firecrawl’s approach (very similar to my own) was featured, I hoped my new version would finally get attention. Still, it was ignored, even after I reached out to ProductHunt support for feedback and followed best practices and guides.
So I’m left wondering: why did a later, YC-backed product get featured for an idea I’d released on PH months prior, while none of my launches—original, free, and no-code—ever got featured?
Hey! Thanks for sharing your journey. Super inspiring to see how Product Hunt has evolved under your leadership, especially with the launch of Product Forums.
I’m curious, how do you personally stay productive while juggling such a high-profile role? Are there any habits, tools, or systems you swear by to keep things organized?
Also, with so many moving parts at Product Hunt, how do you approach simplifying tasks (both for yourself and your team) to keep everyone focused on what matters most?
And lastly, what’s it really like running a company like Product Hunt? Any unexpected challenges or moments that surprised you?
Thanks again. Excited to see what’s next for Product Forums and beyond!
AI landscape questions:
How much do you personally use google vs ai search?
What do you think of the changes google/bing/etc is making to search? Good for them? For users? For you?
How do you think user-generated content (such as forums!) fits into the rapid evolution we're seeing in search/ai?
How to hype up a launch? How many days are enough leeway for me to hype up my launch? @rajiv_ayyangar
Hey Rajiv,
What is the best way for one to market and grow an open-source project?
Do you think to successfully launch, you need to build a lot of awareness prior to launching? Or is it more of how well you grab the attention of the viewers during the launch?
Fine
how does tools like Cursor, fine.dev, replit, etc. impact PH? do you see a significant increase in product launches?
Hi. Rajiv,how do you view the Asian market, particularly the ecosystem of entrepreneurs and product launches in China?
If you were going to do a startup again, what would you work on and why?
Crono
Hey @rajiv_ayyangar thanks for your time and this AMA.
My question is: I have to launch a new feature of a product I already launched. The feature is completely new and revolutionise how the product works. How can I ensure that PH correctly sees the degree of innovation and doesn't compromise the launch?
For a successful product launch, what are your top tips for integrating and engaging outside audiences—like email lists, Twitter followers, etc.—and how can founders encourage that initial support on Product Hunt? Any specific strategies that worked well for you?