Hi there 👋 I'm Ashley, Product Hunt's CEO. AMA 👇

@sam_carow Hey Sam, thanks for the questions! Hard to choose but here goes: Most rewarding: hearing the ways makers from around the world use Product Hunt to get inspired, launch their products, and learn with (and from) the community. It's a really meaningful thing for a lot of people and it's humbling to be the shepherd for that. Most challenging: the community is extremely encouraging and agreeable (which is a strength!) but as a product person, it can also make it difficult to get honest feedback on Product Hunt itself to inform the future direction. This is a big change for me, coming from Reddit, where users are all too willing to tell you all the ways you're getting it wrong 🤣.

@sam_carow @ahiggz that's so true Ashley. Reddit community is so critic and direct, sometimes even hard. On another side most people on PH are tapping you on a shoulder, and agrees on what other influencers saying without even thinking. A lot of time it can be encouraging, but that's not what you need all the time. You need real feedback which can be a critic, which would make you do better and make even better decisions.

@ahiggz How is the audience on Reddit different in composition compared to here?

@sam_carow @ahiggz @stefan_smiljkovic @ahiggz this post is really insightful and at the same time it opens up to share a recent experience when I launch on the product hunt last week... The feedback from an actual customer was really true and they really like to support it. But strange enough there were votes and feedback directed to gain mutual attention. On the other hand, I also got so many offers even one marketer said with $3k, the #1 position is guaranteed. Even he agreed to issue invoices only when we are on #1....it was almost tempting to agree. But I think it's a big reputational issue for Product Hunt to check if your algorithm is really unique and does it works it is expected to work. I see the day I launched upvotes for competitors getting by 40 to 50 in a time of 5 minutes. That is unrealistic even though PH mention several factors you take into account...still I found there are Facebook Groups where you can post for upvote... which makes the whole experience and excitement a little down. When as a maker I come to a platform, I trust the PH capabilities and how I can get genuine exposure and not a paid exposure. Hopefully, @ahiggz is looking into this.

@solomon_bush Hey Solomon! I'd say the #1 thing is making sure to take care of yourself first, so you can be as effective at building and growing your startup as possible. Get enough sleep, move your body, and take time for a little bit of balance so you can go the distance: startups are a marathon, not a sprint. Being a solo founder can be isolating, so also surround yourself with a supportive community of people who get what you're going through and can swap war stories. Learning from others' mistakes is way less expensive (and painful) than learning from your own!

@ahiggz Thank you so much for responding! And you're totally right about work life balance. Burnout is definitely real. haha.

@nikkielizdemere Hey Nichole! I tend to gravitate toward longer-form, deep-dive pieces. I especially like Stratechery, Not Boring, Divinations, and The Information. I think a lot about Charlie Munger and Warren Buffet's comments on knowledge and how it compounds like interest, so I try to be deliberate about learning something new every day. For some fun (non-tech) general news analysis, I like Galaxy Brain and Pirate Wires.

@davidlumley Hey David, thanks for the question! Most interesting, hmmm... I'm going to cheat and share a few: 1. I expected the vast majority of PH users to be based in Silicon Valley (or at least the US), but we actually have strongholds of users all over the world, and especially in certain pockets like India and Brazil. I hear a lot of stories about people who discovered Product Hunt because they live in a place where they don't know anyone else in real life who's a maker or who's very interested in tech, so we end up being their community of fellow tech-lovers online. 2. The sheer number of unicorns that have launched on Product Hunt is crazy! Notion, Airtable, Lattice, Loom, Zoom, Figma, Coinbase, Rippling, Robinhood, Brex, and many, many more. Every day I see new launches and wonder: which of these will be in the next batch of unicorns? Lots of VCs and tech press seem to use PH to do the same. 3. Internally: there are so many long-timers! Knowing tech company tenures are normally pretty short, the number of PH team members who've been here for 6+ years was really surprising, and a big tip-off for me that the culture must be really special.

@butafly Hey Zhanet, thanks for the question! Our main focus areas right now are: 1. Staff up our native mobile team so we can build a brand new, shiny, mobile-first experience for PH. 2. Make contributing to PH more delightful. Not just products, but discussions and comments too. 3. Modernize the look & feel of the site (you may have noticed some of these changes already). 4. Support more intent-driven product search & research, in addition to the serendipitous discovery you get from the homepage. 5. More editorial content that helps contextualize the launches you see everyday. Not only "what launched today" but also "help me understand this better" 6. More ways to engage with Product Hunt IRL via events put on by our team, and our growing team of PH ambassadors worldwide. 7. Find opportunities to partner with our new sister company and venture arm, Hyper. We've almost doubled head-count this year with lots more growth to come, so we're firing on all cylinders. Expect to see a lot from us in the coming months!

@rony_rom What sort of analytics do you have in mind? We are current beta testing some additional analytics as an optional add-on, but curious if we're thinking about the same things.

@ahiggz Demographics on people who upvoted/commented on your product, especially because the main use case on PH is to validate your idea. Also, best time to engage with others on the platform can be a nice touch.

@jgrenzemann Hey Johannes, thanks for the kind words! As you say, Product Hunt is incredibly valuable to startups and makers, so job #1 is: "don't mess anything up" 😹 Beyond that, we have a lot of work ahead! I summarized our main focus areas in this comment.

@sagar_devkate Hey Sagar, thanks for the question! Things change week to week depending on the needs of the team (#startuplife), but right now it's something like: 25% hiring, 25% strategy (especially growth), 50% supporting the team on current execution work.

@between_team Hey David, thanks for the question! A few areas that are most exciting to me right now are: 1. Longevity / Quantified Self - we're just scratching the surface of what's possible here. David Sinclair's book Lifespan was a game-changer in terms of reframing aging as a preventable disease rather than an inevitability, and I think the number of products and companies that will spin out of that realization and increased agency will be huge. 2. Web3 / Crypto - I'm definitely no expert in the space, but it feels like there's some real magic happening right now, and the movement toward decentralization and putting power back in the hands of the creators and individuals is super exciting. I think we're still a long way from applications that are mainstream enough for the average person to grok, but I can't wait to see where it goes from here. The episode of the Tim Ferriss podcast with Balaji Srinivasan was a good primer on the current landscape and imminent potential. 3. There isn't as much of this as I'd like, but I'm really interested in tech that solves existential problems like climate change. Nothing else matters if the planet isn't habitable, so I'm always interested to see our brightest minds pushing for creative solutions. Some of the terraforming startups are a great example, but I'm always keeping an eye out for more!

@ahiggz Wow, the longevity stuff is fascinating. Aging is a "disease" that every human is/will be inflicted with. So preventing that would be mind-blowing. Thanks for responding Ashley!

@shankybaba Thanks Shashank, we had a blast! And lots more events in the works, so stay tuned 😄

@maxwellcdavis Hey Maxwell 👋 You're totally right! We are currently staffing up our native mobile team so you should see a lot more from us soon! In the meantime, if you know any great mobile engineers or designers, please send them our way!

@lior_galante_cohen Hey Lior! Lots of exciting stuff to come, I outlined the major stuff we're focusing on in this comment.

@nithur Hey Nirthursan! I used to do more personal journaling but not as often these days. As a fully remote team at Product Hunt, I definitely do a fair bit of long-form writing to articulate strategy in a way that's digestible for the team async. I find it's an amazing forcing function to clarify your own thinking around something.

@mishra_mayank Inspired more than overwhelmed, I just try to keep up with everyones' endless energy and enthusiasm to keep tackling interesting problems.

@abel_product Hey Abel! Historically the team has run super lean and PH usage skewed pretty heavily in favor of desktop web, so that's what was focused on. But these days, things are trending more mobile, and we're growing like crazy (and staffing up our native mobile team). Our plan is to build a new, mobile-first experience for PH as soon as that team is in place. Stay tuned!

@bharatpasam Looking at our track record, I think we're pretty great at it! But we're always trying to find ways to get new makers on the platform, so that launches stay fresh and interesting.

@orliesaurus I usually wake up around 7:30a

@ahiggz ahhh glad to hear you're not a 4am terminator!

@orliesaurus I gave up on that pipe dream a long time ago! If you haven't already, go ahead and read Why We Sleep. The author makes a compelling case for not cutting off sleep before ~8 hours. Some of the most important cognitive & memory processes happen in the last couple of hours of sleep during NREM. Now I sleep until the sun comes up, guilt free 😇