Products that began as "toys" but became essential business tools
Remember when products designed for consumers unexpectedly revolutionized how businesses operate? For example, Discord started as a chat app for gamers but is now essential for remote teams.
Its journey from gaming-focused platform to business tool is fascinating:
Originally built for gamers needing low-latency communication
Features like server organization, voice channels, and role permissions were perfect for gaming
Discord thrived during the pandemic as businesses discovered its community-building strengths worked brilliantly for remote collaboration
Now powers everything from customer communities to virtual events
💡Question for the PH community: What other products started as "toys" but became mission-critical for businesses?
Share examples of consumer products that made the leap to essential business tools!
Replies
Zoom started from something personal - its founder, Eric Yuan, used to take 10-hour train rides to visit his girlfriend. He wanted a better way to stay connected, and that idea eventually turned into Zoom. Wild how it went from that to powering remote work everywhere.
I cannot say products, but from the perspective of media, very successful video games or comics became a good movie or game.
E.g.
Lara Croft started as a comic, then a video game + movie with A. Jolie
The Last of Us started as a video game – now, it is a good series
The Walking Dead (first as comics) – then, it became a series with several spinoffs
Resident Evil – it was first a video game, then the movie.
You can apply marketing and business models in media/entertainment, and it can be internationally successful.
@busmark_w_nika wow, fantastic parallel! 🤔The strongest value propositions always break category boundaries!
@talshyn I am just a binge-watching movie nerd :D
Pokecut
@busmark_w_nika Great! Divergent thinking is also part of ability.
Shopify: From Tobias Lütke's project to sell skis to a multi-billion dollar e-commerce infrastructure. The classic “solving a problem for yourself, only to discover that countless businesses have the same need” story.🤓
@partick_support I wonder how many future unicorns are being built right now by frustrated people just trying to make their own lives easier!
@talshyn Maybe there are a lot, but maybe you can too. 🤭
@partick_support maybe we'll be swapping unicorn founding stories someday! 😉
Product Hunt
I remember sitting for hours in Ventrilo/TeamSpeak channels in my WoW / DotA times. They could definitely work for distributed teams nowadays! :P
@juan Haha, totally! Amazing how Discord evolved while those stayed firmly in gaming territory!
One of the things I remember is Slack, originally an internal resource for a gaming company, that evolved into a crucial communication platform for enterprises. Its proficient integration of chat, channels, and applications has facilitated seamless and necessary collaboration.
@adindashofwatillah Slack's story is so much like Discord's! Funny how the best work tools often come from play 💕👀
Haimeta
Just putting an ear here👂🏻, curious about everyone's answers.
@gin_6078 glad you're here! So many great examples in this thread 🥰 It's amazing how many 'just for fun' tools have become business essentials!
Basecamp was an internal project for 37signals. They even invented the Ruby on Rails framework to write it. Both massive success stories. Now they write books too.
@andyg1 That's a fantastic addition, Andy 🙌 You've highlighted a whole other fascinating category. Thanks for bringing this angle into the discussion ✨