Ryan Hoover is the founder of Product Hunt. Get a 10% discount on Ship pro plans by using this link - https://www.producthunt.com/ship?promo=YCFRIENDS Ryan also just announced the Weekend Fund, a "$3M venture fund to invest in your next favorite thing" - https://medium.com/@rrhoover/weekend-fund-%EF%B8%8F-72dfdc830f00 YC's podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon - http://twitter.com/craigcannon
Thousands of new products launch each year, but very few last. Ryan Hoover has seen thousands of products launched over the course of his time running Product Hunt and through his investing, and in this episode you’ll hear what Ryan has learned about launching products, growing products, and raising capital. Plus, we play a made-up game called “What would you rather upvote?” Join us! Find the full transcript here: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/how-to-launch-and-grow-your-product-ryan-hoover-of-product-hunt-and-weekend-fund/#transcript — Thank you to our wonderful sponsors for making this episode possible: • RevenueCat: https://www.revenuecat.com/ • Flatfile: https://www.flatfile.com/lenny • Lenny’s Giveaway Bonanza: https://lennyspodcast.com/bonanza — Where to find Ryan Hoover: • Twitter: https://twitter.com/rrhoover • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanrhoover/ • Website: https://www.ryanhoover.me/ — Where to find Lenny: • Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com • Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/ — In this episode, we cover: [00:00] Teaser [03:23] On being a tech celebrity [09:02] Using Twitter DM's as a content machine [11:15] The questions most founders ask [14:48] When should you start a company? [18:28] Would Ryan raise money for Product Hunt if he could do it again? [21:48] When should companies launch products? [24:52] What makes a launch successful versus not? [26:27] How to get to the top of Product Hunt [30:01] What skill is most helpful for moving into investing and venture capital? [31:39] What Ryan would do differently if he could re-build Product Hunt [38:57] What matters most in life [43:13] Which ideas Ryan would upvote [48:05] What founders of consumer companies do to succeed [55:33] Deciding to serve a niche or broad market [58:03] The surprising parts of angel investing [1:02:12] Advice for folks wanting to get into angel investing
Ryan Hoover is the founder of Product Hunt which was in the Summer 2014 YC batch and was acquired by AngelList. He also invests in startups through his Weekend Fund. https://twitter.com/rrhoover https://www.producthunt.com/ https://angel.co/ https://weekend.fund/ Dalton Caldwell is a Partner at YC where he runs admissions. https://twitter.com/daltonc The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon. https://twitter.com/craigcannon *** Topics 00:00 - Ryan's intro 00:25 - Dalton's intro 1:00 - Forming Product Hunt and applying to YC 4:50 - Product Hunt's growth rate when they applied to YC 6:00 - Raising money for the right reasons 9:15 - Maker communities 11:00 - Why raise money for Product Hunt? 12:45 - Having buzz during the batch 17:45 - Brex changing their idea during YC 19:50 - Pivoting into something you know well 21:15 - In retrospect, how would Ryan have advised himself around monetization? 28:00 - Trying to build out other verticals 34:00 - Don't act like you have infinite runway 35:30 - Creating urgency and developing products within AngelList 39:50 - Tips to launch on Product Hunt 44:40 - What Dalton looks for in applications 46:30 - Giving people the opportunity to start 48:20 - What motivated Ryan to leave his job before Product Hunt