- Check out RyanHoover.me
- Follow on Twitter
- Read his Medium blog
Ryan Hoover is the founder of Product Hunt. He has authored over 150 posts, both at his blog and at industry publications. He is passionate about startups, product design, and personal growth.
Product Hunt
Product Hunt surfaces the latest mobile apps, websites, hardware projects, and tech creations.It’s a wildly popular site and generated a lot of buzz shortly after launching. Fortunately for us, Ryan posted often about the journey.
Ryan announced Product Hunt in a Tumblr post in November, 2013. This initial MVP was created in just 20 minutes. At that point, it was invite-only. They made Product Hunt public in December. It took 20 days to reach to 2000 users. This was largely because they used strategies that don’t scale. They didn’t try to monetize Product Hunt until 2018
Lessons
He wrote about the first 9 months in the post Planting Seeds.
He wrote 5 Years of Product Hunt to share some learnings (and mistakes) that were made made over the years building Product Hunt.
He shared The Product Hunt story – including tweets, photos, and emails – at Making Product Hunt.
Past Projects
Playhaven
Previously, he was the number #10 employee at Playhaven. He shared some of his experiences at Startup Lessons Growing from 10 to 100. He left in 2013 to pursue other opportunities.
Startup edition
Startup Edition was ‘a weekly email newsletter of entrepreneurs sharing their startup wisdom’ (via RyanHoover.me.)
He wrote about how serendipity led to this project at 140-characters-can-change-your-life 140 Characters Can Change Your Life.
Other Articles
Tips
Five Hard Questions You Should Ask Yourself Before Starting Up The qualities Ryan looks for before jumping into his next startup idea.
Hunting for habits: Keying in on smart design to make an irresistible product Ryan shares the design decisions and strategies used to build a habit-forming product, largely influenced by Nir Eyal’s work.
Personal Posts
Ryan made his first $10 in profit when he was 14 building OperationLaugh.com
Turning a Hobby Into a Career Ryan writes about how he is leveraging his blog to create a career after leaving PlayHaven
From Rejection to Product Hunt The story of how rejection can still lead to positive relationships