This week’s guest is
Ryan Hoover. We’ve been online friends for a few years now. Back in 2013, Ryan invited me to join a new site he’d created called
ProductHunt.com. In the last 3 weeks, it’s exploded. He was interviewed on
Fox News, he was interviewed on
This Week in Startups, AND he just announced that he’s joined YCombinator.
I actually recorded this episode on January 24, 2014 (5 months ago) – before Product Hunt got huge. I thought it would be interesting to revisit that conversation: to hear from the Ryan Hoover that hadn’t yet achieved all this recent success.
Once you hear it, you’ll understand why Ryan’s done so well: he built an audience (by blogging, and creating
Startup Edition), and then focused on creating something valuable for that community.
Notable quotes
“I’ve always been entrepreneurial: as a child I created little joke books, and operated gum ball machines.” – Ryan Hoover
“I didn’t know what a Product Manager was 6 months before I became one.” – Ryan Hoover
“We built Product Hunt over 4 days, during Thanksgiving.” – Ryan Hoover
“Inspiration is perishable.” – Jason Fried
“I need to keep reminding myself that I can’t predict the future.” – Ryan Hoover
Show notes
Note from Justin
I need your help. People don’t know the show is back, releasing new episodes every Thursday. I took a break back in October, and people think the show is still offline. If you could go to
iTunes leave a nice review that would be superb.
Also: if you’re listening on
Stitcher, please leave a review on there!
PS: By the way, I’m working on something new called Product People Club. Go to
productpeople.club, and sign up for the waiting list. I’ll have something to announce shortly!
Episode 60
