Product Hunt Suddenly Feels Like a Firehose

When Ryan Hoover posted a chart of Product Hunt submissions over time, the mid‑2024 line went vertical. That isn’t a “we’re growing” curve—it’s a firehose of new launches.

Ryan Hoover

@rrhoover

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Today is Product Hunt's 12-year anniversary. It started with a tweet and has become a global launchpad for founders and makers. Pretty cool to see so many now-household names—Notion, Deel, Loom, Ramp, Figma—launch their v1s on the platform. But we've always tried to be a voice Show more

5:52 PM · Nov 6, 2025

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What Bent the Curve

• Product Hunt had a slow, steady baseline; a few spikes from marquee launches; then mid‑2024 the wall went vertical.
• The simplest explanation: there are suddenly more people who can actually ship. Weekend hackers became weekend shippers.
• AI coding agents turned “I can dabble” into “I can deliver.” Shipping is still work, but the floor dropped.
• Double the builders, double the launches. That’s what the chart shows.

Launching Got Easier; Distribution Didn’t

• Building a decent product is compounding easier. Getting users is not.
• Attention and revenue are still scarce. A thousand more products compete for the same scroll depth.
• Product Hunt becomes the first filter. If the volume keeps climbing, the “front page” is an even tighter choke point.
• The moat for makers shifts: go‑to‑market, community, taste, and brand—not “we can build it.”

My Working Thesis

Agents made code cheap and launches frequent. The builders who win will be the ones who treat go‑to‑market as the hard part and build distribution the way we used to build features—deliberately, repeatedly, and with taste.