By Nazli Danis
“What new apps are you using these days?” This all-too-familiar tech world question was the basis for Product Hunt. An online leaderboard for discovering new products, the website describes itself as “a place for product-loving enthusiasts to share and geek out about the latest mobile apps, websites, hardware projects, and tech creations.”
Fresh out of Y-Combinator, Product Hunt has since taken Silicon Valley by storm, most recently raising $6M in funds. How did an idea that started out as an emailing list among a few friends grow into the number one place for product discovery in a matter of months? How can a website so simple could add so much value to its followers? Product Hunt’s story brings up such fundamental entrepreneurship questions whose answers although obvious in theory, are often missed in practice.
Undoubtedly, one of the most important elements that grew Product Hunt was their success in leveraging their community and giving their followers a good reason to keep being actively involved. For example, when Product Hunt launched their iOS app in mid August, they made an open call for people who would be interested in organizing meetups in their local communities.
Miami’s own Product Hunt meetup will take place on October 17 at The Lab Miami, hosted by Brian Brackeen of Kairos, a facial recognition startup in Miami. NewMe Accelerator’s Angela Benton will join to hold a Q&A session on how West Coast success stories such as Product Hunt are created, and how they can be replicated locally. Miami startups Glip, a team productivity application, Katana, a video chat customer service tool, and Waleteros, a mobile banking application for underbanked customers, will have interactive demos. Demoing products directly with users will give these startups an opportunity to gather live, peer-to-peer feedback. At the end of the event, the audience will have the opportunity to upvote for their favorite product and the product with the most upvotes will win $140K worth of prizes from NewMe. By handing the judging process to the end users, the event hopes to start a dialogue around product development that dig deeper than demo days and pitch contests.
Product Hunt Miami is free to attend but RSVP is required as space at The LAB is limited. To RSVP, click here.
Nazil Danis is a new Miami Venture for America fellow at Kairos. You can follow her on Twitter @nazlidanis.
UPDATE: Forgot to mention, there will also be chicken and waffles!