Lately I ve been thinking about how hard it s become to choose well.

Almost every category now feels overcrowded agencies, SaaS tools, AI products, consultants, even simple productivity apps. On the surface, there are more options than ever. But instead of making decisions easier, that abundance often makes everything feel noisier and harder to evaluate.

I said "never again" to hardware.

I meant it. I had done it before. I know what hardware costs, not just in money, but in decisions you make at 2am about components that may or may not arrive, about inventory that ties up capital for months before a single unit ships. When I moved into SaaS, the relief was real. Software scales. Software does not sit in a warehouse. 

Lately I ve been thinking about how different design challenges look depending on the product you re building.

In theory, design processes often look clean and structured. But in reality, every product comes with its own constraints unclear requirements, edge cases, technical limitations, or simply trying to balance user needs with business goals.

I'll go first.

I still reply to every comment manually. Reddit, LinkedIn, Product Hunt, forums, Twitter, Discord. Every single one.

AI could do this. There are tools that generate replies, post on schedule, analyze sentiment, even mimic your brand voice. But I don't use them. Here's why.

A 2024 study on community engagement across 500 brands found that personalized responses drive 3.2x higher retention and 4.7x more repeat interactions than automated replies. People can tell when a response is copy-pasted. They can feel when no one actually read their comment. The average user only needs 2-3 automated interactions before they disengage entirely.

Hey Product Hunt family!

Just wanted to share a little "behind the scenes" pain from the OptiClear launch. We all know the Apple App Store review process can be a rollercoaster, and I definitely hit a loop.

I had built this sweet "Invite a Friend" feature. The logic was simple: generate a code, share it with a friend, and both of you earn free premium days. A classic, organic growth loop, right?

Well, Apple hit me with a rejection. Apparently, unlocking premium features outside of their standard In-App Purchase flow (even as a reward) is a big no-no.

last week, I shared an update on everything Inr has shipped over the last 20 months in automation, CRM, and integrations. today I am doing a final update on the bigger shift coming this Saturday 25th: Inr is now an AI-first platform, and here's what that actually means.

Because here's what we kept hearing: people would build a solid flow, it would convert, and then ask "can it just handle the whole conversation?" Not just send a message, but actually understand what someone wants, respond, collect info, route them, and follow up. So, we built exactly that.

A complete AI Agent for Instagram understands how you talk, mirrors your tone, knows your goals, taps into your knowledge base, collects information mid-conversation, takes actions, and escalates when a human needs to step in. Not a chatbot. It handles the full conversation end-to-end.
But what if you want it more controlled?

AI actions built into every automation and campaign

The old playbook was simple. Build a list. Write a sequence. Blast it out. Wait for replies. It worked for a while.

Now? Inboxes are graveyards. Reply rates are on the floor. Half the emails out there are clearly written by a bot that skimmed someone's LinkedIn headline and latest company update and called it research.

The problem isn't outbound. It's lazy outbound. Spray and pray is dead but people are still running that playbook wondering why nothing lands.

The shift is simple but painful. Old model was reach out, build trust, close. New model is build trust, show up, reach out when it's warm.

AI tools are becoming a standard part of the design workflow from generating UI ideas to writing copy and speeding up iterations.

In my experience, they re great for exploration and saving time, but they also tend to push outputs toward similar patterns and solutions. It feels like the more we rely on them, the more important our own taste and judgment become.

TwelveLabs just introduced Pegasus 1.5, their most significant leap in generative video AI, transforming video into a queryable, structured data asset.

They're launching today on Product Hunt.

1. I've always been on the personal brand side. More and more founders are building it now (sometimes even before the product is ready while it's still in development, before seed fundraising). The CEO builds their position so the product sells more easily at the official launch.

2. But I have experience with people who built the product, scaled it, and only then did we discover who was behind it.

Honestly, with the first approach, I'd be concerned that people invest more in me as a person than in the product. People would idealise the founder and overlook the product's flaws (which could hurt development and constructive feedback).

+ I noticed the most common mistake that many people who started building a personal brand first, connected their product to their personal accounts (emails, social media, etc.) and started having a problem selling these things, because they cannot "give someone keys" to their personal profiles.

Let me start from the creator s perspective:
I personally don t have a product (apart from hiring people for creative work or offering personal consultations).

But as a creator, I constantly share content, insights, and information, value that helps me build trust (for free). Based on that perceived expertise, people eventually decide to work with me (a paid service).