Rahul Parmar

I work with startup teams and use AI tools almost every day for writing, research, support, and more. It saves a lot of time, no doubt. But there are still things AI just can t do well.

For example, when reading customer feedback, AI often misses the real meaning behind the words, like when someone sounds polite but is actually unhappy. Or when making product decisions, AI can list pros and cons, but it doesn t really understand the bigger picture or timing like a human would.

I'm seeing more products launch on Product Hunt that require payment to actually use any features. No free trial, no freemium tier, just a download that leads straight to a paywall.

Part of me thinks this makes sense. If your product has real value, why give it away? People on Product Hunt understand they're looking at premium tools. Plus offering free access can attract users who will never pay anyway.

But I also see the argument for temporary free access during launch. Product Hunt users want to actually try what they're upvoting. How can they give meaningful feedback or become advocates if they hit a paywall immediately?

Hi there! I've been working in content marketing & SEO for almost a decade - and while I've seen many announcements of the death of SEO, the current search climate, combined with the latest announcements from Google are strong signals that SEO may (finally ) be over.

What do you think? Is "answer engine optimization" the answer?