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Our ultra-fast Daily: Three takes on new products. Yesterday’s top ten launches. That’s it.

The web’s on fire 🔥

Time to rise and grind. It’s Hustle Hour.

Golden Kitty Award winner Uizard launched Uizard Hat 1.0 today. The team is taking no-code to the next level, claiming that the new product lets you create design mockups straight from your mind. The makers explained that in order to unleash the power of true design thinking, all you need to do is “put on your Uizard Hat 1.0, visualize your product, and there you have it: from idea, straight into fully interactive prototype.” Talk about visionary.

Speaking of no-code, the Clover team is feeling nostalgic and launched CloverCities. The website builder brings back the creativity of the early web for Web 1.0 homepages. Think glitter, rainbow, and neon. “The drag and drop interface is packed with everything you need to express yourself and possibly cause seizures,” the team explained.

If you’re more of a “go outside and get your hands dirty” kind of maker, VC Turner Novak is launching the Banana Capital Accelerator. The premise is simple: receive $125k for 7% ownership of your banana farm. And we all know how much VCs love to be helpful, so they promise to roll up their sleeves, dig deep, and plant the seeds of the future. They “add value with capital, advice, fertilizer discounts, and an exclusive customer network.” Call us intrigued.

We’re not sure what it was, but today felt like a great day for product launches. Here are a few more unbelievably good ones that caught our eye:

🎮 Finally, a productive way to use your PS5. The FlutterFlow Console lets you build native mobile apps directly from your joystick.

👃 Pond5 Nasal Navigator uses advanced olfactory technology to identify smells you just can’t put your nose on.

😾 ShameBot by WFHomie makes shaming your teammates easy. Whenever they make a mistake, ask a dull question, or make a cringy comment, this is how you make them question their self-worth.

🎥 Hide the Pain Harold's April Prank helps you create personalized prank videos with the Internet’s meme-star.

The state of burnout in tech

Two in five workers show signs of burnout.

That’s one of the insights the Yerbo team found from surveying 30,000 participants for The State of Burnout in Tech 2022.

The team built an interactive way of looking at how the syndrome fuels turnover, particularly in tech companies. While we love watching and documenting makers’ hustle to launch great products, it’s important to recognize the tell-tale signs of burnout. The report identifies these as exhaustion, self-inefficacy, cynicism, and depersonalization, referring to them as “the ghosts of burnout.”

Meet the techman – “(they) love what they do, but feel pressured to work long hours, which leaves little time for personal life and creates work-life conflicts,” researchers explained. A few interesting findings point to some differences in how burnout affects different people. Women seem to be more affected, with “69% feeling run-down and drained, compared to 56% of men.”

You might think those in leadership positions are less vulnerable due to a higher sense of achievement. Well, you’d be wrong. The research shows there’s not a significant difference between ICs (34.5%) and managers (30.5%).

Looking out for the well-being of employees is no doubt the most efficient way to avoid chronic workplace stress, and there are tools out there that can help.

Quan identifies the root cause of well-being problems and points to the most effective solutions for managers and teams.

🧘 Cuely provides 1-min guided exercises delivered through Slack to help you stay well throughout the day.

🛁 Proof of Self Care encourages you to take a break and do some act of self-love.

What do you think? Do you identify with those two in five workers? Go ahead and…

The Web3 job hunt

Employers are still struggling to fill jobs and retain employees and it looks like some of those just entering the workforce are ditching suits for the metaverse.

There are at least a couple reasons why people are interested in switching to a career in Web3. One is that Web3 provides younger candidates the opportunity to become an expert without the need for decades of experience. Another? It pays WELL. “Regardless if you like it or not, Web3 is easily 2x to 5x what Silicon Valley pays,” NomadList founder shared after coming across a $750k/year job posting.

Yesterday we saw the launch of Hustleverse, a community that wants to help engineers, designers, marketers, PMs, and community managers in Web2 onboard and transition their careers to Web3. “We’ll host events with Web3 founders and builders to teach community members about Web3 tools and career opportunities. We’ll also facilitate high-level peer networking to help members build their network,” maker and Creative Director at early-stage VC Hustle Fund, Hung Pham, shares.

If you’re still on the fence about this Web3 thing, you can also window shop. Web3 Jobs has 15,256 jobs and 2,231 projects listed that you can browse. You can also sign up to receive a daily or weekly round-up of new jobs added. You know, just in case.

Hunted takes a slightly different approach. It connects you with Web3 startups that can commit to your desired salary. You get to stay anonymous until you interview and earn NFTs along the way.
Turnkey rentals

Window shopping on Redfin and Playhouse may still be our favorite leisure activity, but behind that farmhouse door is the reality of real estate right now.

Investors bought a record share of US homes in 2021, driving up prices for individual home-buyers. The info comes from a new report from Redfin. Investors bought nearly one in seven homes sold in America’s top metropolitan areas (the most in at least two decades), it says.

The report was prompted after Redfin had taken note of stories about individuals or families losing bids on home after home to cash investors. With rents high as well, would-be buyers who are priced out of the market end up spending their paychecks month to month instead.

So what’s the solution? Regulation and legislation are always an option — like one new bill introduced in California that seeks to increase taxes on house flippers.

HomeRoom introduced its solution recently too. It’s a real estate investing platform that says it offers investors the opportunity to earn 50% more, while helping renters pay 50% less.

The premise is to take the real estate buying process digital and remote, letting investors save money which should translate into lower rents. HomeRoom’s turnkey experience connects investors to everything from financing to construction managers to local teams that furnish and tech out your rental property. The team helps match investors with renters too. The startup says it’s currently at a 90+% occupancy with 99% investor retention.

The barrier to entry might still be too high for some investors, as one commenter pointed out.

But maker Johnny Stryker Wolff Jr. says the startup is competitive — ”even in this market — with [out of pocket] down payment costs from ~85k-150k.” He continued, “A core pillar of our mission is democratizing access to real estate as an investment - it's THE most recession-proof way to build wealth...”

Can HomeRoom provide an everybody-wins solution, keeping rental prices low while helping make real estate investing accessible? What do you think — ready to close, or still not sold?

Top Launches:RecutRecutDraftsDraftsGoIndie
A digital CFO for start-ups

“This launch was planned in February, but one greedy little man had a plan to invade Ukraine. So we had to evacuate Fuel's Ukrainian team over those last two weeks.” That’s not something we hear every day in a maker comment.

Alyona Mysko started working on Ukraine-based Fuelfinance after being a start-up CFO for over eight years. “Founders are not financially savvy, and good CFOs are expensive and often not a priority. State of the art is Quickbooks + Excel spreadsheets. ERPs like Netsuite cost $100k+ and 12+ months of setup to start with,” she shares.

Yaroslav Azhnyuk, who previously co-founded Petcube (one of the most prominent startups originating from Ukraine) was one of Fuelfinance’s clients. He first joined the company as an advisor and later as a co-founder, helping Mysko and team build a product that feels faster, affordable, and not-looking like it came from the 90s.

The start-up wants to act as a cloud-based financial department for other companies. Its web-based app paired with in-house consultants help put together profit and loss statements, financial projections, and budget runway for the next 6-12-18 months, estimating what may happen and what’s likely to happen.

Fuelfinance saw great support from the community when it launched last week with over 1,100 upvotes. One maker expressed interest sharing, “the pain point is undeniable,” while others vouched that the product saves them from headaches.

With recent news of fintech unicorn Ramp raising yet another massive round and Mercury helping founders get minimal dilution funding, we’re seeing a lot of products aimed at supporting founders in managing and automating their finances in more non-traditional ways.

So, what do you think, is it about time we…

GIFs that keep on giving

What’s the most insignificant hill in tech you will die on?

For some, it’s the GIF. The fact that its pronunciation creates such a squabble shows just how much we all value GIFs.

Yesterday the internet found out that Stephen Wilhite, the man credited with creating the GIF, died. It responded with gratitude for the engineer and reflection on what GIFs have meant to pop culture. Some got nostalgic for simpler times when a GIF of a dancing baby was all anyone could talk about. Many shared the backstory behind the Graphics Interchange Format — tl;dr: Wilhite created the GIF after being tasked with figuring out how to distribute high-res color graphics quickly at Compuserve. The prototype took about a month to build and GIFs launched in June of 1987. The first image Wilhite created was a picture of an airplane.

Hard G-ers, this might also be your day to face the music, in honor of Wilhite, who has clarified without hesitation that it’s pronounced “JIF,” with a soft G. “The Oxford English Dictionary accepts both pronunciations. They are wrong. It is a soft ‘G,’ pronounced ‘jif.’ End of story.” Ouch.

In our own ode to Wilhite (We LOVE GIFs — was it not obvious?), we’re highlighting a handful of the newest products that make GIFs easy to create and tons of fun. Without Wilhite’s work, none of these products, and so many more, would be possible.

  • Text Chat Animator - Simulate a messaging conversation and create a GIF of it
  • Sergif - Record a GIF with your webcam and share it with your friends
  • Simplified Animation Maker - Animate your designs in one click and share as GIFs (and more)
  • PaintSnap - Turn your photos into paintings. This app creates a GIF of the brushstrokes
  • KIKLIKO - Like Giphy but for GIFs with sounds to share in messaging apps and beyond
  • GIF Export - Export GIFs from Figma
  • Meet Cam - Overlay fun GIFs, meeting timers, and more on your camera

Got a Product Hunt launch coming up soon? You can also check out this How-To on creating an animated thumbnail with Lottie and Canva.

Fixing founder and investor relations

“Let me know how I can be helpful.”

That sounds like a friendly offer, but for those deep in startup world, it’s a punch line too. The phrase, spoken from investors to founders, often unintentionally amounts to lip service.

It may seem trivial but the topic matters because founders have so many more options for approaching funding today than they had five years ago — secondary markets for private equity, crowdfunding, bootstrapping, minimally-dilutive capital, micro-investments, and factoring. So founders who do approach VC investment often seek more than just cash. They want investors who align with their vision and, well, help.

And many do want to help. Ex-founders and early-stage employees-turned-investors especially understand the grind, and sit on a trove of wisdom and expertise. As Alexis Ohanian put it: “I truly believe the future belongs to those who can assemble and activate their cap tables to be a league of super contributors.”

There are two problems, “founders are busy and can’t put tasks on a silver platter, and investors want to help but don’t want to step on toes,” explained Brian Murray, an investor and Partner at Craft Ventures, in a Product Hunt Maker Story.

So Murray and his co-founder, Fahim Ferdous (who also co-founded AdQuick), built Cabal.

Cabal is an all-in-one platform to help founders and teams surface what they need from investors and make it easy for them to contribute. The tool combines an email client, an e-signature product, a lightweight CRM, and workflows.

In a demo, Murral illustrates some of the tools including one of Cabal’s workflow features, the Ask tab. Here, founders can share a page with advisors that shows which companies the startup is targeting, and people the advisor knows at those companies. Startups can draft pre-written emails that advisors can use to reach out to the contacts.

Check out the demo video to see other ways investors can be helpful.

Make slides great again

“This is something I'm really passionate about,” Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn co-founder, and Partner at Greylock shared on Tome’s launch page today. Hoffman has been working with the team behind the product for the past two years and led their seed round.

Makers Keith Peiris and Henri Liriani, who both led Product at companies like Facebook and Citizen, started working on Tome after becoming frustrated with existing slide tools that forced them to spend time on formatting rather than on crafting the message. The fact that slides have historically been difficult to manage from a mobile device didn’t sit right with them either.

Tome positions itself as “a storytelling tool for work.” The app is a slide builder that supports sharing and presenting dynamic, complex ideas – think 3D models, motion graphics, or interactive charts, through tile-based formatting that automatically structures the layout of the content. It’s been built to feel native on mobile, allowing you to collaborate with your team through comments, mentions, and seen states. You can think of it as “a Pitch meets FigJam hybrid.”

We’re big fans of storytelling here at Product Hunt, so what’s interesting about Tome’s launch is its focus on helping make hard concepts easier to explain. It does this by allowing you to use narration, annotations, and web embeds, removing communication barriers that may arise from using text and images only.

While today is the first time the app publicly launches, Tome has been built alongside early users at Superhuman, Flexport, and Neeva who use it for internal design demos, reviewing customer feedback, and team all-hands.

The team has started working to integrate apps like Figma, Framer, Looker, and Airtable but wants to hear what you’d like to be able to add to your presentations.

The founders will be hanging around to discuss any questions and ideas you may have, so head to the comments. 👇

Bio links are booming

We’re actually surprised we didn’t see this sooner but alas, Shopify has launched its own Link in Bio tool called Linkpop.

The humble bio link may seem like old news, and why wouldn’t it? Many of us probably come across that “click the link in my bio” call-to-action daily. But the bio link has transitioned from footnote to the main character — another market boosted by the pandemic and now riding the tailwinds of the creator economy.

AJ, the founder of Carrd, told the Verge that he had to start building out his team when the bio link part of the business started growing in 2020. Influencers picked up the tool as the Black Lives Matter movement started picking up steam. Then there’s Jijo Sunny and the makers behind Buy Me A Coffee. They launched Bio Link recently, announcing that it grew to serve 170k creators with 4M monthly visitors in the six months after its beta launch.

Last week Linktree, which is probably the most well-known name in the business with more than 24 million users, joined the unicorn club. Co-founder Alex Zaccaria told TechCrunch last March about its hyper-speed growth — 4 million new users within just three months.

Linktree just announced a partnership with Shopify at the end 2021, enabling users to launch a storefront on their Linktree page. Shopify’s new product will now compete — it features customizable pages, lets users shop directly on bio pages, and delivers a “page-load about one-fifth the size of other bio tools.”

With millions of users on Linktree, it’s likely that a partnership still makes sense for Shopify, as an offering for its own 1.75 million users, but the new product may remind other startups that the market is delicate. As AJ put it to the Verge, “One technical change on any of the platforms, by allowing people to link to various things from their page, could destroy these services.”

If you have any questions or feedback on Linkpop, make sure to drop it here👇 for the Shopify team today.

Google Analytics for your health

What’s better: getting in 10,000 steps a day or switching to a Mediterranean diet? Well, it depends. Being able to tell what’s making you feel great (or not) is hard and varies by person.

Enter Cor.

We first heard about it six years ago when founder Bob Messerschmidt launched a crowdfunding campaign. As the former Director of Platform Architecture for Apple's Optics and Spectroscopy team, Messerschmidt had worked on bringing Apple Watch health sensors to market. After a long hiatus of heads-down building, Messerschmidt is back.

Cor is an at-home infrared spectrometer that uses your blood to provide insights into how lifestyle tweaks affect your health.

Infrared spectrometers use specific wavelengths of light to identify and quantity molecular changes. The spectrometer is the size of a WiFi router and comes with analytics tracking tens of millions of data points. You’ll have to prick your finger and gather a small sample of blood every week, but according to the team, you’ll be able to discover what food and fitness practices have the highest impact on you.

This might feel familiar to one infamous Silicon Valley scandal many of us are watching unfold in a dramatized TV series right now. In contrast to Theranos’ culture of secrecy, Cor shares its plans publicly, explaining that insights and profits from their early adopters help scale data and bring the product to the average consumer. Messerschmidt has also been clear about what data Cor can and can’t provide. In an interview with Forbes, he compared the device to current wearables – you can think of Cor as being “1,000x more sensitive than Apple Watch.”

Still, if you’re squeamish at the sight of blood, but like the idea of taking more control over your health, Mage recently launched to help you own your medical records, kind of “like a passport for going into medical facilities.” You can share your health record with a hospital but only for the duration of the visit.