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Our ultra-fast Daily: Three takes on new products. Yesterday’s top ten launches. That’s it.
Our community has been asking us where they can get Product Hunt merch for a while. Historically, we’ve shipped swag to school hackathons around the world and surprised our community with lots of stickers, but we decided to finally shake things up.
We recently spoke with our friends at
fourth wall and they helped us whip together a shop. Starting today, you can buy Product Hunt t-shirts, sweatshirts and stickers
here (thanks to our team members for
modeling).
All profits from merch sold will go to the World Health Organization’s
COVID-19 Response Fund. 😸
Get
your merch! 🎉
P.S. Product Hunt sweats are very comfortable while working from home.
Well, this was well-timed. Slack released
its biggest redesign yesterday, making improvements that specifically target those new to Slack given the recent change to mass remote work.
For Slack veterans, you’ll find new navigation, a new compose button, custom sidebar sections, a new shortcut button for apps and new themes are coming soon. Overall, the stripped down redesign aims to be more customized and simplified, addressing the less intuitive ways the messaging app works for Slack neophytes. 💬
“These changes address a basic challenge that has grown naturally with Slack: with size comes complexity. As different product teams added new capabilities piecemeal, Slack started to feel not intuitive for people trying it out for the first time,” the Slack team
wrote in a blog post.
We’ll see if the new Slack design appeals to a wider range of business users, given that more and more industries have made the recent shift to a distributed workforce.
Speaking of new releases, Apple unveiled its new iPad Pro yesterday. The iPad resembles a laptop more than a tablet; it comes with a new “magic keyboard”
Check it out here. 💻
At this point, a lot of us are reading this from the comfort of our couches/beds/bathrooms, since many folks are working from home right now. If you’ve never worked remotely before or fall in the camp of people who prefer to work in an office, good news — we have some adjustment tips for you. 🏠
Product Hunt has had a remote team from its beginnings (aka for six-plus years), and now operates as a fully distributed team across 7 times zones. We’ve learned a lot as a distributed workforce. We polled our team on their favorite WFH hacks as we all adjust to this temporary change to everyday life.
Some of our favorite tips and tricks:
“Kickstart your day by doing something that makes you feel accomplished (i.e. make your bed or clean something). Listen to music or podcasts — staying in silence at home while you’re working (or not) can make you feel depressed. After your work day, you’ll need a routine to replace your commute. For example, you could clean your desk or your mug. Also, during these strange times, clean your phone, keyboard and other devices with wipes when you wash your hands.“ - Julie, Design
“Get up an hour before you start working and normalize your day by doing tasks as you would before work in an office. Eat breakfast, have coffee, relax or clean.” - Aaron, Community
“Keep your work zone clean as an office.“ - Rado, Engineering
“Schedule a break where you go outside for a walk or sit in another room reading a book. It’s essential to schedule time away from the screen doing something nice for yourself.” - Abadesi, Maker Outreach
“If you have the space, move around your home throughout the day. I rotate between my desk, my couch and the kitchen table to mix it up. If you’re near a window in your designated ‘spots,’ even better.” - Taylor, Editorial
“Know when to log off. WFH can be hard to detach from work because you're always connected and you don't have any travel time between home and work, and this is amplified further if you work with teammates across multiple time zones. Set yourself breaks during the day and a time you plan to finish work and stick to it. Having a normal routine helps you not feeling like your home is your workplace 24 hours a day.” - Dan, Design
“Get dressed for WFH. It creates some psychological thing where you're in the mood to be productive. If you work in your pajamas you're going to work like your in your pajamas.“ - David, Engineering
“I find it helpful to set a specific area to work and when I'm not in that area, I'm not working” - Lanre, Sales
“Use music to reset your mood. If you are musically inclined, working remotely can provide an excellent opportunity to play some music at random points of the day. For instance if I need to clear my mind in between different types of activities to reset my mood - singing (for me) can be a great way to hit reset. For someone else this might be playing a musical instrument or even just listening to a favourite song. A five minute outlet can stimulate creative thinking and relieve stress by taking your mind away from the immediate task before moving on to another. This is much easier to do at home than in an office environment.” - Emily, Operations
We also polled the community for their *unconventional* tips on remote working. What do you think of stretching routines, barista lessons, and one song on repeat?
All the WFH tips here. 👈
Good news for makers all over the world: we’re hosting our first ever online makers summit this July! 🎉
It’s going to be a chance for you to hear from some of the greatest people in the Product Hunt network, from founders to investors to side hustlers. It’s also going to be a great way for makers to make connections within our global community. Bonus: It’s all free! 💸
What to expect: We’ll be serving up presentations, panels and Q&As covering all the big topics of the year, including D2C, privacy and big data, remote working, no-code making, AI and automation, AR /VR, audio tech and so much more. You’ll hear from industry experts as well as makers on the rise who are making moves in new spaces.
We’re excited to work with Hopin on this, as their platform allows us to create the same level of interaction you’d enjoy if we were meeting IRL. We’ll have networking sessions where we can chat with each other and virtual booths that let you enjoy demos and live chats with some of the amazing tech brands we’ll be partnering with.
Reserve your spot now. Register
here. 👈
We’re also looking for great brands to partner with for the summit. If you’d like to get involved as a sponsor, register your interest
here. If you're interested in speaking at the summit, we would also love to hear from you! Email hello@producthunt.com with your proposed topic.
While you might be staying home amid the coronavirus outbreak right now, it's possible you have some newfound free time. We’re already seeing a trend on Product Hunt where makers are launching products to help those stuck at home find new hobbies, focus on productivity and stay connected to others virtually.
A sampling of new things to try (these all launched within the past week):
👀
No Code Challenges are weekly challenges to test your no code skills. Each week, you’ll learn to develop a tool or product without using code
“Awesome growing community! Glad to be a part of it.” - Greg
🎨
Noshi Food Paint is paint...for your food. One set comes with three tubes of different-colored organic fruit puree (strawberry, peach and blueberry) that kids (or adults!) can paint on their food.
“My kids were picky eaters so I invented something to get them interested in — and engaged with — their food. And it worked.” - Noshi
📕
Read This Twice is a verified book recommendations site from entrepreneurs, authors, investors, scientists and politicians. Every single recommendation on the website has been verified by someone influential and a source link to the recommendation.
“Browsing your website made my reading list grow uncontrollably” - Arshak
🙏
Atom lets you easily add meditation as a habit to your routine. The app uses principles of behavioral psychology and research on habit building to make mindful meditation productive.
“Being a person with a very restless mind, trying to meditate in the first place and then committing to it to form a habit is something I was never able to do. Atom has actually made it easier for me to do that.” - Atishay
🙌
Quarantivity is a collection of positive projects launching from around the world right now. What can you create in the face of adversity and the unknown?
“They say necessity is the mother of invention.” - Adam
In 2018, we saw a version of
Brizzly launch for social media quitters. It was like a Twitter “substitute,” where users could type what they’re thinking, hit send and get a dopamine hit.
“Brizzly was my favorite Twitter client before Twitter killed off all the Twitter clients. They invented the summaries that explain what’s trending and why. (Twitter added them way later.) I cannot wait to use the new Brizzly.” - Brian
Today, Brizzly is launching
a new iteration of its Twitter client. For $6 per month, you can now “edit” tweets using Brizzly; the app gives you an undo button and auto-deletion features. 👀
How it works: The undo button is really a set delay between when a person sends their tweet and when it actually posts (the length of the delay is up to you — it can be up to 10 minutes). If you choose to “redo” your tweet, Brizzly will also let you make changes to the copy and then delete your old tweet. It’s as close to editing tweets as it gets right now since Twitter founder Jack Dorsey has said it will probably never happen.
If you want to use Brizzly’s auto-delete feature, you can set a time period (anywhere from 24 hours to one month) that ensures your tweets delete after you send them. You can also “fave to save” your favorite tweets to save them from being deleted.
Some more products to improve your Twitter experience: 👇
🐦
Refined Twitter for a simplified UI
🐦
Twitter Lite for faster connection speeds
🐦
Twitter Try to tweet from your desktop
🐦
Flitter for more customization on Twitter
Yesterday,
we wrote about the novelty of short, one-on-one video calls with the people in your life who you normally don’t make time to catch up with. Today we’re looking at one-on-one video calls with people who are in your life in a different way, meaning you follow them on Instagram. 🤳
Superpeer just raised $2 million to help influencers and experts making money with one-on-one video calls. The idea is reminiscent of Cameo,
the app where fans can pay celebrities for video shout outs, but Superpeer intends to support “the knowledge economy.” 👋
“Creators and influencers get paid for all the knowledge they share, helping them create more personalized platform through which they can connect with their fans in a more meaningful way. We hope soon, every Twitter bio, every Github repo, Linkedin, Dribbble profile say, every Youtube video ends with ‘if you want to connect with me or have any questions, please book a time with me,” - Superpeer Maker Devrim Yasar wrote on Product Hunt.
As a follower, Superpeer can help answer your follow-up questions after you, say, watch a how-to video from a YouTube creator. Through these one-on-one videos, you can have an in-depth, brain-picking types of conversations with experts and Superpeer will handle all the logistics for booking the actual call. In that regard, it’s a platform for monetized virtual “coffee meetings” with in-demand people more than anything. ☕️
Would you pay money for this?
Tell us in the comments.
Here’s what early adopters think:
“Making a more professional-focused service that's kind of like Calendly meets Cameo is so well timed given the rise of the influencer market.“ - Chris
“I hope it takes off and becomes a viable way for influencers to make a living without sponsorships and ads” - Ramy
“Easier than Patreon.” - Julia
“When life gets busy, I’ve often found myself struggling to maintain meaningful relationships with people who matter to me. Living far away from my close friends and family has often been lonely. And as a startup cofounder, I’m always at work putting out fires (usually one’s that I’ve created), making it hard to make time for calls. Unintentionally, I often neglect the most important part of my life: people.“ - Brian Li, Maker at Glimpse
Glimpse, an app for two-minute, one on one video calls with your friends (and friends of friends) is looking to change that. Li, along with co-founder Helena Merk, built Glimpse in seven days. The first version of the app looked more like Chatroulette, but after Glimpse was rejected from the App store, the founders speculated that building an app that let friends and friends of friends have short video chats might be more valuable. 🙌
The result is a hybrid between quick text messages and one-hour calls — two-minute video calls to quickly say hi. In light of college campuses shutting down around world, the product could also be perfectly timed. 🤳
“We learned just a few hours ago that Duke too would be shifting to a remote campus for the remainder of the semester. It’s frustrating to know that we will miss out on not only the academic but social experience of one of the most formative parts of our lives. Our launch of Glimpse is coincidentally timely. I’m excited to join rooms of my friends who normally would be down the hall and have meaningful conversations. I want an authentic view into my friends’ lives, not the highlight reel of Instagram and FB.” - Mary Gooneratne, an employee at Glimpse, wrote on Product Hunt.
Will people use this instead of FaceTime and texting? Some thoughts from the PH community:
“Investing an entire hour when a friend calls is a lot, so when I’m busy I don’t pick up. That’s led to a few months of no contact…totally on me. But if my friends had sent me a ‘glimpse’ instead, and I knew the call would be two minutes, I would be SO down to take a break from my work.“ - Karthik
“I love the concept of limiting calls to two minutes — absolutely a game changer in terms of efficient communication.” - Lincoln
“Love the idea of catching a glimpse into my friends' life. Definitely neglect a ton of relationships when life gets too busy.” - Eric
Would you use this? Try it out and tell us what you think
here.
The Makers behind
DoNotPay, a “robot lawyer” that helps you dispute parking tickets and the like, launched a new product this week. It’s a
subscription sharing Chrome extension, where people can share their online subscriptions to services like Spotify, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney + and Hulu without giving away their password. 💬
How it works: Once you install the Chrome extension, you can generate a share link from whatever subscription service you’re logged in to. You can then copy the link to share or enter the email address of the person you want to share your account with, and that’s it. There isn’t a limit on how many people you can share the link with, but you may get booted off your account if you and too many of your friends are streaming simultaneously. It’s important to note that both the sender and the recipient need to have the Chrome extension installed to benefit from this arrangement, and that the actual account owner can revoke sharing whenever they want. And while the Chrome extension is free, DoNotPay plans to use it to publicize it’s robot lawyer services.
How it actually works: DoNotPay shares logged-in sessions by encrypting cookies for the website that is shared.
The idea is to help people save money by sharing and, ahem, trading subscriptions with each other. For example, if you have an Amazon Prime account but no Netflix account, you can swap access with your friend who has Netflix but not Amazon. 👀
Speaking of streaming, MSCHF (the “Banksy of the Internet”
that talked to us a while back) just launched Allthestreams.fm, where they’re “pirating” content from Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, HBONow, Prime Video and Showtime (because they have subscriptions). They’re essentially broadcasting a continuous stream of one random show from each “channel,” which plays live on their website. At the time of writing, The Office was streaming. Kind of brilliant. 📺
Happy (belated) International Women’s Day! 🎉
ICYMI: IWD was yesterday, and to celebrate we’re highlighting women makers and their infinite wisdom. Every day, we see women launch their creations on Product Hunt, where they’ve shared things like
how to finance an at-home reproductive testing startup, how to
make your startup safe for transgender people, how to
make crypto useful for young people, how to
build an unconventional product for women and
how parenthood can change how you think about your job.
We’ve gathered some of our favorite nuggets of advice from empowering makers and startup leaders below. Enjoy! 💪
Cynthia Huang, CEO at
Altcoin Fantasy, shares how becoming a crypto founder
helped her get over her imposter syndrome.
“As a new founder, you now not only have to do that thing that you have no experience in, but you have to excel at it in order to make your company a success. The downside? It can feel like you’re constantly failing. The upside? Getting over your fear of failure really fast because it slaps you in the face over and over until you either adapt or stop being a founder.”
Sophia Amoruso, CEO at Girlboss, discusses her experience learning the new meaning of “product,” and
how she set out to build a product that’s accessible to everyone.
“For women who were able to buy my book — that was a luxury. I’ve had women tell me that they couldn’t afford my book, so they checked it out from the library, then were able to get a job, and then bought the book because they could then afford it. That’s the girl I want to make sure has the opportunity to be part of this platform because she’s the person who needs it most.”
Check Warner, Partner at Ada Ventures, talks about how privilege has led to venture capital’s lack of accessibility, and
what steps we can take to address societal inequalities.
“Unless we talk about this reality and take steps to address it, I don’t believe anything will change. Some of the key drivers behind venture capital’s lack of accessibility involves the money needed to have a seat at the table or start a VC fund in the first place. These roles are preserved for the very few.“
Steph Smith, Maker of
FeMake,
Eunoia,
Make Yourself Great Again and
nomad (hubb), shares her experience
learning how to code, and how that taught her that she was often her biggest blocker.
“For years, I told myself that others who had found success in tech were cut from a different cloth, and given different opportunities than I was given. While some of these notions may hold truth in specific scenarios, I had built a habit of making these assumptions without properly vetting their accuracy. Most of the stories I told myself were myths.“
Jenny Gyllander, founder of
Thing Testing, talks about
how she grew her side project to a full-time gig.
“At the beginning, I struggled to identify if I was building this more for VCs or for consumers. But what I think is a common trait among VCs and consumers who follow me is curiosity. People tell me that they’ve bought things I’ve reviewed and founders tell me that VCs contact them after being reviewed. It’s great to be a part of that.”
Allison Esposito Medina, founder of
Hire Tech Ladies, shares how
she bootstrapped a business rooted in community.
“Although we've been profitable from day one, being bootstrapped means having to problem solve creatively, plan carefully, and make all the right bets at the right time (pressure!). On the flip side, being bootstrapped means we've had to be laser-focused and prioritize on an almost daily basis. Those are good things for any community and any business, so it's both a blessing and a challenge.”













