The Leaderboard

“We are out to build the next place for canonical knowledge on the Internet” - Jude Gomila, Founder at Golden

This is the optimistic idea behind Golden, a Wikipedia alternative for billions of niche topics, companies, technologies and futuristic concepts.

This is a big undertaking. Wikipedia has been around for the past 18 years (yes, we looked this up on Wikipedia) and is known across the internet as an amazing resource for information. Naturally, Golden's launch had some mixed reactions:

“I feel the two greatest advantages this website will have over Wikipedia are the accessibility and reliability.” - Daniel

“Wikipedia is a non-profit which has democratized knowledge for millions of people - why would you want to compete with that?” - Nick

“There is a ton of potential here. I much prefer this UX to the Wiki UX. I have always had a problem with how Wikipedia updated its content.” - Zaigham

“Looks like a smarter Wikipedia (both for readers and editors). Plus a real business model so you don't have to bother people for money all the time. I can imagine Golden making a huge positive impact on society.” - Nathan

The business model: Golden will be free to use, but the startup plans to make money by charging large companies who want more advanced queries and AI tools for their own data. The company has also raised a $5M seed round.

The problem with Wikipedia: Jude cites that the issue with Wikipedia is its “arbitrary notability threshold,” meaning topics pages are deleted for not being notable enough.

The Golden approach: Golden is kicking things off with topics like cell- and plant-based meats, cryptocurrency consensus mechanisms, microbiomes, artificial intelligence and startups. The company also wants to give contributors a more user-friendly UI. Folks can already embed videos, academic papers and other multimedia content onto Golden pages.

The long-term mission: Golden wants to cover over 10 billion topics over time, and plans to use AI to help in its curation of information.

Add your thoughts and questions about Golden here.

Earlier this week, Marriott revealed that it is rolling out an Airbnb-esque service called Homes & Villas, which will allow folks to rent upscale properties through the hotel chain.

The program began last year with a small pilot with homes in London, and now includes 2,000 luxury homes in more than 100 different cities. As the world's largest hotel company, Marriott already has a presence in 40 of these markets. With Homes & Villas, the chain is expanding to hard-to-reach destinations like the Amalfi Coast, North Lake Tahoe and Saint-Tropez.

The luxury homes will all be equipped with Wi-Fi and hotel-equivalent amenities. These properties will really be more of a competitor to Airbnb Plus, which launched last February to offer hotel-like services to its customers.

It seems like Airbnb wants to be more like Marriott, and Marriott wants to be more like Airbnb. 🤔 From the comments:

“Marriott’s challenge (and current strength) is an old-school hospitality mindset rooted in real estate and in-person service, whereas Airbnb focused building on scalable software that connects people. It will be interesting to see if Marriott can scale this efficiently.” - Justin

To start, Marriott is reportedly renting out properties like:

🍷 A four-bedroom cottage on six private acres of California wine country
🌊 An oceanfront villa in Anguilla with a private beach
🏰 An 18th century Irish Castle that sleeps 17 guests

For other unique travel accommodations, you can also try out PlansMatter (for architecture lovers) or Hipcamp (Airbnb for campsites) or Selina (boutique lodging for nomads).

Sooo time for a vacation? ✈️

Yesterday, co-working giant WeWork (which recently rebranded to The We Company) announced that it confidentially filed for an IPO in December.

WeWork will join a growing class of tech firms that have recently gone public, including Lyft, Zoom and Pinterest. Uber and Slack are also expected to IPO in the coming weeks, followed by Airbnb later this year. 💸

The company has reportedly not yet picked bankers, and did not reveal financial information in the filing.

Since WeWork was founded in 2010, it has largely defined the co-working category, growing from one work space in New York City to a global network of offices. Throughout it's tenure, the company has invested in startups like The Wing, and made 13 acquisitions, including services like Meetup and Managed by Q.

WeWork also had a few of its own launches over the years, so we decided to take a trip down memory lane to find out what folks thought of its different *experiments.* 👀

When WeWork got into co-living:

“As a current WeLive member, I can tell you that this new living community is amazing! Apartments are fully furnished, very modern and everyone is extremely friendly. This made my move from SF to NY so much easier.” - Florent

When WeWork opened a private school:

“Maybe one of the most important things that WeWork can do. I hope it pans out so I can send my future offspring there.” - Joshua

When WeWork unveiled in-house convenience stores:

“Interesting move for WeWork, following its expansion into hospitality. At their scale they've become a distribution channel for CPG, similar to Cargo's Uber/Lyft-focused marketplace.” - Ryan

WeWork is now hoping that public investors believe it can turn a profit from its different visions. The company was last valued at $47B.

P.S. You can get 10-20% off a WeWork membership through our Founder Club program. Just an FYI. 💪

P.P.S. If WeWork isn’t your jam, use Workfrom to find a cafe with WiFi and power outlets to camp in.

We want to send you to Brazil, for free! Let's call it endorsing the digital nomad life. Enter to win here.

Courtesy of our friends at Dollar Flight Club and World Nomads, this free trip to Brazil includes roundtrip flights (and travel insurance) to Rio de Janeiro. Think beaches, warm weather and crossing one of the 7 wonders of the world (IRL) off your bucket list.

After you win, download all of these travel apps to make the most of your trip. You can use things like:

👋 Friend Theory for connecting with people while you travel
🎒 Bounce for storing your luggage
😋 What to Eat In for discovering local food

“Blockchain technology has the ability to completely change what it means to own and ultimately value a digital creation” - Dannie Chu, co-founder and CEO of MakersPlace

MakersPlace launched on Product Hunt yesterday with a unique mission: a marketplace to purchase digital art on the blockchain. The company was founded by early Pinterest employees, and just raised $2M in seed funding.

How it works: When artists upload their work to MakersPlace, they verify their identity (through an integration with Civic) by taking a photo of their driver's license. An Ethereum-based token is then generated with the artists's name, the name of the artwork, its edition number and the date. This allows artists to simply establish proof of ownership for each work.

“It’s this creator-first approach that has allowed us to introduce and onboard hundreds of digital creators onto the blockchain over the last months. Many who have never heard of or care to understand the details of blockchain technology, but simply wish for a better solution to protect and make money from their digital creations.”

On the buyer side, it's also remarkably easy. While you typically need a digital wallet to make purchases on the blockchain, MakersPlace recognizes that a lot of people down already own a digital wallet or Ether, creating a barrier for this type of sale. So the company partnered with Stripe to support credit card purchases, and then MakersPlace will issue you a digital wallet.

While digital art has traditionally been deemed 'less valuable' than physical art, MakersPlace hopes to make digital art more authentic with this approach. Each and every work has been digitally signed and issued by the creator, making every single purchase unique. To make money, MakersPlace takes a 15 percent cut of each sale.

The art world has been traditionally rooted in insular, relationship-driven practices, and when it comes to adapting new technologies, has been particularly slow to the uptake. But as digitally-native platforms are becoming more and more common for all types of commerce, that's gradually starting to change.

Platforms like Artsy ($100M raised) have managed to make inroads in the space — the site makes money by hosting live online auctions and over 2,000 galleries pay monthly subscriptions to advertise work on the site. Earlier this year, online auction house Paddle8 was acquired by The Native to create an auction that accepts bitcoin. Sotheby's — an old school art auction house — recently bought AI startup Thread Genius to build out its image recognition tech. For displaying digital art in your home, there's also Meural, which was acquired by Netgear. For buying and selling goods on the blockchain, there's Rare Bits and SuperRare. 👀

“There's a ton of job opportunities constantly being tweeted out there and as much as I tried to retweet them all, they still got lost in the feeds.”

This is the problem that led Maker Dann Petty to create a *different* type of job board. The result is Epic Jobs. 👀

How it's unique: Epic Jobs sets itself apart from other job boards in that its listings feel human. Dann observed how personal tweets about open jobs garnered attention, and replicated that feeling on the platform. Job seekers can browse 90-140 second video clips called “Intros,” where they can learn about the opportunity directly from the hiring manager. The site also features “Office Tours,” which are fun videos that give you a virtual tour of a company's workspace.

Some initial reactions:

“I find the interviews super interesting, many questions I'd ask during the interview process already answered” - Julie

“Adds the human element that is often missing in the hiring process” - Pradip

“I don't think I'd be in my current role if it wasn't for the connections that I made via Twitter. Can't wait to see where all this goes.” - Josh

It's worth noting that Epic didn't come to be overnight. In fact, Dann has been connecting people to jobs via Twitter since 2010, and has been conducting experiments, polls and interviews about hiring along the way.

It's a novel idea in a crowded — albeit difficult to crack — job hunting market. Beyond big tech incumbents like LinkedIn, we've seen more and more niche job boards crop up. And if you're looking for a job at a startup specifically, definitely check out AngelList (but we're biased 😉). If you’re hiring, you can also promote your job to millions of talented makers in the Product Hunt community.

Today’s Daily Digest was crafted by Product Hunt and sponsored by our friends at Brex.

You may recognize Brex from its subway ads in New York City or giant billboards spread throughout San Francisco. Brex is making a splash.

Brex, a Y Combinator-backed startup that provides corporate credit cards for other startups, raised $100M in debt financing from Barclays last week. The news comes just six months after a $215M equity round, valuing the company at $1.1B. Did we mention that the founders — Henrique Dubugras and Pedro Franceschi — are only 22- and 23-years-old?

So how does Brex work? 👀

Through its Rewards program, Brex offers perks that include multipliers like 7x on rideshare, 4x on travel, 3x on restaurants, and 2x on software, plus access to a lounge in San Francisco for Brex card holders. And Brex gives entrepreneurs a credit limit that's 10-20 times higher than other services.

Brex is also shaking things up by giving founders access to high-limit corporate credit cards without requiring a personal guarantee or deposit. For anyone without a credit score (like many immigrant founders), this is game-changing. Brex is also part of Mastercard World Elite, giving early-stage entrepreneurs total fraud protection and travel benefits, like no foreign transaction fees.

The kicker? Founders can secure one of these cards in five minutes. The company offers instant approvals with a virtual card, and then you’ll receive your physical card 3-5 days later. Oh, and it’s worth mentioning — there’s no annual fee. 💸

Want a Brex card?

Luminary officially launched today with a big bet — that you will pay for podcasts.

The paid podcasting app is already backed by $100M in venture funding pre-launch, claiming to bring “Netflix for podcasts” to the public. Starting today, Luminary will offer both a paid and free tier. The free tier will include many publicly available shows. The paid tier will give users access to 40 new exclusive podcasts, including new shows from personalities like How I Built This host Guy Raz, Daily Show host Trevor Noah, Girls creator Lena Dunham, Queer Eye's Karamo Brown and Planet Money's Adam Davidson.

However, Luminary's platform will be missing some of the biggest shows in the industry, including The New York Times' The Daily and Gimlet Media's Reply All.

To be sure, Luminary's model is like Netflix. A paid subscription will run you $8/month and the exclusive content will be ad-free. But what Luminary is really betting on is that you will pay for premium audio content. 💸

It's worth noting that Spotify is also taking a big bet on premium content, having just acquired Gimlet Media and Anchor for high-quality, proprietary shows to level up again Apple. Apple is the current market leader in podcasts.

Will Luminary — a late player in the podcasting world — be competitive with Spotify and Apple? 🤔

Based on existing streaming services, the current market indicates that arriving first gives a big advantage. As of November, Netflix reported 137 million subscribers, far beyond Hulu's reported 20 million subscribers. However, Amazon Prime (which includes Prime Video) has over 100M subscribers from its integrated services, making it somewhat of a close competitor to Netflix.

Something else worth noting: TV streaming services are starting to partner with audio streaming services. Earlier this month, Hulu and Spotify expanded their partnership to offer unlimited access to both services for $12.99/month.

A winning strategy for Luminary could look something like this — especially if it partnered with, say, Netflix.

One more thing: The podcast business in China is 23x more valuable than it is in the U.S. because of paid subscriptions, so Luminary could be onto something.

Happy Earth Day! We hope that you spend sometime offline today with Mother Nature herself.

To celebrate, we're highlighting Makers who are working hard to preserve our planet, especially as climate change is becoming more of an existential threat. We've gathered some of our favorite nuggets of wisdom from these pioneering entrepreneurs:

Loop is a reusable packaging subscription service on a mission to phase out single-use plastics. Global recycling organization TerraCycle is behind Loop, along with big brands like Procter & Gamble, Nestlé, PepsiCo, Unilever and Danone.

“Every day, more and more disposable material gets put in the ocean and landfills, so no matter how much we clean the ocean or recycle we’re never going to solve the problem. To us, the root cause of waste is not plastic, it’s using things once, and that’s really what Loop tries to change as much as possible” - Tom Szaky, TerraCycle CEO

Blueland is creating everyday cleaning products designed to reduce plastic waste through its creative packaging (or lack thereof). They launched on Product Hunt today.

“I decided two years ago to cut back on my plastic consumption, but then realized that many times I just had no choice as a consumer. So many of our everyday goods such as window cleaner, toothpaste and laundry detergent, all come packaged in just one way - single-use plastic. So I founded Blueland with the belief that you don't have to sacrifice a clean home for a clean planet. And to make the biggest impact possible we've focused on making it easy for people to make the right choice with products that are effective, money-saving and convenient.” - Sarah Paiji, Blueland CEO

Sustain makes tampons, condoms and lubricants that are — you guessed it — sustainable. The company uses organic ingredients for all of its products and works with rubber plantations to keep toxins out of the environment.

"The way I think about 'sustainable' products is not just about ingredients, packaging, or how the product will be used and how much energy that consumes. Instead, I think about it based on the products' 'net impact.' For example, condoms are a 'net positive' product because when you compare the supply chain, manufacturing, shipping, using, and disposing of the product, the costs come nowhere near close to outweighing the benefits of helping prevent climate change (overpopulation is one of the largest drivers), the spread of HIV, and the ability for women to plan their family size." - Meika Hollender, Sustain CEO

GIF credit: John McColgan

Earlier this week, news broke that Facebook is reportedly prototyping horizontally swipeable cards to combine News Feed and Stories into a single feed. Why? It's doubling down on Stories.

Instagram (owned by Facebook) rolled out Stories over two years ago, directly copying the feature (down to the name) from Snapchat Stories. Since then, Stories has supercharged Instagram and Facebook, slowed down Snapchat and grown to 500 million daily active users. A few months ago, Instagram also briefly switched to a horizontal, tap-to-advance feed “by accident.”

Mishap or not, Stories are starting to dominate social media platforms across the board. A few weeks ago, Snapchat announced a new developer kit to integrate Snapchat Stories into other apps like Tinder and Houseparty. This week, Google announced its rolling out AMP Stories — its own answer to Stories — to Google Search, meaning they'll have a dedicated section in search results.

A new startup called Jumprope ($4.5M raised) just launched on Product Hunt to make Stories-like how-to videos. The app lets anyone easily create videos that are shot as casually as Instagram Stories, and it helps people discover how to do everything from yoga poses to oil changes.

The key to Stories is that they're visual — they focus on photos and videos in short snippets of content. As a creator, they're easy to shoot and edit. And as a viewer, you can control the speed at which you consume them.

We've seen a few other startups make inroads in this space as well. There's Supergreat for honest makeup reviews. There's Buffer Stories Creator and Insense Stories Video Editor for editing Stories outside of Instagram's limits. There's Medium Series for Medium and Twitter Moments for Twitter. And of course, there's another product called Stories for watching trending YouTube videos.