The Roundup
Everything you missed this past week on Product Hunt: Top products, spicy community discourse, key trends on the site, and long-form pieces we’ve recently published.
Elon Musk's newest company! 👀
It all started the morning of Dec 17th, 2016. Elon Musk was in a Tesla, LA traffic was doing its thing. He pulls out his phone while signaling to the AI (using his thoughts) to take over the wheel, and starts tweeting:
5:05 AM: Traffic is driving me nuts. Am going to build a tunnel boring machine and just start digging...
6:15 AM: It shall be called "The Boring Company"
6:16 AM: Boring, it's what we do
Boring, it's what he did.
On Friday afternoon the world learned that Elon was actually serious, as he revealed this video. It shows an underground network of tunnels where cars travel at 130 mph under major cities.
It's only a matter of time before Netflix has to rename the Science-Fiction category into Near-Term Technology.
P.S. This isn’t the only new company Elon announced this year. He wants to turn people into cyborgs.
5:05 AM: Traffic is driving me nuts. Am going to build a tunnel boring machine and just start digging...
6:15 AM: It shall be called "The Boring Company"
6:16 AM: Boring, it's what we do
Boring, it's what he did.
On Friday afternoon the world learned that Elon was actually serious, as he revealed this video. It shows an underground network of tunnels where cars travel at 130 mph under major cities.
It's only a matter of time before Netflix has to rename the Science-Fiction category into Near-Term Technology.
P.S. This isn’t the only new company Elon announced this year. He wants to turn people into cyborgs.
Win FREE tickets + flights to Disrupt NYC! ✈️🎉
Q: If AirPods are dropped from the top of the Empire State Building, will they break? Help us find out by winning. 😊
TechCrunch Disrupt is taking place May 15-17 in New York City and we're giving away 2 free tickets! The speaker list includes (among others) Product Hunt acquirer and AngelList co-founder Naval Ravikant, world chess champion Garry Kasparov, and Pharrell Williams.
Enter for a chance to win:
• 2 tickets to Disrupt New York (plus access to after party) 🎉
• A $500 gift card toward flights ✈️
• Private chef-led dinner at a top NYC restaurant 🍷
• One-year subscription access to Mogul Courses 🙇
• 2 nights at The William Vale Hotel ✨ it's stunning ✨
TechCrunch Disrupt is taking place May 15-17 in New York City and we're giving away 2 free tickets! The speaker list includes (among others) Product Hunt acquirer and AngelList co-founder Naval Ravikant, world chess champion Garry Kasparov, and Pharrell Williams.
Enter for a chance to win:
• 2 tickets to Disrupt New York (plus access to after party) 🎉
• A $500 gift card toward flights ✈️
• Private chef-led dinner at a top NYC restaurant 🍷
• One-year subscription access to Mogul Courses 🙇
• 2 nights at The William Vale Hotel ✨ it's stunning ✨
How to pitch your product with GIFs 💰😎
GIFs: moving images, a simple concept that's now the universal language of human intelligence. Research likely shows a direct correlation between the rise of GIFs and people's decreasing attention span on the internet.
The question is, can you describe your product in a GIF? It's easier said than done, but here are some of the best examples we've found:
• Oristand's portable and super affordable standing desk
• Blockhead's clever solution to your MacBook charger not fitting
• Papier's beautiful note-taking app in your browser
• Highly's Medium-style highlighting in every app and website
• Zoom, Enhance! which turns your regular photos into zoomable GIFs
The question is, can you describe your product in a GIF? It's easier said than done, but here are some of the best examples we've found:
• Oristand's portable and super affordable standing desk
• Blockhead's clever solution to your MacBook charger not fitting
• Papier's beautiful note-taking app in your browser
• Highly's Medium-style highlighting in every app and website
• Zoom, Enhance! which turns your regular photos into zoomable GIFs
The best app. 📱🔥
A week ago we launched Ask Product Hunt, a community-powered product search engine. Since then, many of you have submitted recommendations for questions like the best time-tracking software, best podcasting app, and best app for writing on the Mac.
Below are some of the questions with the most product recommendations so far:
🤔 What are must-have Chrome Extensions? (79 Recs)
🤔 What subscription services do you pay for and why? (70 Recs)
🤔 What is your favorite macOS menubar app? (59 Recs)
With 157 product recommendations, this is the most popular question so far.
Below are some of the questions with the most product recommendations so far:
🤔 What are must-have Chrome Extensions? (79 Recs)
🤔 What subscription services do you pay for and why? (70 Recs)
🤔 What is your favorite macOS menubar app? (59 Recs)
With 157 product recommendations, this is the most popular question so far.
Introducing: Ask Product Hunt 🚀
Today, we’re introducing Ask Product Hunt, a new community-powered product search engine.
As with many things we build, the idea was inspired by you. 🤗 Every day, people ask for product recommendations, often cc'ing @ProductHunt on Twitter. Now you can ask the community directly.
For the past 4 weeks, we've been sharing recommendations with a small group of beta testers in response to questions like:
📱 What's one app you use a lot, that most people don't know about?
✏️ What's the best app for writing on MacOS?
✈️ What's the easiest way to create GIFs for the web?
Check it out! We'll be featuring some of the most popular questions and recommendations throughout the month.
As with many things we build, the idea was inspired by you. 🤗 Every day, people ask for product recommendations, often cc'ing @ProductHunt on Twitter. Now you can ask the community directly.
For the past 4 weeks, we've been sharing recommendations with a small group of beta testers in response to questions like:
📱 What's one app you use a lot, that most people don't know about?
✏️ What's the best app for writing on MacOS?
✈️ What's the easiest way to create GIFs for the web?
Check it out! We'll be featuring some of the most popular questions and recommendations throughout the month.
BuzzFeed takes on Amazon… sort of 🚚
Last week, the President was in a truck. An hour later BuzzFeed wrote an article. It went viral. A day later they turned it into a children's book: The President and the Big Boy Truck Book.
But this isn’t the first product from the cat listicle website. BuzzFeed also sells hot glue cheese guns, viral cookbooks, and even political garbage cans. 😳
Their movement toward commerce demonstrates a growing trend as advertising-driven businesses diversify and explore new revenue streams. Medium’s trying it with subscriptions. Twitch is starting to sell games. Facebook launched a Craigslist competitor.
We can’t wait to see what happens next.
But this isn’t the first product from the cat listicle website. BuzzFeed also sells hot glue cheese guns, viral cookbooks, and even political garbage cans. 😳
Their movement toward commerce demonstrates a growing trend as advertising-driven businesses diversify and explore new revenue streams. Medium’s trying it with subscriptions. Twitch is starting to sell games. Facebook launched a Craigslist competitor.
We can’t wait to see what happens next.
Sneak peek at YC Demo Day 🚀
Thousands of aspiring founders apply to Y Combinator for every batch but only ~100 startups are admitted. Today is graduation day for the first half of the Winter 2017 batch and we got the inside scoop on some of the companies that'll be pitching. 🎉
The most upvoted company of the batch (so far) is Tetra, which automatically takes notes for you by dialing into your phone calls. Not far behind is Floyd, the “Heroku for deep learning".
There's also Niles, a Slack app that turns your chats into a live wiki, and Tress, a popular app for discovering and sharing hairstyle inspiration and tips. And of course, companies are applying artificial intelligence to just about everything (like solving acne and running a hedge fund that buys art).
For more, follow the Y Combinator Winter 2017 collection. We'll keep it updated as more companies are announced at Demo Day. 👀
The most upvoted company of the batch (so far) is Tetra, which automatically takes notes for you by dialing into your phone calls. Not far behind is Floyd, the “Heroku for deep learning".
There's also Niles, a Slack app that turns your chats into a live wiki, and Tress, a popular app for discovering and sharing hairstyle inspiration and tips. And of course, companies are applying artificial intelligence to just about everything (like solving acne and running a hedge fund that buys art).
For more, follow the Y Combinator Winter 2017 collection. We'll keep it updated as more companies are announced at Demo Day. 👀
Turn your website into wallpaper 🖥✨ 👀
Fun fact: The average American spends more than 7 hours looking at a screen, so let's treat our screens with some love. Upgrade your scenery with these apps. 🖼
🕘 The Padbury Clock is a minimalist screensaver for Mac
💻 Desktopr lets you turn any website into your Mac wallpaper
🌌 WLPPR mobile wallpapers come from satellite imagery
📽 SaveHollywood plays movies & trailers as your screensaver
🦁 Live Desktop makes your wallpaper come alive with animations
🕶 Black is a stunning wallpaper series that uses just the color black
If you have a dual monitor (Apple) setup, Twelve South creates beautiful accessories designed exclusively for Apple. Start by checking out their Dual-Screen Wallpapers (pictured above). 💻🖥😻
🕘 The Padbury Clock is a minimalist screensaver for Mac
💻 Desktopr lets you turn any website into your Mac wallpaper
🌌 WLPPR mobile wallpapers come from satellite imagery
📽 SaveHollywood plays movies & trailers as your screensaver
🦁 Live Desktop makes your wallpaper come alive with animations
🕶 Black is a stunning wallpaper series that uses just the color black
If you have a dual monitor (Apple) setup, Twelve South creates beautiful accessories designed exclusively for Apple. Start by checking out their Dual-Screen Wallpapers (pictured above). 💻🖥😻
NEW: Y Combinator Startup School 🎓
or over a decade, Y Combinator has been one of the most influential forces in the startup community. Without it, reddit, Airbnb, Dropbox, and hundreds of other startups may not exist.
Today, YC introduced Startup School, a 10-week massively open online course (MOOC) to teach you how to start a startup. While helpful for the industry, Startup School isn’t a “charity”. They’re cleverly expanding their platform further down the funnel, to educate and identify tomorrow’s great companies. Well played. 😊
Join the conversation with Sam Altman and signup for Startup School here... or just read this startup f*&$ing advice.
Today, YC introduced Startup School, a 10-week massively open online course (MOOC) to teach you how to start a startup. While helpful for the industry, Startup School isn’t a “charity”. They’re cleverly expanding their platform further down the funnel, to educate and identify tomorrow’s great companies. Well played. 😊
Join the conversation with Sam Altman and signup for Startup School here... or just read this startup f*&$ing advice.
Key startup takeaway from the Oscars 🌝💡
The big winner of the 89th Academy Awards was La La Land, taking home 6 Oscars, and briefly winning Best Picture (there was a mixup). That honor ended up going to Moonlight, a deserving winner.
What you can learn from Moonlight's win: It is absolutely critical to name your startup after cross-platform emoji. Think of: 🏠🎉, 🍑, 👻, 🐐, 🧀 — these are all app names you can communicate with simple emoji on iOS, Android, Twitter, and Gmail. As such, congrats to all those involved with the 🌝💡 win. Honorable mention to 🦁 and 👽🌍.
Now, get started with a productive week by browsing some of these:
🍿 Leanflix's powerful filters help you find the perfect movie
🍿 Caption makes finding the right subtitled super easy
🍿 Strema is like your own (self-hosted) personal Netflix
🍿 Reelgood is the one central guide for Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, HBO
🍿 MovieMogul shows you the all-time best films you have't seen
What you can learn from Moonlight's win: It is absolutely critical to name your startup after cross-platform emoji. Think of: 🏠🎉, 🍑, 👻, 🐐, 🧀 — these are all app names you can communicate with simple emoji on iOS, Android, Twitter, and Gmail. As such, congrats to all those involved with the 🌝💡 win. Honorable mention to 🦁 and 👽🌍.
Now, get started with a productive week by browsing some of these:
🍿 Leanflix's powerful filters help you find the perfect movie
🍿 Caption makes finding the right subtitled super easy
🍿 Strema is like your own (self-hosted) personal Netflix
🍿 Reelgood is the one central guide for Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, HBO
🍿 MovieMogul shows you the all-time best films you have't seen
