How could we encourage more women to start businesses and see more of them on Product Hunt?
I really like seeing how many enthusiastic male founders are here, but sometimes I find myself looking for more female founders and their stories.
I’ve personally faced some of the stereotypes around this – that women are usually more cautious, don’t take as many risks (including business risks), and that the “ideal path” is to have a stable job and follow a more traditional way.
But I genuinely enjoy building things, learning, experimenting, and feeling that adrenaline when you’re running a business and figuring things out as you go.
I would love to see more women like that represented in this space.
What do you think we could do to encourage more women to enter entrepreneurship, build products, and share their journeys?
I think it could help to create a Women's Product Hunt week.
Where women founders would contribute AMAs, webinars, interviews with a women founder in a newsletter, etc.
Replies
Dial
the directory point from Farrukh is the part I keep coming back to. a themed week is a nice spike but PH's actual discovery surface is the leaderboard and the algorithm, and neither of those care about a one week campaign once it's over. if there was a persistent filter or tag for women-founded launches that stayed searchable year round, that'd outlast any AMA. the quieter-builder point also lands, the platform rewards whoever comments the fastest and loudest in the first hour of a launch, which selects for a personality type more than a gender honestly, but the two probably overlap more than we'd like.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@galdayan That's the thing. I do not want to polarise one side against other, but something that would have a repetitive character which could show up more women in this space would be helpful IMO.
Dial
@busmark_w_nika repetitive is the right word for it actually, better than mine. a badge or filter that just sits on every women-founded launch permanently would do more over a year than any single week, because it keeps working after the campaign energy is gone and nobody has to remember to bring it back next year.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@galdayan In that case, the format could have bigger impact. :)
Personally I do not believe in this continuous split of male and female founder, building separate forums, events and so on. To encourage women more I would suggest the following:
--> Mentor up with a successful male (or female ofc) founder and make your self accountable with clear goals to be achieved. Measurable goals with deadlines.
Practically speaking I would say if you create a week, forum, webinars whatever there should be a business-couple being presented. The many (would suggest mroe successful one) male founders here should be matched to a female one and they push in tandem.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@nik_isonpase I do not like dividing as well, but it is a fact that I am lacking more female founders (at least on this platform) and I am trying to figure out whether there is a suitable way to make the environment more attractive for them.
@busmark_w_nika start small with the mentor-matching. Start small and scale fast, happy to be your MVP. I`m already advising and helping founders, hence fine to support a MVP to get this platform more female engaging
One concrete thing rather than a sentiment, since I am not the person to be theorising here. The comment sections on this site are where a launch either gets taken seriously or gets patronised, and that is entirely within the control of the people already commenting, which includes me. The specific habit worth auditing: whether the first question you ask a founder is about the product or about whether they are technical enough to have built it. I have seen the second one asked far more often on some launches than others, and it is never framed as doubt, it is framed as curiosity. Fixing your own comments is a smaller ask than fixing a pipeline, and it is the part nobody needs permission for.
Nika, this is close to my heart. Early in my career I won a regional sales award straight out of college, and I still brought my boss to every presentation for a year because I didn’t believe anyone would take a young woman seriously talking about their finances. I had the results and I hid behind someone I thought looked more credible. So the “more cautious” stereotype isn’t nothing, but I don’t think caution is the real story. The real story is that women are often taught to earn permission before they act, and men are taught to act and apologize later if needed. That’s not a risk-appetite gap, it’s a permission gap. What changed for me wasn’t getting braver overnight. It was enough small wins stacking up until the belief caught up to the ability that was always there. So my honest answer to your question: we see more women founders by making the wins visible. Every time a woman ships something and says out loud “I built this,” she gives quiet permission to the next one still waiting to feel ready. Threads like this one are part of that. So, thank you for starting it.
Nika, Resonate with you. I would love to see more women represent here. As per me, women are the biggest risk takers over anyone :)
It would be great if we could be featured more extensively on Product Hunt!
My app has 2 upvotes and one is me. I don't feel comfortable hustling my friends and family for upvotes and I think the whole concept of launching and visibility is one that women likely approach much differently from men (culturally).
It can be quite a lonely road, learning how to build by yourself partially because a. there aren't many women mentors or support groups when getting started and b. a stubborn persistence to prove that "I can do this on my own".
Then after you've built something, learning how to actually get people to see and care is another big learning curve.
I'd love to have a place where we can get more support both pre and post launch.