Lately there s been a growing wave of skepticism around VCs, Y Combinator, and accelerators in general. And to be fair: I get it.

We now live in an age where almost everything you need to learn can be found online. The gatekeepers are fewer, the knowledge is everywhere, and solo builders have never been more empowered.

Exactly one week from now, I ll be co-organising a tech event (a hackathon), and I m realising how much work it actually takes. I ve been to many conferences myself to gather inspiration, but I still can t come close to what I ve experienced as an attendee. Maybe that s also because we re organising it as just a 3-person team.

If you ve been to hackathons or other tech events before, what made a positive impression on you?

Over the past few days, I ve been trying to understand what helped the most successful launches stand out.

In general, here s what I noticed they tend to share:

• Their Product Hunt page had at least 500 followers.

• The product was in overall good condition (I mean, already had some level of reputation, really good marketing).

• Many were hunted by well-established, well-known hunters on the platform.

• Every comment received a response.

• The visuals were strong there was almost always a video or demo featured at the beginning of the carousel.

This question is semi-philosophical, but I recall my ex-classmate she had quite rich parents and really didn't need to work. As an only child, she had everything first (all technology, all pricy vacations, they even bought her own flat in 18 + car). Since she had a lot of money from her parents and a lot of free time, she only enjoyed life (some dr*gs and other stuff). As a person, she didn't look like someone who would appreciate money or time at all because it was "normal" to have everything from all above mentioned.

(And I don't want to sound bad, but I honestly don't know what skill she would have that she could use to make a living - the only thing she was really good at was being sassy, which, oddly enough, earned some people's respect.)

As a graphic designer, I look at products from two angles: how they look, and whether they make me understand why they exist before I lose patience.

A beautiful hero image catches attention. But that alone has never convinced me to stay.

Going through 50+ landing pages recently, I noticed a pattern in the ones that actually earned my trust:

The ones that worked answered "what does this do?" before I scrolled. Not with a tagline, but with a plain sentence a non-technical person could repeat.
The value prop wasn't clever. It named a problem I already felt, not a feature I had to imagine needing.
The next step didn't feel like a commitment. One page I almost left had a single button that said "See how it works", no email required. I stayed.