Hisham Sarwar
As humans, we keep on learning and experiencing. The more we learn, the more we grow. Throughout different stages of life we become emotionally invested and change our minds to take on different perspectives. Burning the bridges behind is not a good idea because we are never certain what can happen to us down the road. The “never say never” approach was followed by the Product Hunt Founder, Ryan Hoover who sold his website for a reported $20 million.
Hoover stated in an interview that while selling a product, there are a lot of things to think about. Such things are evaluated by the founders but they do not get distracted by them. It is not a good idea to build a company with its selling vision in mind. His three year old website was popular among tech makers for launching their products as well as for venture capitalists to spot new ideas for Silicon Valley. This website was used by beginner companies in order to attract emerging talent and financing. But recently Hoover announced that he sold his company to AngelList for $20 million. The company had successfully raised $7 million previously in venture funding from Adreessen Horowitz with seed investors, including the company’s CEO Naval Ravikant.
With the progress of Product Hunt, the two parties remained in close contact. According to Hoover, the conversation was based on the developments at that time and future prospects of the website. The things in the long run matter most as they accelerate the goals. Hoover started searching for acquirers who could accelerate or de-risk the business. In three years of time, Product Hunt focused only on developing its community of makers. Revenue sources for the company were still to be figured out. The only money that company was receiving was through affiliate links which couldn’t be regarded as a form of revenue because those were not enough.
Hoover soon realized that Product Hunt can end up building things such as job boards for connecting creators and marketers with startups as AngelList. So he thought of connecting companies and accelerating their plans as a much better idea.
Although the acquisition of the company is to cover up for the issues regarding its revenues but Hoover states that the Product Hunt will still focus on expanding its network. According to him, Product Hunt is not bought by AngelList just to start monetizing; both parties still aim to build up the community.
For celebrating this occasion of acquisition of the company, the community is invited to a party in January. For Hoover signing of the paperwork was not anything interesting but the real fun will be the celebration among the followers of the website.
Via: Business Insider
