Students, Meet Product HuntHi I’m Jordan, I love helping people think & grow their products. Hope this helps! You can find me on Twitter 🙂
Hi I’m Jordan, I love helping people think & grow their products. Hope this helps! You can find me on Twitter 🙂
First setting foot on my college campus some year and a half ago, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I think that is not a particularly unique problem to have. Most students have no idea what they are doing, let alone why they are doing it.
I mean…that is the point of this whole university thing, right? You are not *supposed* to come to college with a plan. You come to college *because* you need to figure out your plan.
And in theory, it works like this: you go to class, join a few clubs, play sports, go out a lot, and make friends.
That is how most of my first semester looked. Of course, there were plenty more ups and downs, but I’d imagine that most students’ experiences look something like that (throw in a few more all nighters). The problem that I found is that 4 months into college, I was no closer to “figuring things out” than I was on that first day. I was no closer to knowing “what I wanted to do when I grew up.”
To me, college, and much of my life, has been defined by growth. I know that college is *supposed* to be a critical time for this. It is supposed to be a potential inflection point.
Sometimes, you have to look outside of your bubble to accelerate faster than anyone else. The question was where could I find this source of growth?
I turned off campus and started exploring the real world.
Fast forward a few months, towards the end of my freshman year, and things had changed quite a bit.
Now while I would not say that I had completely figured everything out, I could say that I was much closer to achieving some of my personal and professional goals. Better yet, I was more fulfilled with what I was doing. I had gotten internships all across the tech world, started writing more, and, most importantly, surrounded myself with more and more awesome people. I learned a ton. And while I can thank my school for providing me one platform for growth, I owe most of my success to people who took chances on me / gave me support from outside of my school.
One place, in particular, that deserves an incredible amount of appreciation has to be Product Hunt (PH).
Product Hunt, at it’s core, is a place to find a list of the best new products every single day. But once you dive deeper, the platform is so much more (especially for ambitious students).
For what it’s done for me, as well as so many others, I have to say that every student can benefit from investing time into using Product Hunt. And here is why:
1. Support / Early Customers
I’ve always had a bias towards action and been a proponent of learning by doing.
I like shipping things. I like launching projects.
I think it’s one of the best ways to learn and accelerate growth.
Product Hunt helps you do that, and do it really really well. Product Hunt makes launch day fun. They make it exciting.
It is pretty straightforward, but launching your project, big or small, via Product Hunt is one of the best ways to get early traction to your product.
Over the past year or so, I’ve launched a ton of products, and thanks to Product Hunt, have been able to attract thousands of early users and gain tons of traction in the press.
Read how we launched our stupid idea and shipped it to 20 countries and 40 states
2. Discovery
Product Hunt is a list of the best new products that come out every single day. You’ll find all sorts of things on the site — from stupid card games to life changing technologies. The future lives on Product Hunt.
Every day, you’ll find something new. You’ll read about an inventive product or hear a story from an inspiring founder — things you will NEVER see in a classroom or read in a textbook. This is a great way to consume new information and stay up to date on the latest trends.
3. Live Chats
An underrated aspect of PH is it’s “live section.” There, you’ll come across “AMA’s” (ask me anythings) with leaders across a variety of industries. This is an extremely unique opportunity to ask powerful CEOs, big time investors, and courageous entrepreneurs any question you like.
I’ve had answers from Sam Altman, Justin Kan, and many many more!
4. Co-founders
Finding co-founders or people to work on projects with can be a big barrier preventing you from launching your first product.
That’s fine. Product Hunt is a great place to find people who share a passion for launching with you.
Want to know how to find and build relationships with those people? Read these:
How I went from being a stranger to having a network in Silicon Valley
Of all the generic advice I’ve received in my life, “go meet as many people as you can,” is perhaps the most common.medium.comHow to find people to work on projects with
In the last year or so, I’ve helped ship or led teams for 8 or so projects! I know quantity does not always outweigh…hackernoon.com
And even if you don’t find your next co-founder, or even have any interest in building a product, surely you’ll make an internet friend or two.
Whether you choose to invest your time in Product Hunt, or any other passion of yours — go for it! Live it to the fullest. Don’t wait. Just start.
There are so many opportunities out there. So often in life we find reasons to say no. But our biggest learnings and growth tend to come during times of yes! Say yes.
Thanks so much for reading! My name is Jordan Gonen and I write blog posts every day. It would mean a ton to me if you could:
If you ever have any questions, send me an email jordangonen1 at gmail dot com ! Thanks so much!
By jordangonen on May 30, 2017.
Exported from Medium on February 17, 2018.