At Product Hunt, we see a lot of tweets like: "You're unfriendly to indie makers. VC-backed startups always are #1. Indie makers should make their own site." Even if VC-backed startups do get a lot of attention, it's best for everyone to be in the same arena. The same arena forces indie makers to step up their game—and it feels that much better when you beat out a highly-funded startup. I launched my first product (w/o funding) on Product Hunt coincidentally the SAME DAY that a company that raised $70M randomly launched theirs. But we still ended up near the top of the leaderboard. It felt good. The only question for you is: Would you rather play in minor leagues where no one is watching or be challenged in the big leagues? Personally I prefer the big leagues. More eyeballs = bigger market, challenges, and a lot more fun.
This is so accurate! I remember feeling irritated at how venture backed companies where stealing the top position when I launched my first product last year. I eventually realised that even though we came in 5th, the competition forced us to up our game in terms of marketability. At the end of the day, we’re competing in a free market, the most polished product wins customers. So no reason to launch on a indie-hacker only platform
I'm actually surprised people make comments like that, it's a marketplace where everyone is free to post. People can be so ungrateful and hypercritical and not really constructive sometimes. Sorry you had to read stuff like that, I'm not for negative comments that don't offer something super constructive feedback.
> I launched my first product (w/o funding) on Product Hunt coincidentally the SAME DAY that a company that raised $70M randomly launched theirs. What product was that?
CEO at Clustr.io
5moAbsolutely agree with this. We launched against YC backed startups and battled them off all year. We got great results for being a completely bootstrapped product. Thanks to product hunt we were able to start that initial growth and get eyes on us.