Like, we're still the exploratory phase.

We're still, like, early 2011 in mobile.

We discover new land, essentially, is the way I describe it.

And, like, but we're still in the fog of war. I don't know if you played Starcraft. Where you're like, we discovered this new world and we have this pot of land. We know it's here, but like, we have no idea what's over there. Welcome to the Peel. I'm your host, Turner Novak, founder of Banana Capital.

Today's guest is Ryan Hoover, founder of Product Hunt and Weekend Fund.

There are over $250,000. I'm your host, Turner Novak, founder of Banana Capital. Today's guest is Ryan Hoover, founder of Product Hunt and Weekend Fund.

There are over 250,000 makers at launch and product in every year.

Ryan has probably helped more founders start and launch their products than anyone.

Having support when you're like trying something new and building something new, even if it's just like a little tweet,

like those can actually, I think, be quite meaningful.

Product Hunt actually started as an email list. We talked through the early days of getting it off the ground. I got nudges of confidence. People are saying, oh, I like that email. Like, I read it every morning, like random people. The growth flywheel that propelled it to one of the most important places in technology. There's a lot of things we can do to either speed up that spin or increase conversion.

So an example could be...

We talk about how to build a community around your product.

There's a big difference between an audience in a community and people mix them up.

How we're thinking about software in the age of AI.

Technology and everything is going to change dramatically. But how people think and what they're motivated by is not going to change. How status has changed in Silicon Valley. They might work actually in the short term, but then in the long term, people are going to see through it. Why he started Weekend Fund to invest in other founders. A founder in their very first round, theoretically get a lot more value by having, let's

say, 20 investors on their cap table for the same amount of equity as one lead investor.

Why he's excited about consumer health.

You have this technology that you can like basically give your body instructions to do things and fix itself.

Even though he still considers himself a generalist investor.

Well, what happens when that is out of trend? Like do you now pivot the entire fund and rebrand it to something else? How he decides which founders to back. That's why I try to understand, like, what's the secret? Who did you figure it out? Why Ryan started investing in other funds and ways LPs can actually add value to VCs. The number one thing they can do is just... A quick thank you to Andreas Klinger, Farza Majid, and Vedica Jane for helping

brainstorm topics for Ryan.

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