Ryan Hoover

Ryan Hoover


48 Quotes

"There are so many things to do in a startup. The things you choose to do and don’t do, ultimately determine success or failure. Prioritization is crucial. Unfortunately, not everything on the to do list is fun. Sometimes you have to do “shitty” work."
Ryan Hoover
Ryan Hoover's Personal Website
"successful startups require attention in all areas. You may not have a marketing title but someone has to figure out how to acquire users. If we’re not careful, we prioritize things we like to do over the things we should do. We prioritize our craft because it comforting. It’s what we’re best at. But our craft isn’t what’s needed in the company at all times."
Ryan Hoover
Ryan Hoover's Personal Website
"My beautiful wireframes were a trophy, a tangible reward for the late nights of hard work. Or so I thought. In reality, I wasted a lot of time, often having to adjust my pretty pixels after speaking with engineering and the team."
Ryan Hoover
Ryan Hoover's Personal Website
"The best way to avoid the fake progress trap is to hold yourself accountable. Each morning as you review your morning to-do list, ask yourself why."
Ryan Hoover
Ryan Hoover's Personal Website
"If speed is a startup’s most valuable asset, then prioritization is paramount. Building a successful product and startup is all about knowing what to do and what not to do. And sometimes that means you need to do shitty work."
Ryan Hoover
Ryan Hoover's Personal Website
"More important to me is the vision and a deep conviction in where the world is going."
Ryan Hoover
Request for (crazy) startups
"We think you can draw a 2×2 matrix for venture capital. …And on one axis you could say, consensus versus non-consensus. And on the other axis you can say, successful or failure. And of course, you make all your money on successful and non-consensus."
Ryan Hoover
Request for (crazy) startups
"by definition in venture capital, if you are doing it right, you are continuously investing in things that are non-consensus at the time of investment."
Ryan Hoover
Request for (crazy) startups
"let me translate ‘non-consensus’: in sort of practical terms, it translates to crazy. You are investing in things that look like they are just nuts."
Ryan Hoover
Request for (crazy) startups
"As more people start a side (or primary) hustle online, there will be a greater need for tools to support all the challenges that go into internet entrepreneurship."
Ryan Hoover
Request for (crazy) startups
"With Product Hunt, we focused on user acquisition before we had a product. 20 days after its public launch, we had a community of 2,000 users"
Ryan Hoover
How We Got Our First 2,000 Users Doing Things That Don’t Scale
"Product Hunt, a daily leaderboard of new products, began as an email list using Linkydink, a tool for creating collaborative daily email digests."
Ryan Hoover
How We Got Our First 2,000 Users Doing Things That Don’t Scale
"We weren’t just doing customer development, we were getting them excited and making them feel like part of the product"
Ryan Hoover
How We Got Our First 2,000 Users Doing Things That Don’t Scale
"We still weren’t ready to share Product Hunt publicly yet. It was buggy and we wanted to ensure people enjoyed the product before expanding to a larger audience."
Ryan Hoover
How We Got Our First 2,000 Users Doing Things That Don’t Scale
"Your first users matter. We knew how important it was to seed Product Hunt with the right people from the start. Initial users form the community’s culture and once established, it is very difficult to change."
Ryan Hoover
How We Got Our First 2,000 Users Doing Things That Don’t Scale
"Growth was fantastic, but in reality, user acquisition wasn’t our primary goal. Engagement and retention is most important at this early stage."
Ryan Hoover
How We Got Our First 2,000 Users Doing Things That Don’t Scale
"The primary goal was to get early adopters excited and prove to the tech community that Product Hunt isn’t just another one of my ephemeral experiments. We kept beating the drum."
Ryan Hoover
How We Got Our First 2,000 Users Doing Things That Don’t Scale
"Once we identified an influencer, Nathan or myself sent a personal email, inviting them to contribute and linking to the PandoDaily or Fast Company articles, to tell our story. A manual process indeed, but an effective way to recruit good contributors and open lines of communication for future feedback."
Ryan Hoover
How We Got Our First 2,000 Users Doing Things That Don’t Scale
"As with getting press, asking for referrals was designed to build a stronger, more engaged community, not just acquire additional users."
Ryan Hoover
How We Got Our First 2,000 Users Doing Things That Don’t Scale
"successful startups require attention in all areas. You may not have a marketing title but someone has to figure out how to acquire users."
Ryan Hoover
Ryan Hoover's Personal Website
"I should have elicited feedback from engineering to get their input on my product ideas and better understanding of technical limitations or tradeoffs before jumping into design"
Ryan Hoover
Ryan Hoover's Personal Website
"I should have sketched first and used paper prototypes to bring my ideas to life in less time."
Ryan Hoover
Ryan Hoover's Personal Website
"If I prioritized better and done the important things that weren’t as fun, I would have saved myself and the company a lot of time."
Ryan Hoover
Ryan Hoover's Personal Website
"It’s incredibly satisfying to build a product, to see my code instantly translate into something tangible. Each GitHub commit feels like progress."
Ryan Hoover
Ryan Hoover's Personal Website
"The beauty of programming is in its responsiveness. One can write code and immediately see the results of their working product. Despite inevitable bugs and unexpected results, programming is relatively predictable."
Ryan Hoover
Ryan Hoover's Personal Website
"People, on the other hand, are often unpredictable and non-responsive."
Ryan Hoover
Ryan Hoover's Personal Website
"This can reduce one’s motivation to invest in these “non-rewarding” activities, especially if it’s not what they enjoy doing."
Ryan Hoover
Ryan Hoover's Personal Website
"This simple, honest question may have saved me a lot of time and effort."
Ryan Hoover
Ryan Hoover's Personal Website
"“What’s important about startups is the speed.” - Paul Graham"
Ryan Hoover
Ryan Hoover's Personal Website
"Building a successful product and startup is all about knowing what to do and what not to do."
Ryan Hoover
Ryan Hoover's Personal Website
"Initial users form the community’s culture and once established, it is very difficult to change."
Ryan Hoover
How We Got Our First 2,000 Users Doing Things That Don’t Scale
"Early contributors appreciated the note, hearing the backstory, and helping make Product Hunt a success."
Ryan Hoover
How We Got Our First 2,000 Users Doing Things That Don’t Scale
"More than just share the news, our email included two specific asks:"
Ryan Hoover
How We Got Our First 2,000 Users Doing Things That Don’t Scale
"It was important for us to have quality products and a healthy level of activity at launch."
Ryan Hoover
How We Got Our First 2,000 Users Doing Things That Don’t Scale
"To maximize exposure, we asked early adopters–many who have a large following and influence–to share the article."
Ryan Hoover
How We Got Our First 2,000 Users Doing Things That Don’t Scale
"Growth was fantastic, but in reality, user acquisition wasn’t our primary goal."
Ryan Hoover
How We Got Our First 2,000 Users Doing Things That Don’t Scale
"Engagement and retention is most important at this early stage."
Ryan Hoover
How We Got Our First 2,000 Users Doing Things That Don’t Scale
"Or worse, founders are fooled into thinking they’re making progress."
Ryan Hoover
How We Got Our First 2,000 Users Doing Things That Don’t Scale
"The primary goal was to get early adopters excited and prove to the tech community that Product Hunt isn’t just another one of my ephemeral experiments."
Ryan Hoover
How We Got Our First 2,000 Users Doing Things That Don’t Scale
"Since public launch, we carefully monitored who was signing up, identifying influencers and those that we knew would make good contributions to the community."
Ryan Hoover
How We Got Our First 2,000 Users Doing Things That Don’t Scale
"Once we identified an influencer, Nathan or myself sent a personal email, inviting them to contribute and linking to the PandoDaily or Fast Company articles, to tell our story."
Ryan Hoover
How We Got Our First 2,000 Users Doing Things That Don’t Scale
"A manual process indeed, but an effective way to recruit good contributors and open lines of communication for future feedback."
Ryan Hoover
How We Got Our First 2,000 Users Doing Things That Don’t Scale
"We also asked for referrals, emailing people using the product to ask if they knew of other product people that would make good contributions."
Ryan Hoover
How We Got Our First 2,000 Users Doing Things That Don’t Scale
"We could have automated this but at the cost of delivering a less personal and effective message."
Ryan Hoover
How We Got Our First 2,000 Users Doing Things That Don’t Scale

Want to Save Quotes?

Glasp is a social web highlighter that people can highlight and organize quotes and thoughts from the web, and access other like-minded people’s learning.