一家網站每月增長70%的祕密

Ryan Hoover is the envy of entrepreneurs around the country. Many startups toil for years, burning through millions of investment dollars, to get the kind of recognition Hoover’s startup has garnered in just nine months. What’s worse, he’s done it with a flimsy Reddit knock-off website his team built in less than a week. That site, called Product Hunt, has captured the attention, and as of today, the investment dollars, of Silicon Valley’s most influential power brokers.

萊恩·胡佛是全美所有企業家豔羨的對象。許多初創公司摸爬滾打數年、燒掉數百萬美元的投資才能得到的認可度，胡佛的初創公司卻在短短九個月內就已牢牢在握。更讓人不忿的是，他做到這一切所憑藉的，不過是一個抄襲社交新聞網站Reddit創意的粗劣網站，而且他的團隊只用了不到一個星期就搭建起了這個網站。但是這個名爲Product Hunt的網站卻得到了硅谷最有影響力的權力掮客們的關注，最近更是從他們那裏獲得了真金白銀的投資。

Venture investors like Hunter Walk, Dave McClure, David Tisch, and Mashable founder Pete Cashmore use Product Hunt to discover new products, and founders like Dennis Crowley (Foursquare), Dave Morin (Path), and Mark Cuban (AXS TV) have jumped in to discuss their products. The site has 250,000 monthly unique visitors and has sent 1.7 million visits to products in the last month. More than 51,000 people read the site’s newsletter with a 41% open rate.

像亨特o沃克、戴夫o麥克盧爾、大衛o蒂希、互聯網新聞博客Mashable創始人皮特o卡什莫爾等，這些風險投資人會利用Product Hunt來發現新產品；而丹尼斯o克羅利（Foursquare）、大衛o莫林（Path）、馬克o庫班（AXS TV）等創始人則會參與其中，討論自己的產品。該網站每月的絕對訪客達到了25萬人，並在過去一個月裏，爲各類產品總共輸送了170萬次的訪問量。網站推送的新聞通訊郵件讀者逾5.1萬人，點擊率達41%。

Anecdotally, the purveyors of the top products of each day report they’ve been flooded with inbound interest from investors and potential partners. Already dozens of members have hacked together Web tools based on the site’s API. The site grows by 70% each month. Founders are whispering that placement on Product Hunt has replaced TechCrunch as their preferred method of announcing their launch.

有意思的是，那些每日精選的頂尖產品的出品方們紛紛表示，投資者和潛在合作伙伴紛沓而來，對他們傾注的興趣簡直足以將他們淹沒。已有數十名該網站的用戶利用該網站的API做成了各式各樣的衍生網絡工具。網站以每個月70%的速度保持着增長。各方創始人私下表示，在Product Hunt上發佈消息已經取代科技博客TechCrunch，成爲了他們更爲青睞的公佈產品上線的方式。

So how did Hoover do it? Good timing, mixed with some email hustle and community-building prowess, topped off with a master class in positivity.

那麼胡佛是怎麼做到這一切的？答案就是：好的時機加上若干電子郵件推送技巧，以及出色的社區建設能力，最後再借助一批形象正面的大師級人物的幫助。

As it turns out, the tech community was hungry for a new gathering place, and Product Hunt played directly into its desire. Hacker News, the message board of accelerator program Y Combinator, has long been the de facto online community for Silicon Valley startups. Earlier this year, Y Combinator’s president, Sam Altman, said he thought the message board might be with $500 million.

事實表明，科技界亟需一處新的聚集地，而Product Hunt的出現正好滿足了這一需求。長久以來，企業孵化器Y Combinator設立的網絡留言板Hacker News一直是硅谷各初創公司實際上的線上社區。今年上半年，Y Combinator的總裁薩姆o阿爾特曼就曾說過，他估計這個留言板上的用戶羣體整體價值可能有5億美元。

But in recent years, the community has devolved into petty negativity and occasionally hostile commentary. Last month, the prominent venture capitalist Marc Andreessen took to the message board to ask how it had evolved from a Y Combinator discussion board to “the discussion board where the first comment on any post involving a YC company is reliably someone crapping on it.”

但是近幾年來，這處線上社區已經淪落爲一處充斥着負面情緒的地方，不時還會出現一些帶有敵意的評論。上個月，知名風險投資家馬克o安德里森在這處留言板上詰問道，這裏怎麼從Y Combinator的討論板演變成了“任何YC公司相關帖下的第一條評論一定是有人在對該公司狂噴的討論板”。

“What an amazing shift,” he wrote.

“這實在是種很神奇的轉變。”他寫道。

Product Hunt did not intend to be the anti-Hacker News, but in many ways that’s what it has become. It is hardly a freewheeling anonymous community. The site has grown very carefully, by inviting a group of Valley influencers curated by Hoover and his team to join and comment. Outsiders can up-vote products, but only invitees can comment. Because the commenters are mostly public-facing figures like investors, journalists, and prominent founders in the tech community, they’re more likely to keep negative comments to themselves rather than trash something. That doesn’t scale well, so Hoover has decided the best way to grow is to let commenters invite friends into the commenting pool.

Product Hunt並沒有打算在各方面與Hacker News反其道而行，但是就很多方面而言，它現在所扮演的卻正是這樣的角色。這裏基本不是一個自由自在的匿名社區。該網站發展得十分謹慎，在胡佛及其團隊的精心策劃下，邀請了一批硅谷的影響力人士成爲用戶並發表評論。其他人可以投票贊同某產品，但只有受邀用戶才能發表評論。由於評論者多爲投資者、記者和科技界知名創始人這樣的公衆人物，他們更願意收起自己的負面評論，而不是隨意亂噴。但是這種模式並不利於網站的拓展，因此胡佛決定，最佳的發展方式就是允許這些評論者邀請自己的朋友參與評論。

The infectious positive attitude of Hoover and his nine-person team comes through on the site and in its community. They chime in frequently with positive feedback, curate themed newsletters, host personal, jokey podcasts, and gather influencers together for brunch events. You can tell they genuinely love apps, and in turn, they’ve attracted a community of app-lovers.

胡佛及其9人團隊的積極態度成功地感染了整個網站和社區。他們經常在討論中插入一些正面的迴應，策劃不同主題的新聞通訊，主持輕鬆幽默的個人播客，還召集影響力人士聚餐。你可以看出他們是發自真心地熱愛應用程序，並因此吸引了另一批應用程序的愛好者。

Product Hunt hasn’t gone without notice on Hacker News. A post on Hacker News announcing the site was met with criticism of its design. When the company joined Y Combinator, the top comment on Hacker News asked, “How is Product Hunt even a business?” calling the decision “another disappointing move.”

Product Hunt的發展也在Hacker News上引起了關注。Hacker News上一個公佈Product Hunt上線消息的帖子裏，評論者們對其網站設計進行了抨擊。在公司在加入Y Combinator時，Hacker News上被頂到首位的評論質問道：“Product Hunt竟然也能算得上是一項業務？”並稱這一決策爲“又一次令人失望的行動”。

Ever positive, Hoover says the business question is “a valid piece of criticism.” He acknowledges that a business catering to the small tech and startup community doesn’t seem like a billion-dollar idea. Further, “[Hacker News members] might see Product Hunt as a copycat,” he says. “We’re not solving a clear, obvious need, like ‘This saves lives,’ or, ‘This has X million in revenue per month.’ Obviously there is skepticism.” But he counters that any investment in a consumer-facing tech startup, including Facebook and Twitter, is less obvious in the beginning. “It’s very much based on emotions,” he says.

永遠保持積極態度的胡佛表示，大家提到的業務問題是“一條有意義的批評”。他承認，Product Hunt只是爲科技界和初創界的小規模社區提供服務，這聽起來確實不像一個價值百萬美元的創意。不僅如此，“（Hacker News的用戶）可能把Product Hunt看作是山寨貨，”他說，“我們並不是在解決一項清晰明確的需求，類似於‘這能拯救生命’或者‘這能在每個月創收幾百萬’等等。這自然會引發外界的質疑。”但是他反駁道，包括Facebook和Twitter在內，任何投給面向消費者的科技初創公司的投資，在最初都是比較盲目的。“這是很受情感驅使的決定。”他說。

He has plans to expand Product Hunt into other categories, including gaming, an industry he’s familiar with as a consumer and as director of product at PlayHaven. As for the business model, Hoover imagines Product Hunt will monetize with a fairly straightforward advertising model. Today the site makes opportunistic revenue through job postings. Eventually, Hoover says he’d like to see Product Hunt own the transaction part of its recommendations, allowing people to directly buy the digital products they find on the site.

他計劃進一步拓展Product Hunt，涉足其他數個領域，其中也包括遊戲。作爲一名消費者和手遊平臺PlayHaven的產品總監，他對這個行業十分熟悉。至於具體的商業模式，胡佛的設想是，Product Hunt會通過相當直接的廣告模式來實現貨幣化。目前，該網站是通過發佈招聘信息獲取投機收入的。胡佛表示，他希望Product Hunt到最後能夠實現站內推薦產品的交易環節，讓人們能在站內直接購買他們在這裏找到的數碼產品。

But Hoover doesn’t have to worry about money just yet. Today, he will reveal that Product Hunt has raised $1 million in venture funding from A-Grade Investments (the investment fund of Ashton Kutcher), Cowboy Ventures, CrunchFund, Google Ventures, Greylock Discovery Fund, Slow Ventures, SV Angel, betaworks, Tradecraft, Vayner RSE, and Ludlow Ventures as well as angel investors Abdur Chowdhury, Andrew Chen, Brenden Mulligan, Jack Altman, Naval Ravikant, NirEyal and Y Combinator (summer 2014 batch; its sum includes the standard YC investment.) The company also announced an iPhone app, built by iOS developer David McKinney, which adapts the site’s functions for mobile devices.

不過胡佛目前還不必爲錢的事發愁。他在8月21日公開宣佈，Product Hunt已經募得了100萬美元的資金，投資方有A級投資（A-Grade Investments，阿什頓o庫徹創立的投資基金）、牛仔風投（Cowboy Ventures）、CrunchFund、谷歌風投（Google Ventures）、格雷洛克發現基金（Greylock Discovery Fund）、慢風投（Slow Ventures）、天使投資公司SV Angel、創業工廠兼風投公司Betaworks、Tradecraft、Vayner RSE和勒德洛風投（Ludlow Ventures），此外還有天使投資方阿卜杜勒o喬杜裏、陳春、布倫登o穆里根、傑克o奧爾特曼、納瓦爾o拉維坎特、尼爾o厄雅和Y Combinator（2014年夏季入駐；總額中包括標準的YC投資額）。該公司還發布了一款iPhone應用，開發方爲iOS開發人員戴維o麥金尼，讓該網站的功能在移動設備上也能正常使用。

Product Hunt’s beauty is in its simplicity, which means the site can easily be copied. Hoover believes its real value is in the high-quality community he’s attracted. Keeping the community’s quality high as he attempts to break into the mainstream may be his greatest challenge. He believes Product Hunt can tap into a market of app-lovers who don’t consider themselves early adopters but are anyway. Given how pervasive smartphones are today, “the early adopter thing is shrinking,” he says.

Product Hunt之美在於一切從簡，而這意味着該網站很容易遭到複製。胡佛認爲，Product Hunt的真正價值在於他所吸引來的高質量用戶社區。在試圖打入主流領域的同時繼續保持社區的高質量水準，這或許就是他所面對的最大挑戰。他相信Product Hunt能夠打入應用愛好者的市場，這些愛好者並不把自己視作早期採用者（譯註：指具有冒險精神、喜歡嘗試新產品的人），但不管怎樣他們的確就是。鑑於智能手機如今已是如此無處不在，“所謂的早期採用者已經越來越少了，”他說道。