• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia
Tech

AngelList Acquires Product Hunt to Form a Startup Discovery Powerhouse

By
Kia Kokalitcheva
Kia Kokalitcheva
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Kia Kokalitcheva
Kia Kokalitcheva
Down Arrow Button Icon
December 1, 2016, 11:00 AM ET
Product Hunt screenshot August 21 2014
Product Hunt screenshot August 21 2014

Product Hunt, an online community of tech product enthusiasts, is no longer going at it alone.

On Thursday, the three-year-old San Francisco startup said it is being acquired by AngelList, a popular crowdfunding platform for startups and angel investors. Product Hunt declined to share financial terms of the deal, but it will continue to operate on its own as it does today.

Though Product Hunt is still a very young startup, it’s not hard to see why it made the move to sell to AngelList. Product Hunt debuted three years ago, almost to the day—founder Ryan Hoover and a friend, Nathan Bashaw, put together the original version of the website during the Thanksgiving weekend. Hoover had initially experimenting with sharing apps and other tech products with a small group of friends via email newsletters. The site quickly grew in reputation among Silicon Valley insiders and tech enthusiasts everywhere as a place to share and find new or interesting apps, gadgets, and tech tools. It even had a small job board, which was Product Hunt’s first source of revenue.

Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter.

Since then, Product Hunt has expanded to include other categories such as games, books, and podcasts as well as question-and-answer sessions with tech industry bigwigs.

AngelList, meanwhile, which began in 2010 as an online introduction board for startup looking for seed funding, has grown into a veritable engine for startup job recruiting, networking, and crowdfunding. AngelList pushed into the latter in 2012 when it let startups raise seed money from angel investors through its website. By the following year, it introduced the ability for well-established angel investors to lead so-called “syndicated” investments, or pools of committed capital from other individual investors on a deal-by-deal basis.

But both serve as meeting grounds for folks and companies building tech products, and others interested in using and even investing in those products. Just six months after Product Hunt’s debut, SV Angel invested in a startup it noticed on the site.

AngelList co-founder and CEO Naval Ravikant is also an investor in Product Hunt.

Up next, we’ll likely to see a big push into monetization from Product Hunt. The startup recently began to dabble with revenue models, such as making it easier for visitors to purchase products they find on the site and taking a small cut from the proceeds. Last month, Hoover told business news site Business Insider that it’s gearing up to debut its first significant revenue-generating source in next year’s first quarter. He didn’t provide much detail, but pointed to his website’s enthusiastic audience that’s actively looking to download and try new apps and tools.

To date, Product Hunt has raised roughly $7.2 million in funding from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Greylock Partners, and Ashton Kutcher’s A-Grade Investments. In the summer of 2014, it participated in Y Combinator’s startup accelerator program.

About the Author
By Kia Kokalitcheva
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in Tech

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in Tech

AWS
Big TechMarkets
Amazon’s cloud sales are growing the most in 15 quarters. Investors sent the stock down on AI capex fears
By Anne D'Innocenzio and The Associated PressApril 30, 2026
8 minutes ago
AstraZeneca CFO Aradhana Sarin
BankingCFO Daily
How AstraZeneca’s 17,000 AI-certified employees are helping it reach a ‘stretch goal’ of $80 billion in revenue
By Sheryl EstradaApril 30, 2026
2 hours ago
agentic
CommentaryAI agents
Why your data infrastructure — not your AI model — will determine whether Agentic AI scales
By Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, Stephen Henriques, Catherine Dai and Zander JeinthanuttkanontApril 30, 2026
2 hours ago
The startup that wants to give surgeons X-ray vision
NewslettersTerm Sheet
The startup that wants to give surgeons X-ray vision
By Allie GarfinkleApril 30, 2026
2 hours ago
Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian at Fortune Brainstorm AI 2025 in San Francisco. (Photo: Stuart Isett/Fortune)
NewslettersFortune Tech
Google Cloud is almost one-fifth of Alphabet’s business
By Andrew NuscaApril 30, 2026
3 hours ago
Photo: Donald Trump
Big TechMarkets
With no end in sight, Trump considers new options in Iran war—including the ‘Dark Eagle’ hypersonic missile
By Jim EdwardsApril 30, 2026
4 hours ago

Most Popular

Apple cofounder Ronald Wayne—whose stake would be worth up to $400 billion had he not sold it in 1976—says that at 91, he has no regrets
Success
Apple cofounder Ronald Wayne—whose stake would be worth up to $400 billion had he not sold it in 1976—says that at 91, he has no regrets
By Preston ForeApril 27, 2026
3 days ago
Jamie Dimon gets candid about national debt: ‘There will be a bond crisis, and then we’ll have to deal with it’
Economy
Jamie Dimon gets candid about national debt: ‘There will be a bond crisis, and then we’ll have to deal with it’
By Eleanor PringleApril 29, 2026
1 day ago
‘They left me no choice’: Powell isn’t going anywhere—blocking Trump from another Fed appointee
Banking
‘They left me no choice’: Powell isn’t going anywhere—blocking Trump from another Fed appointee
By Eva RoytburgApril 29, 2026
19 hours ago
‘The cost of compute is far beyond the costs of the employees’: Nvidia executive says right now AI is more expensive than paying human workers
AI
‘The cost of compute is far beyond the costs of the employees’: Nvidia executive says right now AI is more expensive than paying human workers
By Sasha RogelbergApril 28, 2026
2 days ago
‘Take the money and run’: Johns Hopkins economist Steve Hanke on why the UAE quit OPEC
Energy
‘Take the money and run’: Johns Hopkins economist Steve Hanke on why the UAE quit OPEC
By Shawn TullyApril 29, 2026
1 day ago
More than two-thirds of U.S. schools say they’re unable to afford the cost of student free lunch—and MAHA’s dietary guidelines may make it worse
Economy
More than two-thirds of U.S. schools say they’re unable to afford the cost of student free lunch—and MAHA’s dietary guidelines may make it worse
By Sasha RogelbergApril 29, 2026
1 day ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.