Talking Shop On Product Hunt Radio

Podcasts are all the rage. One of the newer tech podcasts to come online is Product Hunt, which started off as a community site built by Ryan Hoover. As Ryan and others are finding, those who are able to gather a loyal audience on the web can experiment with podcasts to extend that relationship. I’ve written about that here, and be sure to read the comments. For Ryan, who is a friend, he’s been a long-time podcaster junkie (like yours truly) so I was personally excited when he also joined into the fray and, hey, it works for us at Swell, too!

In this discussion, Ryan and I chat informally for about 40 minutes, covering a range of topics such as: (1) How Swell went from idea to a mobile product and discussing the revival of podcasting in general; (2) a review of the third-party apps on my iPhone home screen and what ideas can spread to other apps; (3) a survey of mobile apps I’ve been lucky to invest in (and why I did so); (4) how people may interact with apps inside the car and/or while driving; (5) thoughts on Twitter’s recent design changes and other product opportunities around Twitter; (6) thoughts on mobile messaging and readers like Pocket and Medium; and much more — you can play from SoundCloud above and/or listen right here in Swell if you have the app.

On a personal level, I’d like to thank Ryan for hosting me on his show and am really happy for him that Product Hunt is gaining so much respect. I’ve given Ryan my own feedback on Product Hunt and he always takes it very well, with confidence and an upbeat attitude. In what I do, I get to meet a lot of people, and everyone (all of us included) are under all sorts of pressures, stresses, and the like — what makes Ryan stand out to me is that his positive passion for exploring and discussing products comes through Product Hunt and overshadows everything else. He wins with the right attitude in a time when things can, at times, feel feisty, competitive, or excessively loud, and for that reason alone, I know Ryan and Product Hunt will succeed. If you don’t know Ryan, please follow him on Twitter and check out Product Hunt — if you love discovering and chatting about new products, you’ll love the site.