12 years ago

If you’re new here: Hi, I’m Ryan Hoover, founder of Product Hunt and early-stage investor at Weekend Fund. I also helped write Hooked and occasionally publish essays. This newsletter highlights my latest experiments, essays, and curiosities. If someone forwarded this to you, subscribe along with 25k+ others here. :)

1. Product Hunt recently turned 12. And more founders are launching than ever before. More thoughts on this here if you’re curious.

2. David invited me to his podcast to talk about how we invest at Weekend Fund. I’ve always had a bias toward building product and systems vs. traditional approaches to the game of venture.

3. I haven’t been as excited to invest in consumer for a while. This podcast with Anish Acharya and Kevin Rose echoes my sentiment.

4. There are many ways to invest. My buddy Stefano Bernardi from Unruly published a guest piece on Signature Block about a somewhat controversial topic: Should you build a concentrated fund?

5. Lenny Rachitsky and Terrence Rohan wrote a useful blog post on picking which startups to join. Here’s one I would consider. The lessons here also apply to investors.

6. I wrote a slightly provocative post on where venture is going. All that matters is winning.

7. Related to the above: The newish Charlie Sheen docuseries is good. The moral question it poses: How complicit are we in the public downfall of others?

8. I went to YC Alumni and Demo Day. It was very enjoyable. I normally avoid tech events because they’re so transactional. Most are polluted with aggressive pitches and LinkedIn connection requests. YC events feel very different.

9. YC has also changed since I went through the program in S14. Jared Heyman recently shared some data on the (young) recent cohort.

10. We recently sent a Weekend Fund 2025 recap to our LPs. Here’s a redacted version highlighting a vertical AI startup with 10× usage growth in the last few months, the world’s largest psychedelic therapy provider, a young robotic warehouse company with massive contracts already, an AI-powered video suite generating upper eight figures in revenue/year, a moonshot addressing AI-driven energy demand, one of the fastest-growing private companies of this generation, and more.

11. There’s an explosion of off-label peptide use. This essay provides an overview and words of caution. I’ve been using peptides on and off for a few years. It started with BPC-157 to address some knee issues.

12. I’m selling my condo in Miami. I love this spot and Miami is unbeatable in the winter, but I could use the liquidity and prefer not to own real estate. Maybe I’ll buy again when I know I’ll stay in the same city for 5+ years. Check out the video my brother produced, and if you’re looking to buy, LMK!

13. I’m a fan of Erik Torenberg, a former teammate at Product Hunt. He’s building a media empire at a16z.

14. Dalton and Michael of YC fame started a podcast. It’s good. They’ve seen a ton of early startups and have solid advice for founders.

15. Another podcast rec from YC folks: I like Jessica Livingston and Carolynn Levy’s podcast, The Social Radars. The recent episode with Blake Scholl from Boom Supersonic is good. The most surprising thing to me: He started the company when he had three kids under the age of two.

16. Tiny Desk is an internet gem. This T-Pain performance from a decade ago recently resurfaced. It’s my favorite, right next to Mac Miller and Anderson Paak.

17. And one more thing. I got engaged. :)