Favors.dev
The short answer
No. You can submit your own product, and Product Hunt's help pages treat that as the ordinary case: you are both the person who posted it and a maker. A well-followed hunter once gave launches extra reach, but that advantage came from notifying their followers, and it is not worth weeks of outreach when the same weeks can go into a crowd that shows up for you.
The advice to line up a big-name hunter is still repeated in founder threads, and it is a leftover from how the site worked in its early years. If you are a solo founder planning a launch, the useful question is not who should post your product. It is who will be there when it is posted.
What is a Product Hunt hunter?
A hunter is the account that submits a product to Product Hunt. The maker is the person who built it. They can be two people or one. When you post your own product, you are both.
The split exists because of how the site started. Product Hunt launched in November 2013 as an email list of products a small group had found, so the people posting were curators finding things other people made. The word stuck after the site opened to makers posting their own work.
Why did the famous-hunter tactic fade?
The tactic made sense on a specific mechanic. In a 2017 write-up for founders, Product Hunt user Flarup explained that when someone hunts a product, their followers get notified, so a new account with a handful of friends as followers starts with almost no audience. The same post still said that hunting your own product is a perfectly viable thing to do.
Three things have eroded the case since then.
- The crowd moved off the poster.A launch day is driven by the maker's own audience, newsletter, communities and friends. A stranger's followers do not know your product and have little reason to engage with it.
- The site pushes you to post it yourself. Its help pages describe the maker submitting their own product as the default path, and say you do not need anyone else to post it for you. Check the current wording on the help center, as pages like these get edited.
- The first comment belongs to the maker. A hunter used to write it. Readers now expect to hear from the person who built the thing, and a first comment from the maker is the better one.
The hunter tactic, before and after
Here is the tactic as it was argued in 2017 beside what a founder does now. Read it as a list of jobs: every job the hunter used to do is either unnecessary today or something only you can do.
| With a hunter, as argued in 2017 | Hunting your own, today | |
|---|---|---|
| Why a founder wanted a hunter | A hunter's followers were notified when they posted a product, so a well-followed hunter put a new product in front of a crowd on day one. | Your own account notifies your own followers, and the people who show up to a launch are the ones you invited, not a stranger's audience. |
| What the founder prepared | A launch kit handed to the hunter: the copy, the images and the exact time to submit. | The same kit, handed to nobody. You paste it into the submission form yourself. |
| Who wrote the first comment | By custom, the hunter wrote it, explaining why they picked this product. | You write it, as the maker, which is the version readers expect to find. |
| The weeks before launch | Researching hunters, writing pitch emails and waiting for replies. | Building a list of people who will actually show up on the day. |
How do you hunt your own product?
Hunting your own product takes five steps, and the real work is in the first two, done before launch day.
01Set up a real profile first
Use your own photo and a one-line bio, and follow the founders in your space. A profile that looks like a person is the only credential a self-hunted launch needs.
02Write the page in a draft before launch day
The name, tagline, description, gallery and first comment all exist in a document before you touch the form. Submitting becomes a copy and paste job.
03Submit the product yourself
When you submit your own product you are both the person who posted it and a maker. Nobody else needs to be involved for the listing to go live.
04Post the first comment right away
A short, specific note on what you built and who it is for. The first comment post covers the structure with an annotated example.
05Stay in the comments for the day
Reply to every question quickly and in plain words. This is the part a hired hunter cannot do for you.
Two parts of that list have their own guides. The listing requirements checklist covers what the form needs, and the first comment template gives you wording to adapt. If you have launched before and want to go again, the relaunch guide covers the rules for a second post.
Should you pay a hunter?
Some people sell hunting as a service. The choice is yours, but three questions are worth answering before you pay anyone.
- What exactly are you buying?Posting a product takes minutes. If the pitch is the hunter's followers, ask how many of them care about your category.
- Does it stay inside the rules?Product Hunt has rules on paid promotion and on coordinated voting, and a launch that breaks them can be removed. I could not open the site's rules pages in an automated check, so read the current version yourself before you pay. The post on what gets you banned on Product Hunt lists the patterns that cause trouble.
- Does it solve your real problem? A launch with no crowd on the day stays quiet with a famous hunter, because the hunter does not reply to comments or send people to the page.
Where should the effort go instead?
Put the weeks you would have spent on hunter outreach into the people who will be there on launch day. That means three things: a list of friends, past customers and community members who have agreed to look at your page that day; a first comment that is ready to paste; and a plan to answer every question within the hour.
This is also where a co-op fits. In the Favors.dev founder marketing co-op, members earn points in the points economy by doing verified favors for other founders, and you can spend those points asking for help on your own launch day. Put your date on the launch calendar and other founders can rally behind it, which gives you a crowd that exists before the page goes live. The launch directories guide shows where else the same launch can be listed.
Frequently asked questions
Do you need a hunter to launch on Product Hunt?
No. Product Hunt's own help pages describe a founder submitting their own product as the normal case, in which you are both the person who posted it and a maker. Confirm the current wording on Product Hunt's help center before launch day, since the site changes its pages from time to time.
What does a Product Hunt hunter do?
A hunter is the account that posts a product to the site, and the maker is the person who built it. They can be the same person. In the site's early years a hunter with many followers also gave a launch extra reach, because those followers were notified when the product was posted.
Is it better to be hunted by someone with a lot of followers?
It can add some early visibility, but it is not required, and it comes with costs: weeks of outreach, a lost first comment and a launch that depends on one stranger's schedule. Founders who launch with a well-prepared page and a real crowd of supporters on the day do not need it.
Can I pay someone to hunt my product?
Some people offer it as a service. Before you pay anyone, read Product Hunt's current rules on paid promotion and coordinated voting, because breaking them can get a launch removed. The post on what gets you banned on Product Hunt lists the patterns that cause trouble.
How do I find a hunter if I still want one?
Look at products similar to yours and see who posted them, then send a short, polite message with your launch date and a link to your draft page. Expect many people to decline or not reply, and keep launching yourself as the fallback from the start.