... shift of the last few years: AI dramatically reduced the cost and speed of building products. Because of this, the signals investors optimize for have changed as well. In the article, I openly talk about what we see inside UnicornsClub after watching hundreds of founders try to raise funding. I even share some of the traction thresholds and benchmarks investors inside our community increasingly expect to see. You can read the article here: https://medium.com/@producthunt/... But I think ... ... founder adapts hypotheses, whether they evolve from conversation to conversation, whether they can learn faster than others. Do they have what Peter Thiel called determinate optimism ? Do they have what Paul Graham described as being relentlessly resourceful ? At

... This week in the Product Hunt blog, we have a banger from Julia Yu . She's the co-founder of 2024 Golden Kitty winner UnicornsClub , which matches VCs with early-stage startups. She's also founded three VC-backed companies herself. According to Julia, early-stage founders need to change their mental model about pre-seed funding ASAP. As she puts it: Once upon a time (in fact, as recently as two years ago), early-stage startups needed three ...

... What are the alternatives to Stripe? Paddle got rejected Reason: hybrid model. At Unicorns

... strategy. Platforms like Fundable has no personalized matching, no curated dealflow, no learning loop, no shared context between investor and founder. It s simply SaaS for hope . The uncomfortable truth After working directly with funds and angel investors inside UnicornsClub , here s what became clear: Serious investors don t browse catalogs. Some of the investors who receive curated dealflow from us never even created a profile . They don t search. What founders need is not a directory. They need ... ... because it was strategic, but because reality forced it. Matching happens on two levels The surface layer: industry, stage, geography. The bottom layer: investor behavior, patterns of interest, quiet criteria that are never listed publicly. Every intro request in

... support from me. And excited to see vibecoding tools make the list soon. See you all in Orbit. Comment from Ricky Guo(@rickyguo): A mini radio station would be awesome! Comment from Julia Yu(@juliayugo): We re grateful that UnicornsClub managed to win a Golden Kitty now an award with historical value Feels even more special in hindsight. AI products are still dominating the hype cycle, and that s great but it also makes the truly non-AI-tagline ... ... honest: today any serious product uses AI somewhere maybe not in the user-facing features, but in code generation, moderation, support workflows, etc.) What matters is what problem you re actually solving. In our case at

... Animation Builder is available for all registered users of UnicornsClub, completely FREE! It s built to help you celebrate your small (and big) wins It s like Animastats (the gold standard let s be honest), but: free instant and made to require zero design effort. You create the vibe. We ll make it pop. Try it now on

... sanmartin Comment from Julia Yu(@juliayugo): @aurelia_b  , how many accelerators did you apply to overall, and what traction did you have at the moment of submission? We see a lot of early-stage applications inside UnicornsClub, and one pattern is very consistent: clear early pull from users/developers, and visible product velocity after the first release these two signals influence outcomes more than anything else. But it is still not enough for investors and top-tier accelerators. Comment ... ... ayyangar  would love your thoughts here :) Comment from Julia Yu(@juliayugo): @axel_brunet  interesting! do you have a co-founder? do you have a clinical background, medical degree, or experience inside healthcare systems? In our data at

... UnicornsClub , we highlight early-stage startups that show real momentum not just ideas, but teams putting in the work, building, and growing. This week s spotlight goes to Buzzabout an AI-powered insights tool helping marketing agencies decode audience sentiment and pain points through social media. We ve started rolling out new features to better showcase founders like these: A redesigned homepage with curated collections Live gallery of the latest pitch decks and videos And a dynamic top slot ...

... gamified how startups grow, pitch, and raise Each startup on UnicornsClub now gets a live

... crazy idea we refused to give up on And now Product Hunt just put us in the same league as billion-dollar startups. This is surreal. A dream. That moment of HOLY SH*T, did we actually do this? UnicornsClub a tiny team of just six people, backed by a single angel investor, no VC money just won a Golden Kitty Award. And not just any award, but the one that placed us alongside OpenAI, Google, Figma, Mercury, Notion ... ... when we finish our huge plans! Comment from Nick Anisimov(@nickanisimov): Huge congratulations, much deserved! Comment from Anastasia A(@a_anastasiaaaa): Huge thanks to everyone for your support truly priceless! Comment from Diogo Maia Caetano(@diogomaiacaetano): Congratulations @juliayugo and @

... Community & Social category at the Golden Kitty Awards is filled with amazing startups, just like UnicornsClub, all dedicated to solving challenges for founders and innovators worldwide. Socap ai Socap ai uses AI to help founders grow their networks and fundraise smarter. By leveraging social capital and automating key processes, they re redefining how founders connect with investors and partners. Follow Socap s co-founders on X: @ednevsky, @solonitsyn, @dmitry_star Roundtable Roundtable is building a LinkedIn for investors. With ... ... Hazim_Mohamad_ next play next play is your go-to platform for discovering what s next in the startup ecosystem, from under-the-radar opportunities to fresh collaborations. Follow next play s co-founder on X: @benln

... only introduce you to a person based on skills and interests. What if you met someone who is already solving a similar problem? Someone who is building, facing the same challenges, and actively working on a complementary solution? Currently, UnicornsClub has profiles of many solo founders who are building similar things. I m thinking what if we gave them a way to match and connect? Instead of two separate projects, they could create one but 10X stronger because ...

... Thank you, Product Hunt, for nominating UnicornsClub for the Golden Kitty Awards in the Community & Social category! When we launched the first version of