The Leaderboard

If you’ve logged on to tech Twitter in the past few days and aren’t sure what the hell is going on, well, you’re probably better off. Time to log out, open Disney+ and watch Hamilton or Frozen 2 instead and start enjoying the long weekend.

In other tech news this week, the folks over at Yelling At Cubicles (aka YAC) hit us with an update. You might remember the team from their Maker Story last year where cofounder Justin Mitchell unpacks how 1 tweet led them to raise $400K. Pretty impressive stuff. Fun Fact: YAC started as a project during our first ever Makers Festival in 2018 where they went on to win a Silver Kitty Trophy.

YAC is a voice messaging app for remote teams, a kind of Slack-meets-Clubhouse scenario. In its latest update, you can leave a voice note for your team in Slack – in a group or in public. Anyone can sign up with their team, and for the next week, the Product Hunt community can get a 25% discount off their annual plan with the code PRODUCTHUNT.

With more teams working remotely now than ever before, we have seen a surge in similar tools start to emerge. We wrote about this in more detail back in May, looking in particular at Walkie and WaterCooler.

At Product Hunt we have recently started using Tandem for informal team hang time. So far so good. But we do love trying new products, so we’re not ruling out any of the newer tools from our Stack just yet.

Facebook has announced that it’s shutting down it’s TikTok competitor, Lasso.

When Lasso launched on Product Hunt nearly two years ago, a question was posed:

“Will Lasso still be around in 12 months?”

Some initial reactions from the community:

“Cool design but maybe a little too late to compete with now successful TikTok app“ – Sebastian

“Facebook has a tendency to fail with standalone apps - I don't think anything will be different here” – Rick

“No. FB is copy pasting the features. Might snatch some consumers but won't be able to kill it.” – Avneesh

Although Lasso has outlasted the initial 12 month timeframe, these predictions ultimately came true. But prophesying a new product’s failure is an easy bet. Most products fail. Even those from big co’s like Facebook. And that’s OK. Experimentation is very much a net good, and Facebook’s NPE team continues to try new ideas with Bump, AUX, Whale, and other projects.

It’s also been an interesting week for Facebook’s ad revenue team with large advertisers such as Starbucks and Coca Cola boycotting the company over concerns regarding hate speech. With a gap in their marketing budget perhaps these big co’s will move their ad-spend dollars to TikTok on their newly launched TikTok for Business platform. Although it’s reported that Zuck isn’t that worried.

TikTok has also had its fair share of knock backs this week with news that India has banned the Chinese based company from its app store. With over 200 million users in India, this is a significant blow for the company and one that CEO, Kevin Mayer, is said to be working to address.

What will happen next in the battle of the social media giants? Why not make a prediction over on Forecast, Facebook’s latest product launch that we covered just last week.

Hello! I’m Karen Gillan. You might know as me Ruby Roundhouse in Jumanji, Nebula in Avengers or Amy Pond in Doctor Who. Lovely to meet you.

I’m here to tell you about my new app, Ditto. I was inspired to make an app after seeing how my friends use photo editing as a means of communication.

Whether it’s a running joke, making fun of each other or even flirting; in my opinion, editing is a new type of conversation. I’m excited to be creating a new social network focussing on the creativity of collaboration. Think Instagram meets Photoshop.

So here’s the thing...I’ve built the beta version and now I’m looking for iOS engineers to join me on a weird and wonderful journey for a few months. So if you are a creative coder who also happens to love Doctor Who or Marvel movies, you’re gonna want in on this. Just kidding, you don’t have to be a Sci-Fi fan. Although you really should know which actor played Worf in Star Trek: The Next Generation.

You can submit applications here.

When the time is right, I’ll be back to explain this app in more detail. I can’t wait to share it with you all and start some awesome collaborations! Please sign up here to be the first to know what happens next.

(Oh, the answer is Michael Dorn by the way.)

Two years ago Mirror launched on Product Hunt. The $1,500 at-home fitness trainer was met with skepticism:

“$1500 for Mirror + $40 per month is going to be a hard sell. There will definitely be a luxury market for it, but many will just set up a $5 mirror and a free YouTube video to achieve a very similar experience.” – Joshua

Others saw the value right away:

“I'm this close to trying it. Currently my husband and I never have time to work out. We have a 1 yr old and a 3 yr old and both work full time. Between drop offs and pick ups and play time and dinner, we do not have time to even sign up for classes at the gym right down the street.” – Heather

Since then Mirror – a 2018 Golden Kitty Award winner – has done well. As gyms remain closed during the pandemic, demand for Mirror and similar home workout devices have risen dramatically.

Now Lululemon wants to get into the game. Yesterday the apparel company announced their $500M acquisition of Mirror, likely the first of many attractive M&A opportunities in this category. A few others to keep an eye on:

Tempo, backed by Founders Fund, Khosla, and others, offers a similar form factor as Mirror but with greater focus on weight lifting.

Tonal, a $2,995 electromagnetic wall-mounted gym, is currently backordered by ~3 months.

And then there’s Supernatural, marrying VR gaming with home fitness. It’s unlike anything else we’ve seen.

Which co will be acquired next? 🤔

Last Friday, tech Twitter was flooded with the ominous phrase, ‘it is what it is,’ followed by the emojis 👁👄👁. Thousands of people joined the mysterious waitlist with curiosity.

Expectedly, many people started asking for an invite. The official Twitter account, @itiseyemoutheye, suggested they could jump the queue by sharing their donation receipt to a charitable cause.

Memes were created. Tech journalists got onboard. Even Elon Musk may have subtweeted the new ‘app’.

With just a landing page asking for email addresses and the Twitter storm that surrounded it, the project gained more hype and appeal than most startups ever achieve. But this wasn’t a startup. It wasn’t even a product. It was a statement.

Friday evening, less than two days since the the buzz began, the team of 60 young professionals in tech revealed themselves. They sought to capitalize on the wave of FOMO and raise money for charities supporting Black Lives Matter. And they did. Over $200K in donations went to The Okra Project, The Innocence Project, The Loveland Foundation Therapy Fund and others.

Although many have lauded the success of this team in carrying out their stunt, it has not been without controversy.

Some people on Product Hunt took affront to sharing their email address to an (intentionally) sketchy-looking website with the words “give us ur info”. Others were upset this was never a real app as advertised.

Over on Twitter, clashes between some members of the creative team and Black VC, Del Johnson, revealed support for the same cause can offend people at the heart of the movement if it's not carefully thought through and executed sensitively. The two parties have since resolved their original conflict, having even grown from it according to a recent Twitter exchange, including a sincerely given and graciously accepted apology. Something not often seen on Twitter.

Other investors appear to have had a more favorable opinion of the stunt, with the Makers hinting they have already received VC enquiries into their funding needs. Which, according to them, is totally missing the point.

Whether you see it as a prank, a movement, a stunt or as activism - it undeniably got people’s attention.

Today’s Daily Digest was crafted by Product Hunt and sponsored by our friends at Zendesk for Startups.

It wasn't that long ago that Zendesk was a startup. The company got its start in 2007 in a Copenhagen loft, armed with a mission to build software that would help other companies build a great customer experience through a simple set of support tools.

Now worth more than $9 billion the company's early years forged an identity that remains key to its culture today: Zendesk is still very much a startup at heart and wants to give back to this community. With customers ranging from Uber and Airbnb to Calm and Limebike, Zendesk has helped hyper-growth companies start-up and scale their customer support.

The challenge:

It can be challenging for startups to build a customer support function from the ground up, especially because time and resources are limited for young companies.

The solution:

6 free months of Zendesk products, plus:

• Exclusive access to a community of founders and partners
• Curated customer experience resources, office hours with Zendesk experts and events
• Try any number of Zendesk solutions to trial with 0 risk

Note: You must be a new customer, have fewer than 50 employees, and have raised venture funding up to Series A

Zendesk products include Support, Guide, Chat and Talk options. While customer preferences are constantly changing — and consumers expect to be able to interact with brands across many channels — this suite of products gives startups what they need to grow an omnichannel customer experience at-scale.

AWS just entered the competitive world of no-code app builders with its launch of Amazon Honeycode.

Using tables to input data and a drag and drop style interface to set layout, AWS VP Larry Augustin claims that anyone can build apps in Honeycode for both web and mobile.

Currently in beta, Honeycode is free to use for teams of up to 20 users and 2,500 rows per work load.

The launch is a surprise to some given Amazons historical focus on more traditional developer tooling. Although perhaps it shouldn’t have as more big co’s are investing in no-code solutions.

Earlier this year we wrote about Google’s acquisition of the no-code builder, AppSheet, for an undisclosed sum marking Google’s continued investment into the no-code/low-code space. What on the surface looks like a competitive move by AWS against existing no-code platforms like Webflow, Bubble, Airtable, Intermal or Retool.

But ultimately Honeycode is competing with the spreadsheet, the leader of no-code tools.

Who will win the next election? Will there be a second COVID-19 spike? Is there going to be another season of Tiger King?

Facebook (?!🤨!?) has the answers. Or more accurately, a select group of beta testers using their latest product, Forecast, will try to predict the answers. According to Maker, Taylor Hughes:

“Forecast is an attempt to create structured spaces around specific forward-looking questions, where everyday experts can shine and share what they know with the world.”

To become a predictor, sign up via the Facebook group to request access. They’re looking for health, academic and research professionals from the US and Canada to start. Interestingly for a Facebook product, they suggest following their Twitter profile will keep you updated.

If you’d rather make some money from your forecasts, 2019 Golden Kitty winner, Predicto will pay you for accurate predictions (powered by the blockchain, of course).

A number of other prediction tools launched on Product Hunt over the years include Predictive World, I Was Right FYI and Predibly. When looking back to see if past predictions came true, we discovered that these products are sadly no longer online. But as far as we can see, no one accurately predicted how 2020 would turn out. 🤪

Who knows how long Forecast will last; we’ve not been accepted into the group yet so don’t trust our uninitiated predictions. We’re cautiously hopeful for this one’s longevity though.

Can you predict the future?

Apple announced a few big updates at yesterday’s opening WWDC keynote.

Here’s a quick recap of the highlights:

🖥 macOS Big Sur: Big name, big update. Big Sur marks Apple's biggest Safari update yet with notable enhancements to Messages, Maps and Privacy.

📱 iOS 14: It’s all about the widgets. Customize your homescreen with movable widgets, automatically organize your App Library, save App Clips, and multitask answering a FaceTime while using another app.

📲 iPadOS 14: This update focuses on the iPad’s large Multi-Touch display with a new side bar for better search, Siri integration and a powerful new handwriting feature called Scribble.

⌚️watchOS 7: Your Apple Watch will now include more opportunities to personize and share your face. Most timely in the age of COVID-19: The Watch will even track your hand washing. Your watch is watching you. 👀

Apple also announced a move way from intel with a move to Arm-based chips.

Betas will open over the next month with most updates fully launching in the fall. Will you be updating your devices?

Have you ever wondered how much money companies make off your data?

What we do online leads to a massive digital footprint. Every search, every click, every location, every purchase – the buying and selling of this data has grown into a $200 billion industry. Most consumers only get a small peek behind the curtain when a major data breach gets announced (side note: you might want to check have i been pwned?).

In response, we’ve seen a ton of privacy-focused startups and tools launch on Product Hunt over the last few years. It’s become so popular that we dedicated an entire category to the topic in last year’s Golden Kitty Awards.

Today, Andrew Yang is announcing a new initiative called the Data Dividend Project.

You might recognize him as the former Democratic Presidential candidate who championed the Freedom Dividend of $1,000 per month for every American. Now he wants us all to join together to create the largest data rights movement in history. He believes your data is your property, and if you choose to share it, you should also share in the value.

It’s a creative and timely idea. Check it out.