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

Here’s a thought: What if you could consistently make people go “WOW” whenever they visit your site?

And what if you could understand what ultimately makes them leave your site — so you can give them what they want and make them stay?

Enter: Hotjar.

Hotjar is a user behavior and feedback tool that allows site owners to see how people are actually using their site, and collect feedback to understand why they behave the way they do. 🙌

While traditional analytics tools like Google Analytics provide a bird’s eye view of website traffic, Hotjar goes beyond the numbers with visual heatmaps, session replays and on-page surveys that help answer questions other analytics tools can't. Let’s call it the qualitative side of quantitative data.

What the Product Hunt community thinks:

“I love using Hotjar and have used it in conjunction with Google Analytics for years! I am able to gain so much insight from watching the recordings of people interacting with the site. This is something I would recommend to any digital marketing professional” - Rebecca

“This is a much-needed out-of-the-box product that gives us the heatmaps we want — all for a price and ease-of-use that isn't prohibitive! I was intrigued, and literally had this product spun up in a live web application and recording data in under five minutes” - Nick

The value of this type of feedback loop

Traditional analytics tools can tell you what your users are doing (e.g., 60% quit before completing their purchase), but only website feedback tools like Hotjar can help you understand why this is happening (e.g., the slow delivery rate is making them pause). Once you know the customer experience, it’s easy to see where you can improve.

Hotjar is a leading behavior analytics and feedback software company, used on over 500,000 websites in 180+ countries, with companies including InVision, Microsoft and Nintendo, to name a few.

Earlier this month, FYI (a golden kitty award finalist!) co-founder Marie Prokopets did her first AMA on Product Hunt and we learned a lot. 👏

Marie has a self-described “wild ride of a career,” which includes founding multiple products, working with celebs in the alcohol industry, handling $26M worth of M&A deals and winning awards in comedy writing. She also likes to meditate, burn sage and collect crystals. 🙏

In her AMA, Marie covers SaaS, habits, mental models, startup advice, writing and so much more. While it’s hard to boil down the highlights from the Q&A (read it in full here), we tried:

On her advice for people thinking about launching their first company: In hindsight, there are 3 things I'd recommend. 1) ask yourself the right questions, 2) give yourself the best pep talk you've ever given yourself 3) get practical.

On what she’s learned about writing: Share your writing, even when you think it sucks. I nearly didn't ship a post on remote work tips because I didn't feel like it was good enough (thank you, internal hater). But I shared it anyway, and ever since I shared it people have been thanking me & saying it's the most thorough thing out there.

On scaling startups: Scale should be an afterthought. Make sure to learn everything about your customer and the problem your product is solving. Keep iterating until you build something your customers love. Thinking about scale too early is futile, since you are going to learn so much and your product will keep changing and evolving.

On her mental model for building a business: My first essential mental model/framework is honesty. Is this honestly a big, painful problem for people? Are we honestly solving the problem, or just part of the way there? Is this honestly a category I'm interested in for years to come? Is this honestly a big, growing category?

On her habits: Does Postmates count as a daily habit? 😹

She actually has some really inspiring daily habits (like meditating for 30-45 minutes per day), which outlines more fully in her AMA. Read it here or why not start your own?

“It's easy to be frustrated by the state of the internet and sense of powerlessness over our time/attention/data out here in 2k19” - Tonic Maker Matthew Ogle

Matthew has a point...and a solution. Last week, Tonic launched to serve up personalized, nontoxic reads every day. It’s anti breaking news or hot takes, and just a cool place to discover interesting stuff on the internet. 🙌

Tonic is the first product to launch out of its parent company, Canopy. Canopy is working on a series of digital experiences built around private personalization architecture, meaning they want to promote the power of discovery while keeping your data secure.

The idea behind Tonic is to ultimately cut down on the noise and clickbait that currently dominates most reading experiences on the internet. It’ll help you discover five “delightful” things to read each day, focusing specifically on articles and publications that are lesser known in the existing online ecosystem. 👀

“It looks simple, but Tonic is completely novel under the hood and in how it talks to the server; I like to think of it as a modest ambassador from a different, kinder future.” - Matthew

Would you use Tonic for internet reading? Tell us here.

A few other lesser known curation apps to check out:

🗞Stoop is like a podcast app, but for newsletters

☀️Not Depressing News is...what it sounds like

👀Draft is like if Hacker News and Medium had a child

You’ve probably heard of Casper, the re-inventor of mattresses.

Back in 2014, the New York-based startup took something old (mattresses) and made them new again (by compressing them into a cardboard box), raising $1 million in revenue during the company’s first 28 days in business. 💸

The idea sparked a ton of competitors to do the same, with dozens of variations of smart mattresses, no pressure mattresses and cuddle mattresses that aimed to upend traditional mattress retailers.

The basic business model —bypassing middlemen by selling items virtually — caught on, and gave rise to the larger direct-to-consumer movement. The wellness industry expanded in tandem, and Casper decided it would be more than just a mattress company. 😴

Four years ago, Casper (naturally) expanded to offer sheets and pillows after 18 months of development.

“I want all the things!!!” - Sarah

Then the company launched a dog bed (a trend that has since caught on with other direct-to-consumer giants).

“Definitely thought it said 'designed by dogs' and I was SUPER impressed... I can't help but be slightly bitter that dogs can benefit from Casper mattresses before I've managed to — but that's my fault” - Ben

Last year, the company opened up “The Dreamery” in New York City. It’s a physical space where you can reserve a nook to nap in (on a Casper bed) for $25 per session. A few months later, the company gifted sleepers with Casper Glow, a portable, sleep-friendly light that fills your room with a warm light to help you wind down and wake up more naturally.

“The interaction design with gestures, synchronizing multiple lights, and portability are well thought out. I had always considered getting the Philips wake up light, but the Casper Glow is now on the top of my list.” - Kunal

Just last week, Casper launched CBD Sleep Gummies, which are exactly what they sound like. It's a smart move, as recent data has shown that CBD is definitively on the rise:


“Interesting direction from Casper, but it makes total sense. Another product from Casper designed solely to help you sleep” - Aaron

And that’s where Casper’s reportedly headed — towards a possible IPO as “the Nike of sleep.”

Over the past few months, we’ve written a lot about making podcasts, from a guide to new podcasting tools to Spotify’s podcast strategy to why no one should ever start a podcast.

Podcasts are undoubtedly in, meaning the day where you decide to produce a podcast will inevitably come. Descript just launched (with its recent Lyrebird acquisition) to be there when that happens. 👀

In the PH comments, Descript CEO Andrew Mason (who previously founded Groupon) described the product as “an end-to-end podcast production studio wrapped in a user experience that was as approachable and flexible as a document.”

Descript essentially answers the question of “How do I make a podcast?” in a product. You connect a mic to your computer, hit record and then edit to your heart’s content The editing aspect is particularly intriguing — Descript is designed to be super intuitive (like a document) and has cool features like “Overdub,” a tool that lets you correct voice recordings with text. 🎙

“It's the first of many AI-powered features we plan to ship together to reduce the friction of creative expression.” - Andrew

Earlier this week, the company announced it raised a $15 million Series A from Andreessen Horowitz and Redpoint, which is plans to use to hire more and expand the business.

Some initial reactions from podcasters and future podcasters:

“I've been looking for a tool that would allow me to "type" podcast ad reads and output with my voice to save me time and avoid long approval delays. I'll have to give the new Descript a try." - Ryan

“Descript is an incredible tool. Within minutes of finishing a podcast recording I've got the episode transcribed and ready for editing.” - Nico

“This looks amazing—congrats on getting it here, folks! I've been looking at Descript since the early days and seeing it turn into such a mature and futuristic take on audio editing is awesome.” - Marius

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

A quick recap of the past few weeks:

• An Instagram vulnerability exposed user accounts and phone numbers
• The DMV is selling your data for millions
• The popular CamScanner app was exposed as a vehicle for malware
• Biometric data for over a million people was left for the taking

It’s getting so bad, in fact, that Google and Facebook have joined Microsoft by resorting to paying people for finding and reporting apps that misuse people’s data. It seems we’re fighting a losing battle.

But our friends at Blockstack have been working on this problem for a while now. They just closed another $23 million in a historic SEC-qualified token sale to continue supporting a new generation of apps that can’t abuse users. In these apps, data always lives with the user and isn’t exposed in large honeypots to be bought or stolen.

Since July, 85 new apps that “can’t be evil” by design have been added to the Blockstack network, which counts over 250 apps in total. Here are a few exciting recent additions:

🔎 Land Ho! is an incognito search engine

💯 BlackHole is a blockchain-based file transfer

🙌 Social Vault is encrypted storage for your Facebook data

📓 Safe Notes lets you securely annotate and store your PDF docs

👋 Help A Stranger Out lets you give anonymous acts of kindness to strangers

👏 POW! lets you securely take charge of your menstrual cycle

🔓 ProperPass is a password manager that keeps your data safe

💸 trakkin.me pays you for the data you generate when browsing

Even if you’re not ready to switch from your favorite centralized app, you can show your support for the “apps that can’t be evil” movement by setting up a Blockstack ID and getting your free stickers. 🙌

Last month we wrote about Gin Lane, the branding agency behind startups like Hims, Everlane, Warby Parker, Recess, Harry’s, SmileDirectClub and Quip, and their big pivot away from their clients. The company announced it was rebranding itself to Pattern, a new holding company for up to five different lifestyle brands.

The first said lifestyle brand launched yesterday and it’s around — *drumroll* — cookware. The new brand is called “Equal Parts” and it’s essentially a mix (or equal parts, heh) of cooking tools and on-demand guidance. Their demographic is millennials, who apparently cook less than any other living generation. 🥘

The Pattern team's inspiration came from their own burnout; they found solace in cooking against “the stream of emails and notifications following us home each day.”

The brand launched with five kits of cookware (which start at $249 and max out at $575 for the “complete kitchen“), which comes with eight weeks of a text-based personal cooking coach. The idea is congruent with Pattern’s ”Direct With Consumer“ ethos, which brings guidance to new customer experiences. With this mind, we could imagine future Pattern launches of, say, bedding supplies alongside a sleep app or exercise guides to complement workout gear.

The news comes just a day after another kitchenware brand launch on Product Hunt from Our Place. Our Place’s mission is to make products inspired by traditions, and they’re starting with dinner. The result is a collection of sleek and minimalist pans, plates and glasses “designed for rising rents and shrinking cabinet space.” 💯

“I didn't think I could feel this way about a pan.” - Sam

In fact, we’ve seen a bunch of cooking launches within the past 30 days. A few to check out:

🍳Becooked lets you make recipe cards

🍳Ckbk is like Spotify but for cookbooks

🍳Feast is home cooking delivered straight to your door

🍳CookUp helps you save and cook recipes you find online

Your location data is a hot-button topic. Spotify wants to know where you live. Facebook is defending its use of location data. And that’s just last week. That’s why it’s refreshing to see a product launch that wants to protect your location data instead of (potentially) exploiting it.

Arcane Maps launched on Product Hunt last week as a blockchain-based alternative to Google Maps. 🔎

“As we keep hearing about data breach news of big companies, it is harder for us to keep trusting them with our personal data, especially our location history. It made us think about finding a better way. We believe the best way to keep data secure is by not having them in the first place. That's why we choose the server-less and encrypted solution with the help of blockchain.” - Arcane Maps Maker Walterion

How it works: You can pull up Arcane Maps in your mobile or desktop browser. The clean design is reminiscent of Google Maps (it’s almost scarily similar), and you can easily type in wherever you’re going. Like Google Maps, you can “favorite place"," but all of your search history will be private, safe and secure, using blockchain-based cloud storage.

Arcane Maps is the latest from Arcane Office, self-described as “the first decentralized office suite” on Twitter. Arcane also launched decentralized versions of Google Docs, Google Sheets and Google Photos this year. Read this for a behind the scenes look from Walterion.

Would you use this instead of Google Maps? Tell us here. 🗺

There’s something special about personal websites. When you own a site that’s your first name + your last name dot com (or some variation of that), you can showcase yourself however you want — independent of social media profiles and old-school resumes.

If this already has you thinking about how your personal site could use a makeover — good news. HUMANS is full of #inspo. 🙌

Over the weekend, HUMANS launched a curated gallery of beautifully designed personal websites. It’s a little like Dribbble and a little like Pinterest, in that it’s essentially a mood board of gorgeous personal pages. Click into any page, and you’ll find the site’s color palette, a design overview, and the tech used to make the website (i.e. React, Angular, Vue, Wordpress, Wix, etc.).

Maker Koby Ofek says he decided to build HUMANS after needing inspiration for his own site (he still hasn’t built his personal site because he’s been so busy building this).

“I knew I wanted to created something from scratch and I didn't want to copy anybody's design, but I definitely needed some inspiration. I wanted to see what kind of things people are building online for themselves, and most importantly, I wanted to see what people like me are building - designers, developers, the people who build the internet” - Koby

To find sites for the gallery, Koby says he looked through awards sites, Dribbble, Behnace and Twitter. 👀

Now, Makers can submit their own site to be featured on HUMANS.

We want to see your personal sites! Show them to us here. 👋