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Slack’s going public today, but don’t call it an IPO.

Instead, Slack is pursuing a direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange (under the ticker “WORK”), forgoing the IPO process to reduce the number of banks involved and costs in IPO-related fees. The company has set a reference point of $26 per share for the listing, valuing the company around ~$16B.

Do direct listings sound familiar? Though they’re rare (only companies in great financial shape tend to pursue them), Spotify also went public via direct listing last year.

Slack is the latest in the slew of tech companies to go public this year, and our new favorite game is taking trips down Product Hunt memory lane. Some of our favorite Slack comments:

“So good. The iOS app crushes Hipchat's. Our team made the switch and we haven't looked back.” - Will

“Yeah, we tried it too and it hasn't stuck. Butterfield seems to build these beautiful games/tools that miss something core.” - Derek

“I don't know how my team survived without Slack previously. We switched from Skype (could never get on with Hipchat) and haven't looked back. The search is miles better, the mobile apps are incredible, and the integrations with things like Trello, ProdPad and MailChimp just make it a no-brainer.” - Janna

“Quite simply, our business depends on Slack.” - Jamie

Slack is one of the biggest new B2B platforms to launch in recent history, and we’ve seen a lot of bots created since its launch. A sampling:

🍩 Donut for Onboarding makes onboarding easy, in Slack

👋 Notify gives you a Slack notification when your startup is mentioned online

🙌 Halp is a Slack-first internal ticketing system

🌚 Sblack is a lightweight Mac client for Slack

💪 Paste is a presentation tool for Slack

📹 Slack Video Messaging lets you record and send videos in Slack

⭕ Tic-tac-toe for a game in Slack

👍 Suttna is a check-in app for Slack

🙃 Slackmojis is a directory of custom Slack emojis

😂 Slacker lets you post funny replies as different characters

And there are sooo many more. Check them all out here 👇

Yesterday, Clockwise made a splash on Product Hunt with its *intelligent* calendar. But to be sure, this isn’t just another calendar app. 📅

Instead, Clockwise uses machine learning to make the calendars we already have work better. The startup’s big promise: you’ll get your time back. Some of Clockwise’s ~unique~ features:

• Movable and unmovable meetings
• Team sync for “Focus Time” aka uninterrupted blocks of time
• Automatically go into Slack do-not-disturb during meetings
• Personal calendar sync

According to Clockwise co-founder and CEO Matt Martin, the company has already given back over 12,000 hours of time to teams at Lyft, Coursera and Lattice. Some initial reactions from the PH community:

“Clockwise is a special product because it acts like a public good and has so many positive repercussions at the team and company level as soon as ONE person starts using it.” - Michelle

“If this delivers, it's the #1 product I've expected for the past 2 years” - Christophe

“Set up once and forget. It just works in the background” - John

The company also announced it raised an $11M Series A earlier this week. And they’re not the calendar startup raising capital. IRL launched their new social calendar alongside the announcement of their $8M round funding. Investors seem to be looking for the next Sunrise (RIP).

All G-Suite Calendar users can try out Clockwise. Test it and tell us what you think 👇

Facebook has finally unveiled its blockchain plans following numerous rumors about its “GlobalCoins” project. Today, the company announced that the global cryptocurrency will actually be called “Libra.” 👀

Here’s what we know:

• Libra will launch in 2020 along with a blockchain-based network
• Facebook is also launching a digital wallet called Calibra, which will have its own app and be built into WhatsApp and Messenger
• Calibra promises to keep your crypto dealings and your Facebook data private
• Founding members of the Libra Association, a not-for-profit which oversees the token’s development, includes Visa, Uber, Lyft, Spotify, PayPal, Mastercard, Stripe and Andreessen Horowitz, to name a few
• Facebook, Calibra and these other founding members will earn interest on the money users cash in (it will be held in reserve to keep Libra’s value stable)

Some initial reactions:

“If Facebook can make this right then we potentially have one global currency” - Edul

“I'm very very curious how this matures. Facebook is one of the few companies that can accelerate cryptocurrency adoption to the mainstream (whether the crypto communities like it or not).” - Ryan

“Now Google and Apple will compete and it will really boost the industry.” - Seth

In the white paper Facebook published today, the company states its mission is to “enable a simple global currency and financial infrastructure that empowers billions of people.”

Between the lines, Facebook may be poised to scale a global cryptocurrency (more so than Bitcoin or Ethereum). In Facebook’s words:

“Mass-market usage of existing blockchains and cryptocurrencies has been hindered by their volatility and lack of scalability, which have, so far, made them poor stores of value and mediums of exchange.”

On the selling side, Facebook has relationships with 7 million advertisers and 90 million small businesses. On the consumer side, it’s estimated that 2.1 billion people use Facebook (which includes WhatsApp, Instagram or Messenger) each day.

If successful, Libra could become something akin to the next PayPal — an easy to set up payment method that’s universal and decentralized. Ironically, David Marcus, co-creator of Libra and long-time Facebook exec, is the former President of PayPal. It could also become a competitive banking system by offering access to folks in developing countries, reducing money transfer fees through Calibra and offering loans and credit to users.

This is big news, so we want to here what you think too. Tell us here.

Game Builder, a video game that lets you build Minecraft-style games, arrived on Product Hunt last week.

The project comes out of Area 120, aka Google’s workshop for experiments. The problem Google is solving for, in Google’s words:

“Let’s say you have an idea for a video game. It could be a first-person action game starring a snail on the (slow) run from the law, or a multiplayer game featuring only pugs. There’s only one problem: You’ve never built a game before. You don’t know how to program.You don’t know any 3D artists. And every tool you find won’t let you collaborate with friends.”

The solution: Game Builder is a Mac and Windows app that can work for folks *without* prior video game building experience. In fact, you don’t even need to know how to code to use it.

How it works: You can build worlds with simple drag-and-drop features. Graphics for characters and scenery can be found and imported from Google’s open library of free VR/AR assets, Poly. More experienced coders can also live-code their game using JavaScript. “Multiplayer” collaboration with other players is also available.

Game Builder has actually been available through Steam since last November, but Google hasn’t publicized the builder until now. That said, the release isn’t a huge surprise from Google, who’s gearing up to launch its own game streaming service, Stadia, later this year.

Never heard of Area 120 before? Here are some other “experimental” products Google is cooking up:

Rivet is an app for for reading practice 📖

CallJoy gives small businesses easy-to-use phone tech 📞

Touring Bird is an app for exploratory travel ✈️

Emoji Shot is emoji charades with friends 😎

Chatbase is chatbot analytics for developers 💬

P.S. Game Builder is free to play. So tell us what you think 👇

A little heads up: It’s Father’s Day this weekend.

In case you forgot, we rounded up a few last-minute gifts for your Dad, Product Hunt-style. Fun fact: all of these products launched within the past week.

If he’s is into photos...

Get him a 3D-printed tripod head 📷

If he’s needs a toothbrush upgrade...

Get him a robot that removes plaque 😁

If he’s into music...

Get him a personalized vinyl record 🎵

If he’s into gaming...

Get him the new Xbox controller 🎮

If he’s really into gaming...

Pre-order Google’s new gaming platform for him 🙌

If he’s intro travel....

Send him on an Airbnb Adventure (Airbnb launched this yesterday!) ✈️

And if all else fails, send him a funny card. Dads love jokes.

A few months ago, we wrote about how Fortnite was turning into the next big social network. It seems we weren’t the only ones who thought so.

Yesterday, social video app Houseparty announced that it is getting acquired behind Epic Games, aka the creator of Fortnite.

It’s a natural fit. While Fortnite continued to become socially oriented, Houseparty has recently begun to move into gaming with integrated games and screen sharing. In fact, Fortnite players are already using Houseparty as they game. 🙌

A brief history of Houseparty: If you recall, Houseparty was initially built in secret by the makers of Meerkat in 2015. In 2016, Houseparty debuted on Product Hunt. An initial message from Houseparty founder Ben Rubin:

“On the surface it’s like a super fast and simple 'group facetime' while also becoming the foundation for an elaborate virtual space where people can hang with friends when they are physically apart. Face-to-face conversations over the internet are way too formal right now. We wanted lightweight way for us to see our friends everyday, no setup required. In a funny way, this is always the experience we wanted to give our users on Meerkat.“

Some reactions from the community:

“It's great, simple and FUN! See y'all on the party line in the cloud” - Tarikh

“Been using Houseparty for the last few weeks and it's a lot of fun. Love the simplicity of opening the app and instantly being thrown into a group video chat with friends.” - Jack

“I've been a user of House Party for a few months now, and the thing that has struck me about it is how serendipitous it is. I've had catchup conversations with my friends randomly because of a push notification, and I've made a few new friends. That's powerful.” - Ben

Shortly after Houseparty's rise to 1M DAUs, Facebook quickly followed with the now dead Bonfire app. Apple’s Facetime with groups and Facebook Messenger’s video chat also definitely took inspiration from Houseparty.

Financial details on the deal weren’t disclosed, but Houseparty preemptively answered your “so what’s next” questions in a blog post. What you need to know:

• No immediate changes will be coming to Houseparty.
• Your Houseparty friendships will remain the same.
• Your Houseparty account will remain separate from your Epic Games account if you have both (and your data won’t be shared between them).

Have you joined the party yet? 👋

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

Hansel has a big mission: to foster peace among product managers and engineers. ✌️

From Hansel's point of view, product development and user adoption are very different problems. Yet, PMs often have to work with engineers to do both. Hansel’s platform is designed to help companies solve for user drop-offs and adoption by deploying nudges at pivotal moments in the product funnel, all with no-code. 

Why this matters: With any product, the key to long-term retention depends on users extracting high value from a product's experience. And sometimes, keeping users within key funnels and flows is a long and painful process.

Enter Hansel.

How it works: By seamlessly integrating with any analytics platforms, Hansel gives product teams a no-code, decision tree framework to deploy targeted product interactions and nudges in key product funnels. You can use historical or real-time data to map user flows and deploy customized interactions or nudges along these flows to create differentiated journeys for specific users.

What the community thinks:

“I’m a strong believer in the growth and spread of no-code platforms and Hansel seems like another step in that evolution. Happy to see a solution built specifically for PMs.” - Al

“Easily one of the best no-code platforms for product managers and product marketers.” - Sravan

Some examples of Hansel’s ability to handle scale:

• A payments app with 120M monthly users and an $18B valuation
• A gaming company with 25M users and a wildly addictive cricket game
• An ecommerce brand with 10M users and a $7B valuation

What to do now: Get started with a free trial by visiting Hansel.io

Earlier this week, a certain ~trending~ celebrity surprised the crowd at Microsoft’s Xbox event to announce CD Projekt Red’s new game, Cyberpunk 2077. It was Keanu Reeves.

Reeves took to the stage (Apple Event style 🤔) after the trailer to the open-world adventure aired, in which he plays a part. How the game works: The new RPG takes place in "Night City," where players will fight through a world of corporations and street-level games. It's a loose continuation of the Cyberpunk board game and sequel Cyberpunk 2020. If you don't remember those titles, that's because they were released in the late 80s early 90s, respectively.

Still, the PH community was psyched:

“For the love of Keanu” - Baris

“KEANU REEVES!” - Amrith

“This game already looked incredible... but adding Keanu just took it to a whole new level of awesome.” - Chad

Reeves also announced that the game will come to Xbox One and Windows 10 on April 16, 2020.

That’s a long ways away, so we’ve rounded up some entertainment for you in the meantime. Here’s a few games that have launched in the past year:

🎮 Playstation Classic for retro, preloaded games

🐯 Animar for augmented reality Tamagotchi

🐴 Red Dead Redemption 2 for the closest thing to West World

🧠 HQ Words for a brain game

🧀 Cheeze Wizards for a blockchain battle royale

🙌 Jelly Mario for a trippy Mario game in your browser

And don’t worry, you’ll be the first to know when the worldwide rollout of Harry Potter: Wizards Unite happens later this year. ⚡️

Over the weekend, we saw a novel idea launch on Product Hunt — jelly-like bubble pouches that reduce single use plastic. The edible spheres, called “Oohos,” are made of plant and seaweed extract, a material that biodegrades naturally after 4-6 weeks. 🌏

Some initial (mixed) reactions:

“If all these seaweed startups are just scavenging the Ocean’s seaweed I think we are replacing one problem with something that will likely be even a bigger problem later.” - Brad

“If we ended up in a situation where we have no plastic in the sea and have to farm more seaweed to make that happen, that sounds like a win to me.” - Vineet

The team behind Ooho is Notpla, a London-based sustainable packaging startup that wants to create plastic-free solutions. For example, Oohos could replace plastic cups and bottles at sporting events, cocktail cups at festivals, or condiment pots at fast food restaurants. 

How they make money: Notpla has created a local manufacturing machine that produces Oohos on-site. The company's primary business model is to lease this machine and sell cartridges of materials to event organizers, enabling them to produce and sell fresh Oohos with drinks or sauces as needed. 🙌

We've seen a few other startups come up with *creative* packaging solutions to eliminate single-use plastics. Notably, there's Blueland for everyday cleaning products in “forever bottles.” There's also Loop for reusable containers for things like deodarant, mouthwash, shampoo, etc. To venture further down the sustainable rabbit hole, go here.

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

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.

Over 30,000 companies use Hotjar, including InVision, Microsoft and Hubspot, to name a few.