AngelList, a San Francisco-based company that helps startups connect with investors and potential employees, has acquired San Francisco-based product discovery company Product Hunt.
In a blog post on the acquisition, AngelList said the deal will allow the two companies to become a destination for startups to recruit, raise money and launch products.
Though they will combine abilities, Product Hunt will remain an independent company. AngelList said companies of all kinds, from small startups to tech giants like Google, use Product Hunt. Amazon is also a fan of the tech trend-setter, as the online retail giant recently added “Featured on Product Hunt” badges to selected products on its Amazon Launchpad startup e-commerce portal as part of a partnership with Product Hunt.
The two companies did not disclose financial details of the deal.
The two companies go together like peanut butter and jelly, Product Hunt CEO Ryan Hoover wrote in an emoji-laden blog post on Medium. AngelList has helped more than 1,000 companies raise close to $500 million and helped more than 325,000 people find jobs. More than 50,000 startups have launched products on Product Hunt.
In his blog post, Hoover detailed how the deal came to be. Six months after Product Hunt launched, Hoover met AngelList CEO Naval Ravikant for the first time.
Upon first meeting, there appeared to be some hesitation on both sides, but it turned out they had a lot in common.
We took a walk nearby AngelList’s old Maiden Lane office in San Francisco. Truthfully, I approached this first meeting with caution, aware that I might be speaking with a future competitor. He was likely doing the same, after all investors were using Product Hunt to source early stage startups. But this isn’t what we built it for. Our focus was and still is product discovery, helping makers reach an audience.
After learning more about his vision for AngelList, it became clear we were heading in complementary but different directions. Shortly after that meeting, Naval offered to invest in Product Hunt, aligned with our vision of the future of making.
