Surrounding those placements will be content that is produced by editorial media arms independent of the fund (though, in the end, funded by the profits of the fund). Interestingly, unlike many marketing-operations-disguised-as-journalistic-enterprises, Curtis says that they want these to be real, functioning media companies and that startups funded by Hyper will be presented on those sites and platforms in clearly defined sections that make it clear that they are part of the program.Īs an example, the team is careful to state that Product Hunt will remain a ‘neutral platform’ for launching products and that Hyper companies will get clearly marked slots on the site. They’ll be building additional media products as well, especially ones that focus on areas of hyper growth and high interest in order to both generate deal flow and to feature companies in the portfolio. A mix of media, venture and product figures is probably the right way to go if you want to back yourself into a media empire funded by venture capital returns. It’s a pretty eclectic group, but if you squint you can see the shape of the ambitions that Hyper has reflected in the parties involved. Over the past few months, Buckley says that Product Hunt has grown headcount by around 50% in part to boost its ability to act as an enhanced distribution channel.Ī short list of some of the people involved as advisors, mentors or investors themselves includes Alexis & Serena Williams, Alfred Lin of Sequoia, Garry Tan of Initialized, Harry Stebbings, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Naval Ravikant, Owen van Natta, Ryan Hoover, Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic and Sriram Krishnan of a16z. Scaling customer acquisition and fundraising (before the Series A)įounders who go through the program will remain a part of the tight-knit Hyper founder community long past their Series A.First product/company launch and hiring (often at the Seed stage).Initial customer acquisition and validation (often at the pre-Seed stage).Hyper works with early-stage companies at three key junctures in a startup’s journey: Hyper believes that every company (B2B or B2C) needs access to distribution channels to find customers, users, and talented employees to join their teams. I’ll let the Hyper team’s words spell out what they say is its thesis: It’s an established launch pad to an audience of extreme early adopters that can provide a seed of a real user base - Hyper itself is launching via a post on the platform. Product Hunt is one opportunity that he points to as an example. Where Hyper differs, says Buckley, is that they see distribution as the biggest value add for a nascent startup at the stages where the firm hopes to invest. But, especially at the early stage there are a few funds and firms that offer a strong value outside of writing checks in the form of, say, hiring, sales introductions or board members that have relevant operational experience. Frankly, sometimes that’s all you want from an investor whose value add is more of a thorn in your side than anything. It’s hard to argue with the overall assumption that the Hyper team is working under - capital is majorly commoditized. I had a chat with Buckley, Curtis and Cantor about the new fund and company and the way that they hoped to differentiate Hyper in a world of aggressively service-oriented venture firms. Product Hunt, however, is the first of what the team says will be many companies it will own, create and operate in order to provide ‘direct value’ to its portfolio companies. The fund will exist as a ‘sister company’ to Product Hunt (though it’s going to technically own it). The team will be writing $300k checks for 5% of very early companies in any arena that seems promising to the partnership in a fixed deal structure that mirrors Y-Combinator. The fund launches today and is self-described as ‘inspired by the Product Hunt community’. Malika Cantor as Partner and GM and Ashton Brown as Head of Program. Two ex-Sequoia operators are part of the team at launch as well. Hyper is a $60M early-stage fund co-founded by Josh Buckley, Product Hunt’s CEO along with writer, founder and designer Dustin Curtis.
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