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. The fund launches today and is self-described as ‘inspired
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