(2024-09-27) Jason Levin Head Of Growth At Product Hunt Explains Why He Suddenly Quit

Exclusive: Jason Levin, Head of Growth at Product Hunt, explains why he suddenly quit. Indie hacker X was set ablaze on Wednesday with the surprising news that Jason Levin, the Head of Growth at Product Hunt, was quitting

Now, Jason explains what happened for the first time in this exclusive interview.

partnered with the CTO for a feedback session

For context, I had been proposing new features for 6+ months

All of my ideas would've helped indie hackers and founders, but they never would get shipped.

So finally during this feedback session, I tell the CTO that I wish we shipped more cool stuff and just did simple quick landing pages for new features like Pieter Levels and he says, “Who?” I ask him if he’s joking and he’s not. He asks me who again. I couldn’t believe it. It was like something snapped in me and I realized I was wasting my time. Within 20 minutes, I packed my bags, called an Uber, and was at a new hotel.

I literally did everything I could from a distribution standpoint: retweeting launches, dropping comments, and signing up to test new products all the time, but there's only so much you can do from just social media alone. You can't just have crazy marketing progress and no technical progress.

bad sign for your startup when the social media guy knows more about the Stripe API than the CTO

The paid newsletter ended up being the MVP for the SaaS (hot tip if you've read this far: I really think more people should try this. It's free. I didn't even buy a domain until I was at like $1,500 MRR lol I just set up a free beehiiv newsletter!!) (StairStep)

Jason’s departure is the latest chapter in what has been a tumultuous few years for Product Hunt. Originally a YC-backed startup, the company was acquired by AngelList in 2016 for $20 million. It was then spun back out in 2020 and in 2021 inspired the investing fund Hyper, which has since been shut down. In September 2023, former Tandem CEO and Product Hunt maker Rajiv Ayyangar was brought on as CEO with the goal of helping the company reach its “immense possibility” by making it easier for people to find the best products for their needs and better supporting makers beyond their initial launch.

That October, he let go of around 60% of the staff in design, product, sales, and other roles.