Product Explorer is a categorized database of 15k+ products and extensions. It can be used to identify acquisition targets, to find abandoned projects you can revive, and to develop a data-driven launch strategy.
Looks cool. I see a link to a video in your Product Hunt post, but none on the website. (As well as a wordpress section, but that's not of interest to me.)
Can you share the link? I think that could help me understand a little bit better what I'd be getting here.
This could be a game changer for the SaaS ideation problem. I'd say 50% of the problem for me is finding problems worth solving, 40% marketing and 10% building. $15 for 3 months if it solves 50% of the problem for me it's a fair deal. Can't wait to dig into this database!
Hi PH 👋
I got the idea for Product Explorer after hearing Andrew Wilkinson mentioning the following idea on the My First Million podcast:
"One of the things I have been thinking about and haven't really executed but I think I would if I were starting today is that there is all these cool products that are on Product Hunt. Every day you think "that's cool". But most of them fizzle. Sometimes they fell to catch and didn't go viral, but a lot of the time it's started by a developer and the developer doesn't understand how to market and grow something. So what I was thinking is that it would be smart to go through product hunt, go back 6 months, and just look at the coolest shit that came out. And then start approaching all these developers and say: "look I give you 5 grand". And to them, they're like "This is useless to me, I've already shut it down, I don't want to pay for hosting". But for you it could be a 5 million dollar business."
Moreover, I read Nathan Latka's book where he mentions:
"Free apps and web extensions are perfect buys for beginners. They hit all of these criteria and you can usually get them for little money because the owners aren’t making substantial income off them. [...] Another bonus: the owners are often individuals or tiny companies that built the software as a side project. Because the asset is not their main focus, they’re more likely to let it go."
This got me thinking: How can I make this kind of research more effective? Product Explorer is my answer.
It's a database that can be used to find product ideas you can revive, to identify acquisition targets, or simply to develop a data-driven launch strategy.
I'd love to hear what you think and feel free to ask any questions you might have!
@jakob_greenfeld clever!
How did you source this data? 15k+ rows is a lot of data! How did you review each line item?
Looks like a large source of data came from scraping the Chrome Web Store?
@chrismessina Thanks! Yes, the Chrome Web Store is a large source of data. I used a combination of Python scripts and (outsourced) manual work to collect and polish the data.
@jakob_greenfeld Congrats on the launch. The initiative looks interesting for sure. Quick question on how do you plan on keeping this list active. Currently this 15k could be valid and live, but what happens after 6 months to this list if they are not in active or live mode.
Today while searching PH I was thinking just the same as what you said.
How to explore old featured products on PH. Definitely, I will check out your website.
Clearcut