[rrhoover]

Product Hunt started with my startup friends -- mostly guys, not dissimilar from Silicon Valley in general.

You're absolutely right that Product Hunt needs more gender diversity and it's something we're working on. This topic has been on my mind well before it came up in a recent thread on PH (http://www.producthunt.com/posts/made-with-code). Erik and I spent the last few weeks emailing dozens of women in the community to (1) get their thoughts on the product and (2) ask for recommendations of other women they know that might be interested in contributing. We have a long way to go but it has helped.

We're working on a recommendation system to give people in the community the opportunity to invite new contributors. Additionally, we will soon have a new posting flow to allow anyone to submit products to be curated by the community. These won't solve the diversity problem but will help make things more transparent.

If you have suggestions or ideas on how we can make it more inclusive and welcoming to a broader audience, please share.

EDIT: I'm also trying to get more women on the Product Hunt podcast (e.g. https://twitter.com/rrhoover/status/480421396690907138). I have 3 scheduled over the next month with women founders and investors.

[jgh]

Open it up to everyone, that's how you can make it more inclusive.

edit: The invite-only thing is incredibly lame. I signed up a few minutes ago to see what product hunt was all about because it was being discussed in this thread (never heard of it before). I doubt I'll lose any sleep over forgetting its existence.

[danielhonigman]

That's a great point. So many sites - including TC/VB - are the same folks all the time. And they might be keeping up with startup news, but they aren't potential end users.