No doubt there are opportunities beyond the niche startup community. Some opportunities I see are in B2B sales lead generation, M&A deal sourcing, etc. However, all of the more obvious "big" opportunities require significant changes and the result would no longer resemble the current ProductHunt in any way. Arguing that these are a natural extensions of the current product is quite far fetched.
I won't comment on YC companies not getting any benefits out of PH. Your argument that "there are also other products" isn't a real argument.
Again, I have nothing against PH. It looks great, I'm checking it regularly and I enjoy using it. Like others I just don't quite see how it fits into the investment thesis of backing potential billion dollar companies.
TBH I don't see the point of PH when there are sites like AlternativeTo to name one of many that do the same thing and not just with web and mobile apps.
The way I see it PH is just a trendier (and barebones) version of these other comparison sites that happens to be in the same room with the guys making the products that are going to be compared.
That's a conflict of interest, there's no other way to say it, and I wouldn't take the opinions on PH as seriously as those from a 3rd party, same way I don't get a loan from a bank because of the ads they run but because of the rating unbiased consumer watchgroups give them.
I won't comment on YC companies not getting any benefits out of PH. Your argument that "there are also other products" isn't a real argument.
Again, I have nothing against PH. It looks great, I'm checking it regularly and I enjoy using it. Like others I just don't quite see how it fits into the investment thesis of backing potential billion dollar companies.