Product Hunt Radio: Online communities and the dark side of the web

In the second episode of the new Product Hunt Radio, I’m joined by two amazing community-builders based in New York, Anil Dash and Allison Esposito.

Anil is the CEO of Glitch, a friendly community where developers build the app of their dreams. You’ll find everything from AI-powered musical spinners to a multiplayer drawing game created on the platform. He’s also an adviser to Medium, DonorsChoose, Project Include and Stack Overflow.

Allison is formerly of Oyster, the Netflix for books, which was acquired by Google in 2015. Afterward she founded Tech Ladies, a community that connects women with the best jobs in tech.

In this episode we talk about:

  • The good ol’ days of IRC, Friendster, AIM and MySpace. A lot has changed since then, yet they continue to exhibit some of the same dynamics and challenges of today’s massive social networks.
  • The challenges of building a healthy community on the internet in a time when careers and reputations can be destroyed in an instant.
  • How online communities mirror offline interactions. Opening up an app has many parallels to walking into a social gathering in real life.
  • Some of the common misconceptions people have about creating communities online and what a founder’s goal should really be in starting a community.

Of course, we also cover some of our favorite products that you might not know about.

We’ll be back next week so be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Breaker, Overcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.

Techcrunch event

Join 10k+ tech and VC leaders for growth and connections at Disrupt 2025

Netflix, Box, a16z, ElevenLabs, Wayve, Hugging Face, Elad Gil, Vinod Khosla — just some of the 250+ heavy hitters leading 200+ sessions designed to deliver the insights that fuel startup growth and sharpen your edge. Don’t miss the 20th anniversary of TechCrunch, and a chance to learn from the top voices in tech. Grab your ticket before doors open to save up to $444.

Join 10k+ tech and VC leaders for growth and connections at Disrupt 2025

Netflix, Box, a16z, ElevenLabs, Wayve, Hugging Face, Elad Gil, Vinod Khosla — just some of the 250+ heavy hitters leading 200+ sessions designed to deliver the insights that fuel startup growth and sharpen your edge. Don’t miss a chance to learn from the top voices in tech. Grab your ticket before doors open to save up to $444.

San Francisco | October 27-29, 2025

Topics

, , ,
Loading the next article
Error loading the next article