Comment by sparkzilla

People who are well connected are getting preferential treatment on a system that outwardly appears to be fair. That's gatekeeping.

It seems you work for a company that has already broken through, but what of all the others who are trying to get attention from VCs and the media. For them it could be a matter of life and death for their company. One media report can make all the difference between success and failure. Instead connected companies on Product Hunt suck up all the oxygen, and promote products that are not as good as more deserving ones, which are not as well connected. It's also bad for VCs and the media because they are being fed a distorted version of the market.

As a minimum conflicts of interest should be declared and the system revised not to allow abuse of the voting process. I have other ways to promote my site so I don't care about the Product Hunt circlejerk. But it's sad to see a system with so much potential be corrupted.