Every day, another “top product” wins a launch, gets thousands of upvotes, and disappears three months later.
Meanwhile, quieter products with no launch party, no viral post quietly grow into seven-figure businesses.
Our discovery system is broken. And it’s costing us $29.5 billion a year.
80% of software products are rarely or never used. That means 4 out of 5 teams pour months of work into building… only to be met with silence. The platforms meant to connect builders and users are failing both sides.
The Discovery Industrial Complex
The real problem isn’t just flawed platforms. It’s an entire “Discovery Industrial Complex” — a system of launch platforms, influencers, and agencies that profit from noise, not signal.
They thrive on churn, FOMO marketing, and metrics that celebrate vanity, not value. The more confused buyers get, the more middlemen charge to “help”.
1. More Options, Worse Decisions
G2 and similar software directories boast having thousands of categories. Every new category they add makes it harder for users to find what they need.
The dirty secret? More categories mean more SEO traffic and ad revenue not better discovery.
This isn’t helpful—it’s paralyzing:
- A 2024 UX study found users abandon searches after seeing just 7 options among 20+ alternatives.
- 73% rank word-of-mouth as the top influence.
When everything is an option, nothing gets chosen. And even when users do find an option, they hit another wall: they’re mostly hearing from other builders, not real users.
2. The Echo Chamber: Builders Talk to Builders
Most launch platforms, like Product Hunt, drive traffic from other makers — not end-users.
Product Hunt isn’t a discovery engine. It’s a social club where launches often depend on who you know, not what you built.
This creates a dangerous loop:
-
Makers seek peer approval (focusing on technical elegance over user experience).
-
“Successful” launches get visibility from builders, not potential customers.
-
End-users struggle to find tools that actually solve their problems.
Take AIcamp’s experience on Product Hunt: 650 upvotes, 180+ comments, champagne celebrations…Two paying customers. This isn’t an exception — it’s the norm.
3. The Language Wall Blocking Global Innovation
Most global consumers, about 60-76%, prefer content in their native language. However, many software directories still only offer English content.
But most major software directories only cater to English speakers.
This invisible wall blocks innovation from reaching billions:
-
Non-English tools stay hidden.
-
Global users miss solutions built for their needs.
-
Software ecosystems fragment into isolated language bubbles.
A founder in Cairo built a finance tool serving 50,000+ users. In Arabic.
But on major discovery platforms? It’s invisible.
Imagine building a rocket, only for it to launch unseen into an empty sky.
4. Algorithms Reward Hype, Not Usefulness
The algorithms behind discovery platforms create a “rich get richer” effect that harms innovation.
The algorithms aren’t broken they’re working as intended: to maximize engagement, not usefulness. Useful products die quietly. Shiny ones thrive. Clicks win. Quality loses.
That’s why:
-
Useful but “unsexy” products get buried.
-
SaaS startups spend fortunes chasing rankings, not real users.
-
AI recommendation engines suggest absurd matches (looking for e-commerce analytics? Here’s a healthcare app!)
In the system we’ve built, marketing budgets beat real innovation.
Breaking Free From Discovery Hell
The software universe is exploding. But discovery still feels stuck in 2015.
We need a real shift — not more noise.
Here’s what effective discovery must look like:
Problem-first categories, not endless features.
Multilingual interfaces that embrace global innovation.
User-driven rankings, not hype-driven ones.
Balanced ecosystems serving both makers and users.
These principles guided my recent work on Toolseekr.com, just one attempt to address these challenges. We’re seeing promising early results with a bilingual approach and problem-centric organization.
The next billion-dollar product isn’t being built louder. It’s being built smarter.
Maybe you’re building it.
The world won’t discover it unless we change how discovery works.
