HackerNoon
Online publishing platform
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
HackerNoon is a community-driven online publishing platform based in Edwards, Colorado.[1] Founded in 2016 by David Smooke, it operates an open library of user-submitted articles covering software development, blockchain, and artificial intelligence.[2][3][4]
 | |
Type of site | Technology, Hacker culture |
|---|---|
| Founder | David Smooke |
| URL | hackernoon |
| Launched | 2016 |
| Current status | Active |
History
HackerNoon was founded in January 2016 by David Smooke as a Medium-based blog titled Hacker Daily before rebranding to its current name.[5][6][7]
Later, HackerNoon chose to build its own publishing infrastructure.[1][8] In early 2019, HackerNoon raised US$1.07 million from about 1,200 backers through a Regulation Crowdfunding campaign on StartEngine.[9][10] The funding supported development of a proprietary content management system, and HackerNoon 2.0 launched in July 2019 with support from a US$100,000 Google cloud-hosting grant. In 2020, HackerNoon received a US$1 million investment from micropayments firm Coil at a pre-money valuation of US$11.5 million. In 2023, it raised an additional US$250,000 led by Forward Research at an estimated valuation of US$50 million.[11]
Platform
HackerNoon operates on a community-driven model, publishing work from more than 50,000 contributing writers rather than maintaining a large full-time staff. As of 2025, the platform reported reviewing over 5,000 submissions per month. Its editorial process combines human review with automated tools, including a 2025 partnership with GPTZero to identify AI-generated content.[12]
HackerNoon runs on a proprietary technology stack built with Next.js and Google Firebase. it is designed to avoid pop-ups and provide analytics dashboards for contributors. It also adopted decentralized storage protocols to archive its published articles.[13]
HackerNoon covers a range of topics including software development, startups, artificial intelligence, cryptocurrencies, and hacker culture.[14][15][16] It serves as a platform for industry professionals and tech enthusiasts to publish technical articles, insights, and opinion pieces.[17][18] The platform does not use paywalls and generates revenue primarily through sponsorships and native brand partnerships. Writers retain copyright to their work under a non-exclusive license.
Further reading
- "The Early Days of ArtMap Inc. | HackerNoon". hackernoon.com. Retrieved 2025-01-26.