Abesh Thakur

Abesh Thakur

2x Founder | Ex-PM at Meta
#420202010 followers12 following
7 points

Forums

Emmanuella Ugochukwu•

12mo ago

Build an audience first, or launch and grow later?

This is probably one of the most debated topics in the startup world: Should you build an audience before you launch, or is it better to launch first and grow your audience afterward? I ve seen both approaches work, but each comes with its own set of challenges and rewards. - Building an audience first means you're creating buzz, validating your idea, and nurturing a community of early adopters who are invested in your success. But it takes time, patience, and a lot of effort to keep the momentum going before you even have a product to show. - Launching first lets you hit the ground running, gather real-world feedback, and iterate quickly. But without an existing audience, you might struggle to get those initial users and traction. So, indulge me: Which approach did you take or are you considering taking (those who haven't launched yet)? - Did you build an audience before launching your product, or did you launch and then focus on growth? - What worked (or didn't work) for you? - If you could go back, would you do it differently? Share your story with us so we can all learn from each other. There's someone here who could benefit from your experience. ----- P.S: If you're a growth-stage founder struggling with churn or stagnant customer acquisition (usually because of poor positioning and messaging), I'd love to help. I specialize in crafting impactful marketing strategies tailored specifically to your product so you can start seeing the results you deserve. Connect with me on LinkedIn today. Can't wait to hear from you!
Alan Chan•

12mo ago

What new features would you like to see in ProductHunt in 2025?

For me:

  1. TikTok-like launch party / AMA livestream

  2. "Where Are They Now?" Tracker of products 3-6-12 months post-launch

  3. Feed of launch stories sharing successes, failures and tips like a substack community/feed

  4. Pre-launch AI scoring + domain-specific expert advisory

  5. Generative launch creatives for social media distribution

  6. "This vs. That" Showdowns head-to-head product debate & polls

  7. Dedicated boards for more content diversity: hardware, non-AI tools, pre-orders, alpha user invitations etc.

  8. Launch-in-public real-time analytics (visitor heatmaps, referrals, engagement - inspired by hunted.space)

  9. Different display views of daily product launches (inspired by PHDeck)

  10. More fun gamification in points system (interactive badges, referral, waitlist pre-launch)

  11. Better search filters (category, reviews, personalized recommendations)

  12. Founder matching hub for advisory and mentorship

@rajiv_ayyangar Curious to learn more about ProductHunt's future roadmap! :)

Emmanuella Ugochukwu•

12mo ago

Build an audience first, or launch and grow later?

This is probably one of the most debated topics in the startup world: Should you build an audience before you launch, or is it better to launch first and grow your audience afterward? I ve seen both approaches work, but each comes with its own set of challenges and rewards. - Building an audience first means you're creating buzz, validating your idea, and nurturing a community of early adopters who are invested in your success. But it takes time, patience, and a lot of effort to keep the momentum going before you even have a product to show. - Launching first lets you hit the ground running, gather real-world feedback, and iterate quickly. But without an existing audience, you might struggle to get those initial users and traction. So, indulge me: Which approach did you take or are you considering taking (those who haven't launched yet)? - Did you build an audience before launching your product, or did you launch and then focus on growth? - What worked (or didn't work) for you? - If you could go back, would you do it differently? Share your story with us so we can all learn from each other. There's someone here who could benefit from your experience. ----- P.S: If you're a growth-stage founder struggling with churn or stagnant customer acquisition (usually because of poor positioning and messaging), I'd love to help. I specialize in crafting impactful marketing strategies tailored specifically to your product so you can start seeing the results you deserve. Connect with me on LinkedIn today. Can't wait to hear from you!
Xiaoyun TU•

12mo ago

[Help] What marketing communities do you actively engage with?

Hi everyone,

We re looking for beta users for our AI video tool BrewVideo. As it's a tool build for creating product videos and explainers, our primary audience is marketers, especially product marketers at this stage. So I m looking to connect with marketing communities where they go to share challenges, get help, or stay up to date with trends.

Personally, I rely a lot on podcasts (which don t help in this case ), LinkedIn through my network, and some Reddit communities like r/growthhacking. But I d love to expand our reach - what marketing communities do you follow or recommend?
Many thanks!

Abesh Thakur•

12mo ago

Long time reader, first time poster

Hey everyone,

Great to see so much activity in the PH community. Even though I have been lurking and signed up to receive PH newsletters, I realized I have never interacted with, or introduced myself in the forums!

I'm Abesh, co-founder of That Works. That Works helps make sense of scattered workplace data by connecting to tools that people already use and create insightful summaries of work.

I'm a 2x founder and ex-meta PM. The idea for That Works actually came about in our previous roles at Meta (with my co-founder and I leading large scale technology and ecosystem building initiatives) where we realized we were spending far more time in assimilating and making sense of data strewn across different tools, tasks, meeting notes and chat threads rather than actually focusing on strategy and execution. We dove deep into this problem space and started building and validating some of our core assumption with That Works - and realized that being able to automate things like your Slack channel conversations, CRM activity notes, meeting notes and tasks actually helped our early beta users jump straight into action instead of scrolling notification inboxes for hours.

Abesh Thakur•

12mo ago

Long time reader, first time poster

Hey everyone,

Great to see so much activity in the PH community. Even though I have been lurking and signed up to receive PH newsletters, I realized I have never interacted with, or introduced myself in the forums!

I'm Abesh, co-founder of That Works. That Works helps make sense of scattered workplace data by connecting to tools that people already use and create insightful summaries of work.

I'm a 2x founder and ex-meta PM. The idea for That Works actually came about in our previous roles at Meta (with my co-founder and I leading large scale technology and ecosystem building initiatives) where we realized we were spending far more time in assimilating and making sense of data strewn across different tools, tasks, meeting notes and chat threads rather than actually focusing on strategy and execution. We dove deep into this problem space and started building and validating some of our core assumption with That Works - and realized that being able to automate things like your Slack channel conversations, CRM activity notes, meeting notes and tasks actually helped our early beta users jump straight into action instead of scrolling notification inboxes for hours.

Xiaoyun TU•

12mo ago

[Help] What marketing communities do you actively engage with?

Hi everyone,

We re looking for beta users for our AI video tool BrewVideo. As it's a tool build for creating product videos and explainers, our primary audience is marketers, especially product marketers at this stage. So I m looking to connect with marketing communities where they go to share challenges, get help, or stay up to date with trends.

Personally, I rely a lot on podcasts (which don t help in this case ), LinkedIn through my network, and some Reddit communities like r/growthhacking. But I d love to expand our reach - what marketing communities do you follow or recommend?
Many thanks!

Command AIp/commandaiJames Evans•

12mo ago

AMA w/ James Evans (Command AI) -- What it's like to be acquired

Command AI was acquired by Amplitude in October 2024. We just re-launched one of our products as an Amplitude product (Guides and Surveys). Ask me about what it's like for a startup to go through an acquisition, integrate with another company's team and product, etc. I'll be around to answer questions 9am PT!
Command AIp/commandaiJames Evans•

12mo ago

AMA w/ James Evans (Command AI) -- What it's like to be acquired

Command AI was acquired by Amplitude in October 2024. We just re-launched one of our products as an Amplitude product (Guides and Surveys). Ask me about what it's like for a startup to go through an acquisition, integrate with another company's team and product, etc. I'll be around to answer questions 9am PT!