Watched a launch yesterday. By morning, the founder's DMs were full of pitches from other builders. No questions about the product. Just "here's what I'm working on."
Look, networking is part of this. We all need it. But we're skipping a step. Launch day used to mean something. Try the product. Ask real questions. Then connect.
Now we've optimized so hard for efficiency that we skip straight to pitching. @Mastra a hit #3 yesterday despite this. But think about what that says quality products have to fight through noise just to get noticed.
Here's my take: we're not wrong to network. We're just moving too fast.
This debate often gets framed as Should researchers use AI for literature reviews?
I think the real question is different.
Is it ethical to spend hundreds of researcher hours on mechanical work when that time could be spent advancing actual knowledge?
Think about a researcher spending an entire weekend searching papers, skimming irrelevant abstracts, copying citations, and fixing references. That s not insight or discovery. That s overhead.
We re building Swatle for modern, lean teams that care more about speed and outcomes than heavy processes.
Swatle works like a powerful project management tool but with a twist. You can create intelligent AI chatbots for customer support, sales, and more. When something needs human attention, it automatically creates a task.
Here s the game changer: you can assign tasks to AI agents and yes, your AI agents can assign tasks to you too.
Sounds interesting? Give it a try and experience a new way of working.
When my wife Noa and I heard that MTV was officially shutting down, it felt like the end of an era. As 90s kids, we missed that specific "linear" experience the joy of just turning on the TV and being surprised by a music video without an algorithm getting in the way.
What s worked for us looks very different from spray-and-pray.
We ve learned that outbound works when it s intentional at every step.
A few things that made the biggest difference for us:
Getting the ICP really right. Sometimes the first outreach isn t to the buyer, but to someone who can open the door. Personalization isn t optional. Company context, role, recent updates. Generic gets ignored fast. Channels are chosen by output, not comfort. We double down on what actually converts. The first message rarely works. Conversations usually start around the third or fourth touch, if there s value each time. Timing matters more than volume. Funding news, hiring, social posts. Showing up when the problem is top of mind changes everything. We focus on relationships, not just pipeline. Some buy later. Some refer. All conversations compound. Context before calls helps. If someone engages multiple times, the conversation feels very different. Signals matter. Engagement often tells you when to reach out, not just who.
Yesterday, I had an unpleasant experience. For a few minutes, I lost my LinkedIn community of several thousand people (TL;DR: I was falsely accused of using suspicious software).
Fortunately, I got my account back but it was a strong reminder that we don t own platforms, nor our profiles on them.
I ve been working in and around artificial intelligence for a while now, mostly focused on one question that keeps bothering me: Why does AI sound confident but fall apart the moment things get complex?
I m one of the makers behind Barie.ai, where we re exploring AI as a system that can reason, remember, and execute across steps instead of just replying fast. Less chatbot energy, more dependable teammate.
What pulled me into this space wasn t hype or demos, but the gaps:
Whether you work remotely or on-site, and who you work with, may not be the most important thing. What really matters is how you handle the situation.
Personally, I find myself quite flexible with both on-site and remote work. But as an introvert who isn t very strong at communication, I usually prefer working alone rather than in crowded environments and I tend to be more productive that way.
That said, I also realize that a lack of real human interaction can indirectly affect both the process and the final outcome of work.
There are countless products and services out there, and I ll admit I sign up for more than I probably should. But I usually stop using them for a few common reasons:
It doesn t actually fit my needs
The company feels unreliable or opaque
The value doesn t justify the cost
After spending my career in enterprise software, I ve noticed that many of these issues aren t just product problems, they re relationship problems.
When companies show a bit of intention, clarity, and care, trust goes up. When they don t, everything feels disposable, even good tools.
I recently had a conversation with a founder building an AI SaaS product. The product was working. Users were active. Usage was growing.
And that s where the stress started.
Every new user felt like a small win and a small liability at the same time. More prompts meant more value delivered. But also more tokens burned, more retries, more unpredictable costs.
Early users wanted simple pricing. Just give me one number. The founder wanted clarity too. He just didn t want to wake up one day realizing usage had scaled faster than revenue.
Not the loud roadmap requests. The quiet idea you built on instinct.
A small UX tweak. An automation you weren t sure about. A default that just made things smoother.
I ve noticed these are often the features users don t talk about. They only notice them when something breaks or disappears.
Those instinct-driven decisions rarely come from surveys. They come from building, using your own product, and trusting that feeling of this should be easier.
About 4 weeks. Preparation matters more than launch-day tactics.
Week 1 Get the basics right. A working product or solid beta, clear ICP, and a sharp one-line value proposition. Start being active on Product Hunt. Comment, engage, and learn how launches behave.
Week 2 Refine your story. Tighten the tagline and description. Create visuals, demo GIFs or a short video. Week 3 Build momentum. Shortlist supporters who genuinely care. Share progress, not asks. Polish your maker comment and test the flow end-to-end.
Week 4 Execution mode. Final asset checks, launch timing, staggered outreach, and active engagement on comments throughout the day. No spam. No hacks. Top launches are rarely spontaneous. They are quietly prepared.
Back in April, we launched Flexprice on Product Hunt. What followed was 24 hours of chaos, caffeine, and endless browser refreshes that felt like a sport.
By the end of the day, we became Product of the Day. It was surreal. But the real story started after that.
We spent the next few weeks reading every comment, DM, and bit of feedback. Some validated what we were building. Some completely changed how we explained it.
That s when it clicked. Product Hunt isn t just about visibility.
