What actually helped you reach #1 on Product Hunt?
I'm preparing for my first Product Hunt launch, and I've been trying to understand what actually makes the difference between a launch that gets some attention and one that reaches the top of the leaderboard.
There is a lot of advice online about launching on Product Hunt: building an audience beforehand, getting early supporters, posting at the right time, engaging with the community, getting comments, sharing on social media, etc.
But I'd rather hear from people who have actually done it.
For those who have launched successfully:
What did you do before launch day that made the biggest difference?
I'm especially interested in hearing from founders who have reached #1, but experiences from smaller launches are also very welcome.
Would love to learn what actually worked rather than just following a generic launch checklist.
Replies
I credit booking a session with @chrismessina for getting @Littlebird to number 1. He shared a lot of tips and tricks and helped us fine-tune our tagline, description, and gallery (down to the kind of copy/visuals we should use). We were up against Spotify, Claude, Linear, and Google when we launched too!
I would say your tagline and gallery are the most important though. If your gallery tells a story and functions like a mini demo, that's really helpful.
Apart from preparing your product page, reaching out to your network makes all the difference. We sent messages to our users asking them to check out our launch, and most of our internal team reached out to their personal networks as well. Good luck with your launch!!