What are your best insights to launching on product hunt?
Hey hunters,
It can be a little nerve wrecking leading up to launch day, especially for a solo founder with no audience, following, or experience in the product hunt community.
As a new member who knew nothing about product hunt before I published my first live app, I'm genuinely curious what you think has been the most beneficial steps you took leading up to launch day?
In my first month here I've seen products battling for first place with 500+ upvotes, a few even 900+! To me those numbers have been a pipe dream, and as my announced launch approaches in 4 days, I worry that would it even be seen amongst giants such as you seasoned hunters?
I'm considering pushing launch date down the line in order to follow the advice you may provide. Is vercel day the better day to launch? should we be more active in the community before announcing a launch? I'm a baker by profession, completely new to the tech space. Is a successful SaaS just another pipe dream for those like me?
Replies
A realistic first launch = visibility, first real feedback, a badge, maybe your first users. That's a win.
Two things I'd actually do before launch:
Spend the 4 days replying in threads like this one. On launch day, upvotes in the first hour come from people who recognize your name -- you can build that in a week of comments.
Don't let your first viral day double as your first exposure day. Launch day is the first time strangers scrutinize your site -- pricing page, privacy policy, broken links, cookie stuff. Boring, but fix it before the traffic spike, not after someone points it out in your comments.
And honestly, "baker builds SaaS" is a better launch story than half the AI products out there
@ilyaofliian thank you, very helpful indeed! I've been so focused on launch assets that I hadn't even thought about launch day being the first real stress test of the boring pages too. I'll do a full walk through this weekend as if I'm a stranger seeing it for the first time.
And ha, thanks for the last line. The bakery shift starts at 6am, so at least the midnight PST launch day start time won't be a shock to my system.
Was there anything caught on your site that you wished you had fixed first?
@satchmo_saunders ha - yes.
We added a small tool on Cloudflare a while back. Our own privacy policy didn't mention Cloudflare until eight days later. This is literally my job, and my own paperwork still lagged behind my stack.
So on your walkthrough: don't just check the boring pages exist - check they describe what your product does today, not what it did when you wrote them.
good luck with the launch, I'll keep an eye out!
@ilyaofliian That's truly a useful catch, thank you. Funny timing too, I added a new email tool to my stack just a few weeks ago and I'd bet money my privacy policy doesn't mention it yet. Adding 'policy matches today's stack' to the walkthrough list. Appreciate you keeping an eye out for the launch!
I'm in exactly the same situation - super keen to see if anyone else replies with gems like @ilyaofliian has. I'm very excited to share something that I feel is genuinely cool and useful - the suspense to see it just 'flop' with no real feedback/noise would be a killer.
Fingers crossed with your launch Satchmo - I'll take a look!
@danielboardman Thanks, I appreciate that! And I know exactly the feeling you're describing, the silence would sting more than criticism at this point.
What are you launching? And when? If our dates are close I'm happy to return the look. Another thing this thread has already taught me is that the people who show up on your launch day are mostly the ones you talked to before it.
@satchmo_saunders I'm launching on July 29th. I've been working in Marketing for 20 years and was getting tired of trying to get different shareholders talking the same language. CEOs have a version of success, CFOs need to understand financial impact, Team members need granularity etc. So I built a tool that helps unify all the data points and human context into a brain. Helps decision making and reporting, saves time, gives clarity etc. It's been a passion project and it's been helping my clients massively - this felt like the best next step.
Still.. as much as I believe in the product, the process is unsettling and full of suspense!
Appreciate the support - best of luck on your launch!
@danielboardman Well it really sounds like a genuinely useful problem to solve, that shareholder-alignment gap is universal. I can see why 20 years in marketing would surface it clearly.
July 29th means I'll actually be able to return the favor for real, not just in spirit. I'll look out for your launch and show up. Good luck with the suspense between now and then, mine's in 2 days and I'm really starting to feel it now. The fear of the flop is intense, ha
Any tips would be greatly appreciated