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
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
@satchmo_saunders awesome stuff, thanks! Good luck, you got this!!
Any tips would be greatly appreciated
Update, and a promise kept: I asked this question four days before launch, so here's the honest report from the other side of the day.
The launch was quiet. As I write this it sits at 7 votes, nowhere near the front page, yet still more than was expexted 😅. If you're pre-launch with no audience, that's the realistic number, and I want this thread to be the place where someone finds an honest one.
But here's what the vote count doesn't show:
1. The advice in this thread was right, and I watched it come true in real time. The first person to comment on my launch page was someone I'd had a genuine back-and-forth with in these forums last week. He'd already sent the product to his wife for her trip. Nobody I reached on launch morning has shown up yet, although morning for me is actually 7 hours ahead of EST. Everyone who showed up, I'd talked to before. Community first is not a slogan, it's mechanics.
2. A complete stranger left a comment describing a feature my roadmap was missing, with a clearer spec than I write for myself. One good comment can be worth more than fifty votes.
3. The deadline forced everything to get finished: the listing, the demo video (although I haven't posted it yet - editting is a beast of it's own nature, ha) the assets, the pricing, the policy updates, the listings that had been "almost done" for weeks... There is no ready, there is only launched.
4. The permanent assets are the actual prize. The listing, the category page presence, the maker profile, those work for years. The vote counter stops mattering at midnight.
To the question I asked at the end of my original post, whether a baker with no coding background launching a SaaS is a pipe dream: the app is live, real people used it today, and not one person asked whether I can code.
If you're where I was four days ago: launch it, but start your conversations at least three weeks before you do. That's the whole lesson.
Thanks to everyone who answered here. See you around the forums :)