I ve spent five years on the sales side of B2B, so I know how outbound works when there s a team, a brand and a budget behind it. What I don t know is how it works when it s just a founder with a half-finished product and no name yet.
The advice I keep running into is do things that don t scale and talk to every user. That s fine, but it doesn t tell me what people actually did on a Tuesday morning.
For those of you who ve landed your first customers:
-Where did the first 3 to 5 come from? A cold email, a DM, a community like this one, someone you already knew?
Our first Product Hunt launch didn t go well. We put something out there, pushed for votes, and hoped for the best. It didn t work.
For our relaunch, we took a completely different approach. Here s what changed:
Engage, don t just post. We spent weeks commenting on other launches, supporting makers, and building trust. This time, people recognized us, not just the product.
Conversations > upvotes. What made the difference were detailed comments and feedback. The algorithm rewards authentic engagement.
Storytelling > specs. Instead of listing features, we shared why we built it and the problem it solved.
Timing is everything. Launching at midnight PST gave us momentum when the U.S. audience woke up.
Expectation reset. PH is less a sales channel, more a credibility engine. The real ROI shows up later, in awareness, trust, and partnerships.
What stood out the most: The community. The honest feedback, encouragement, and tough questions shaped our roadmap more than any internal discussion could.
It's here. Vercel Day is live today on Product Hunt.
750+ products launched with the vercel-day tag everything from AI coding tools to desktop assistants to one app that simulates fMRI data on your pitch deck. The range is wild.
Setting up a new business is tough, but growing it is tougher! So, what s the hardest part of growing a startup? What difficulties can a entrepreneur face and how can he/she overcome it?
Every quarter, I set goals and then review how I did.
I started doing this two years ago after realising that New Year's resolutions simply don't work for me. To be fair, I don't always hit my quarterly goals either, but my success rate is much higher.
