5 Things I’d Do Again for a Strong Product Hunt Launch
As a new product in closed beta, we did surprisingly well in our debut on Product Hunt. I’ve already written about our full launch-day tactics (see previous forum post), but some founders reached out asking:
What specifically worked for Product Hunt?
Here are the 5 biggest things I will repeat as we plan a future open beta launch. I hope it helps you too!
Start Launch Planning Early
Start months before launch. I spent time connecting with other founders and regularly contributing to discussions here on Product Hunt. It’s not like LinkedIn - there are specific rules about what you can and can’t post - but that’s part of the fun of learning the ropes in any new community.
Spot & connect with adjacent products. Whenever I saw similar or complementary tools, I’d reach out and invite them to be notified about our launch. There's a LOT of cool products on here, we're already talking about integrations with some teams from our launch week cohort.
Focus on relationships, not just promotion. The goal isn’t to pitch - it’s to build genuine connections that will actually care about what you’re making.
Go Deep on Reddit (Value First)
We were highly active in relevant subreddits before, during, and after launch.
Focused on contributing insights - never just dropping links. In fact, if you drop a link, it'll likely get moderated so make sure to read the community guidelines or you'll burn a post!
Started 14 days before launch and followed up the day before, launch day, and after with our results.
Subreddits we used: r/producthunt, r/buildinpublic, r/indiehackers, r/saas, r/entrepreneurs, r/sideproject, r/students, r/socialmediamarketing, r/productivityapps, r/indiebiz, r/ideas
Example threads (notice the focus on storytelling):
LinkedIn Was Huge
Changing your role title on launch day is super algo juice.
Posted in the Product Hunt LinkedIn community and entrepreneur groups.
Hit people up directly when it was relevant, e.g. they were also a follower of the Product Hunt LinkedIn page.
Other Channels to Explore
X/Twitter: Use the Community tab - look for groups like Business Owners & Entrepreneur or Build In Public.
Engage early to avoid looking like you’re parachuting in for promo, consider every post, what is a fair exchange for their attention?
Product Hunt Founders: Check the “Coming Soon” tab and connect with other launchers via LinkedIn/email/their web contact form - build relationships before launch day. It was A LOT of looking up their info online, but since then, I am having some great discussions with them and their teams = well worth the desk research time sink.
Nail the Launch Day Itself
First 4 hours are critical - front-load outreach and momentum. We timed our product video and all personal announcement posts five minutes before midnight PST to give them a chance to circulate in feed and convert traffic by time the Product Hunt contest began.
Keep pushing PR, content, and 1:1 outreach for the full 24 hours. It's a sprint, then a marathon, my heart rate was so high all day.
Expect spam: I got 20+ LinkedIn messages offering upvotes for sale right in the middle of launch, it was distracting.
Unfortunately, you’ll notice some products getting fake engagement - bot-like comments and reviews, sudden vote jumps in the final hours. We were in 5th place most of the day, but saw sudden shifts in the top rankings that looked… suspicious.
If you’re planning your own launch, my biggest takeaway is: PH is won before launch day. Relationships, community trust and engagement, and consistently filtering what you put out online through the lens of what is a good exchange for their time/attention of reading it.
Hit me up if we can help at all and check out our page to see how we crafted our video and images, and replied to the comments all day. All boats rise with the tide, let's go!
- Dan (Chief Ting)
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