A reminder for founders: You are already the 1% of the 1%
Dear Product Hunt community,
If you’re reading this and you’ve launched something - or you're close to launching - you are already incredibly special.
We talk a lot about unicorns, but we don't talk enough about the big filtering process or idea funnel.
Most people never even start.
With some help from Gemini, the funnel looks like this:
Idea Phase: Out of 1,000 people with a "genius" idea, only about 100 ever bother to put it into a pitch deck. Most ideas die in a notes app.
Build: Out of those 100 decks, only 25 ever become a working prototype. Building is hard. Most people quit.
Launch: Out of those 25 prototypes, only 12 actually make it here to a public "live" state.
Post Launch: Six months later, only 8 are still shipping. By the one-year mark, only 5 or 6 remain.
TL;DR - if you have a product live today, you're already 1% of the 1%. And that's a great feeling to have as we enter a new year...
It's been a crazy first five months for us with @Meet-Ting and the big plan for next year is keep doing what we're doing, try to win users' hearts and attention, and don't die.
Thanks for all the upvotes, friendly and thoughtful comments, and collaboration.
Keep shipping, you're already winning,
Dan
Replies
That's something refreshing to be reminded of, @dbul If you don't mind me asking, how much time did it take for your product to gain its first 100 customers ?
It would help me a lot in setting my assumptions.
Thanks!
Meet-Ting
@bekjon_ibragimov We launched here on Product Hunt and came out of stealth at the same time so we had some buzz at the start which helped us get to 100 users quite quickly, but our retention was bad as product needed time so pretty sure we lost them just as quickly. It was harder to get from 500-1000, and also now hard we’re beyond 1K. We just found a target profile that retains better which is less than 100 but close so you could say it took us five months! I did a forum post after our launch with a bunch of tips on case it helps your launch!
Meet-Ting
@bekjon_ibragimov We're all just figuring it out! Let me know when your app launches!
My Financé
Nice sentiment dan! Hope you all keep crushing in 2026!
Meet-Ting
@catt_marroll Thank you sir, and you too!!
Meet-Ting
@marco_di_cesare I don't think I have a perfect answer. The best I can give is actual people using the product and retaining, but it's so hard to get there. PH is great for it as you have leaned in users, but some people are just tourists to come check out a product vs. really wanting to be there for the long term. I think sustained usage, critical feedback not just positive commentary, were some early signals we might be building a base of good users.
@dbul thank you, appreciate your point of view! Makes sense and it resonates with my experience too. I just feel it's easy to be trapped in the chicken-egg problem where you feel you need enough user-base to be able to "launch" and have some traction, but without "launch" how do users find you? 😅
Anyway, I am proud of being in the 1% of the 1%! let's keep shipping and building!!
Meet-Ting
@marco_di_cesare I think it was Reid H who said if you're not embarrassed by your first version you're shipping too late! :-D
Great reminder about the power of discipline and perseverence. I've been thinking more and more about the Lindy effect where "the longer a period something has survived to exist or be used in the present, the longer its remaining life expectancy". Keep pushing that flywheel and addressing real problems and the effort will pay off. All the best to everyone in the new year!
Meet-Ting
@ngburke I hadn't heard of the Lindy effect before, now will be using it often! Focus on the user and the problem is real wisdom, thanks for the thoughtful message! Wishing you big success and life expectancy in the year ahead sir!
This really hit me. I needed this reminder today. Shipping anything already felt exhausting and your post reframed it as progress instead of pressure. I'm proud to still be here, still learning, still building. Thanks for the encouragement and honesty.
Meet-Ting
@tish_vivenzio The big secret is everyone feels the same way! Here's to verbalising it more in future for all of us!
Meet-Ting
@simona_o_neill3 Congrats on getting this far especially solo! Let me know when it’s live will check it out. Wishing good energy and success for shipping day!
Meet-Ting
Looks like still a lot of upvotes and comments despite that, so wow, awesome! Product looks slick and complete too, ours was very very feature light in comparison! Looking forward to following along.
Meet-Ting
@globasoft Such an amazing message and really interesting to hear about your dev to vibe coding augment dev! Congrats on the MVP, already ahead of most! And sure so much more to come! Excited to follow along. Wishing you a blessed 2026 too, here's to winning just by doing!
Meet-Ting
@luke_glover Feel you on the wobbles, drop your link here when you launch will support!