Honestly launched this past Monday and we ended up Top 4 with 350+ upvotes and 40+ comments. It doesn t feel real, because:
1. The support we received from hundreds of strangers across the internet was incredible, and we are beyond grateful for it.
2. We didn t plan this launch. At all.
We ve been so deep in building the product that we kept pushing our launch back again and again and again. All of a sudden, on Monday we woke up to dozens of Congrats on the launch! messages. In our pre-coffee, foggy brained states we were really confused as to why. But then it hit us: we forgot to change our launch date.
To make matters worse, we didn t have any of the essentials: No hunter, no maker comment, no demo video (added in midday). There was just a placeholder of v0 materials we already iterated upon internally countless times. Our logo was even outdated, and the link to our product and website was nowhere to be found in the comments. Not one upvote or comment came from anyone we knew within the first hours of launching.
Because our day wasn t crazy enough, the website broke, so most businesses couldn t fill out our interest form properly, and our consumer facing Chrome extension encountered a huge bug where users couldn t use our product after installing it.
A situation like this usually means guaranteed failure, yet to our surprise, we climbed to a Top 5 position on the leaderboard and were swarmed with PH notifications all day. Even outside of Product Hunt we were being battered with notifications.
We re extremely thankful for the outcome, especially considering the circumstances. This is not a scenario that happens often, but it proved something vital to us:
Even with a shell of a launch, we re making something people want.
We always believed finding real, trustworthy reviews online mattered. But this experience made it clear it s not just important, it s necessary. As AI-generated content continues to blur the line between real and fake, the need for verified, authentic opinions is clear. That s the mission we re pursuing with Honestly.
How do you handle products that have very few mentions across Reddit and YouTube? Do you fall back to other sources or just show what's available? Congrats on shipping!
Honestly
@borrellr_ Thanks! For products that don't have social proof we're thinking of focusing on the brand as a whole rather than the specific product. That way you can tell if this is a trusted brand and by who. What do you think, how do you usually handle researching products that don't have any social proof?
Honestly
Just a FYI for those who are looking simply for the chrome extension, here's the direct link to our extension page: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/honestly/mjnniilmpkfkkeadhkcdakibbpmpaehl
Our current website is more geared towards brands, we're working on building a new landing page specifically for consumers :) Thanks!
Holy sh*t, why did no one else think of this? Also really curious on how you will market it - UGC would be my best bet
Honestly
@amanudeshii Thanks Aman! We're mostly grassroots right now, with word of mouth and this product hunt launch. We'll be looking into different ways to grow it so if you have any ideas on the UGC side lmk! lets@usehonestly.com ;)
Ollang DX
This hits a real pain point.
Ratings are broken, people already dig through Reddit and YouTube before buying. Bringing that context directly into the page is smart.
If you can keep it clean from spam and manipulation, this becomes a must-have.
Honestly
@ebruollang This is exactly what we are going for, glad to see you recognize the mission we are on! If you ever have any feedback or questions about how we are approaching this definitely let us know :)
Fastlane
Congrats on the launch guys :) Love the idea!!
Honestly
@gauravthapa Thanks! We're working on making it better by the day, let us know if you have any recommendations at lets@usehonestly.com!
Honestly
Super excited to be on this journey of making online shopping more transparent with a better review system!
Honestly
@scott_davidson_jr The Goat
Predflow AI
Love this! Can totally see products adding honestly badge in near future
Honestly
@maunilparikh Thanks so much! We hope so too :)