We're launching UNUBO, our first product and are documenting it all, right here on Indie Hackers.
This is part 2 in our 5-part launch journey, where I’ll be writing in detail how we approached each part, plus results - good and bad.
Have you checked out the other parts of the series?
✅ Part 1: Product Hunt Upcoming (general intro)
✅ Part 1.5: Product Hunt Upcoming (results)
➡️ Part 2: Product Hunt
Launching on Product Hunt was exhilarating! We ended the day with a modest 112 upvotes (196 now), yet we consider the launch a win. Not because of upvotes, considering we didn’t make it into the top 5 for that day, but for other reasons. I’ll explain in a bit.
Preparation
There are certain things you just can't plan for. Like Mr 10k upvotes on Product Hunt (maker of the #1 upvoted product of all time) Bram Kanstein reaching out, offering to hunt our product.
Awesome! If you consider that we don’t know each other, this is all the more reason to just put yourself out there with your content - who knows who’ll discover you.
I had everything ready some time before. Being a bit of a dreamer, often to my detriment, I envisioned having my thing featured on Product Hunt a lot, so part of the joy for me was preparing stuff in advance, like the maker comment, or what I will tweet once we go live. It’s just what I enjoy doing.
Regarding the choice of day to launch, there are a few schools of thought floating around. Some say launching on Sunday guarantees you to get noticed, as not many high profile products launch then. Others say Friday, as people are in a more chilled mood.
The busiest days on Product Hunt are Tuesday to Wednesday, so I chose Tuesday to ride the wave of most activity. Of course you run the risk of being overshadowed (looking at you Apple).
A week before launch I reached out to Bram, making sure the date I had in mind worked for him, besides provide him with all relevant launch content. I prepared a folder on Google Drive with all the relevant information. Check it out if you like. I used the official Product Hunt guide as a template for what’s required.
My notes on the vibe of Product Hunt, I took from Pieter Levels article on launching Hoodmaps.
Launch
It was weird. All of a sudden the product we've been working on, was featured on the site I spend so much of my time. Took me a minute or two to just stare at the posting, make a few edits, just to be beaten by this guy, as a first to comment:
He came through via Bram's tweet and actually ended up signing up, so thanks again Bram!
I quickly prepared my intro comment and monitored upvotes, sign ups and traffic. I also made sure to respond to comments as quickly as I could.
As we're in the UK, things only really kicked off once the US woke up, but we got a good few upvotes and sign ups from time zones ahead of us (good to be in Europe).
24hr stats
- 112 upvotes
- 3000 pageviews
- 300 sign ups (with 10% upgrades to paid plan)
- Lots of valuable feedback
Again, that's not a lot of upvotes when looking at the whole of Product Hunt, yet we’re very happy with the results. Beyond the stats there is so much we gained from the feedback we got.
One example is the overwhelming response we received, with people asking for consumer type subscriptions to be included, such as Netflix and Spotify. It’s not the direction we were initially thinking of (being B2B), but the people spoke.
For that reason we did a mini pivot, and now include the ability to track subscriptions of those kind of apps too (that’s going live tomorrow).
Of course we’re not going to implement everything we hear about (that would be insane), but instead go with what makes sense - we generally trust our gut.
Beyond the stats, here’s what we got out of launching on Product Hunt:
- Validation
- A shitload of motivation to keep working on this
- Product direction (mini pivot)
- Engaged customers
Improvements
Here’s a few things I probably could have done better:
- Not ignoring the huge Apple launch on the same day
- Reaching out to influencers months before, to put UNUBO on their radar
For our next launch on Product Hunt, whenever that may be, I’ll take what else is launching on the same day more seriously.
I also want to get better at networking (ugh, networking) and put what we're building on the map a lot more.
When I say networking, I mean forming meaningful connections, as I can’t stand overly shallow connections - even if it means slower growth (we’ll see how that works out for us).
Just 2 tips
1. For launching on Product Hunt, just follow their main guide, right from the horse's mouth.
2. Monitor your outposts. If we're to call your app/landing page HQ, then you have outposts such as Twitter, Indie Hackers (of course), Facebook, etc. Email counts too of course.
Once you launch, make sure you keep a sharp eye on all of your outposts. People will reach out to you wherever they fancy, so it makes a great first impression if you can respond quickly - especially if something breaks.
We had a situation where someone contacted us on Facebook Messenger, which we didn’t check. It was left unanswered for a few hours and it was something for us to fix… whoops.
What’s next
We already posted on Hacker News and that went really well! Results coming soon, in part 3. Still figuring out the right way to approach Reddit. I know the basics, but does anyone have any tips?
Launching isn’t everything. On the contrary, it’s just the beginning. We’re already thinking and operating beyond launch, but more on that when we wrap this series up.
Thanks for stopping by and reading or upvoting. Any questions for me? How about advice, is there something I'm missing when it comes to launching?
Is there something you're launching soon? Would love to hear from you in the comments.
I hang out on Twitter, come say "hi" 🖖🏾.