396 upvotes, 349 comments… If you told us Whiteboardfree was going to generate that much interest on Hacker News we wouldn’t have believed you. Why? Because this was Whiteboardfree’s second “Show HN” launch and the first one flopped.

The First Launch 🤞

Our initial launch held significance despite the lack of community interest. It marked our first milestone as co-founders. Tony and I actually met on Indie Hackers. Jumping into a working partnership blindly is never a wise decision. We both acknowledged our reservations in early conversations. 

The evaluation of our chemistry as co-founders became our primary concern. Would we communicate effectively? Would we both demonstrate equal commitment and interest in our work? How does the other person operate under stressful conditions? Can we respectfully disagree? A flurry of questions like these dominated our thoughts. 

We picked a straightforward project to answer these questions. The actual substance of the idea took a backseat to our interest in how we’d fare in a collaborative environment. Our goals included planning, building, and shipping something manageable. During a three week period in April, Tony and I built Whiteboardfree while balancing full-time jobs and family obligations.

We weren’t expecting anything from the project itself. Job boards are difficult ventures to navigate. Differentiating is hard and gaining momentum is even harder. We didn’t have a detailed plan of action. As soon as we were ready, Tony went ahead and posted the site to Hacker News. When five other “Show HN” posts quickly buried it we weren’t surprised. We collected a couple upvotes and one negative comment. Pretty soon after that, the post dropped off the first page entirely.

We weren’t at all concerned by the outcome. In fact, we expected that result. As active members of communities like Indie Hackers and Failory, we understand how difficult it is for any project to gain traction. Luck plays a significant role in experiencing a successful launch even when you create something people may find useful.

Now confident in the relationship we built during our first project, Tony and I began brainstorming other ideas. Not only have we established ourselves as an effective team but we also enjoy working together and coming up with new projects to focus on. By our measure, the time spent collaborating on this test project was wildly successful. We began throwing around other MVP ideas. 

Trying Again 🚀

A couple weeks later I received a Slack message from Tony out of the blue:


Tony Mastrorio [5:07 PM] Thursday May 17

I think we should re-launch whiteboardfree on HN. Different message.

More direct, something like Show HN: Developer Jobs Site - No Whiteboards


We had absolutely nothing to lose by launching again. So on Friday, May 18th, I scrambled to post right before starting my day job work. I began settling into the typical flow of my day. Perusing a couple different tech news sources is part of my daily routine. Eventually, I queued up Hacker News. I sat silent for a moment after doing a quick double-take. Whiteboardfree was sitting in the second spot on the front page. 

I was absolutely speechless. Within 2 hours, people had been upvoting and commenting in a frenzy. To further my surprise the post managed to occupy the second slot for a majority of the day, only to be dethroned by this awesome Indie Hackers post. Well played Courtland and Channing! 


By that evening we’d seen roughly 10,000 new users, 150 new email subscribers, 140 new Twitter followers, and 2 new job posts. Not too shabby considering our original expectations for the site 😁

Google Analytics from Whiteboardfree's 2nd Launch
 


Key Insights 🔑

We learned a great deal from this experience after reflecting on what happened:

Keep Show HN messaging straightforward, simple, and concise

We made the mistake of attempting to be clever during our first launch. Don’t be clever, be clear. If you examine Show HN posts that trend, many of them don’t leave much up to the imagination. Simplicity will maximize the chances that the community will quickly understand your project at high-level. This leads to support through upvoting, commenting, and sharing via other platforms assuming your message resonates.

Enjoy being a small fish in a big pond

It’s very easy to get caught up in growth hacking your way to a large user base with serious virtual visibility. As Indie Hackers we want to see growth through metrics like revenue generation and an increase in audience engagement. Oddly enough, this experience gave us a healthy appreciation for being unknown. As soon as you have a presence, experimenting suddenly becomes difficult and risky. Don’t underestimate the power of being small and nimble. Capitalize on it while you can.

Just F***ing Launch ASAP

We understand as well as anyone that putting things you’ve created out into the world is terrifying. Inevitably there will be people who criticize your work. Sometimes you’ll produce something that doesn’t resonate with anyone or is downright bad. The only way to overcome the fear is by launching early and often. You’ll make mistakes and sometimes you’ll look foolish. That’s ok. It’s better to learn from these mistakes sooner rather than later.

Going viral can produce anxiety. Keep things in perspective

Seeing 1000’s of users flood your site at once is exhilarating but it can also become a source of stress. Take a deep breath and focus on the feeling in the pit of your stomach stemming from the validation of other people utilizing something you built. While it’s certainly an accomplishment, be mindful of how fleeting this type of success typically is. There are exceptions here but by and large, these instances of virality are not indicators of long-term success. The expectations and pressure placed on yourself at this point in the game are mostly internal, not external. Stay calm, be aware, and do your best to convert these ephemeral successes into more fruitful, long-term opportunities.

Moving Forward 🔮

Tony and I will continue listening to developers. We’re interested in building products to improve developer happiness and productivity. Right now that includes making sure Whiteboardfree sticks around and we’re committed to making that happen. In the spirit of Open Startup transparency, we’ll be sharing our experiences and lessons learned along the way!

Feel free to reach out to Tony (@TonyIsTyping) and Victor (@VictorBordo) on Twitter any time!