I launched on Product Hunt and made it to #4
So I went live with ShopFunnels on ProductHunt today and it's a competitive day but I've managed to keep it at #4.
- No consultant hired
- I didn't pay anyone to manage the launch
- Hunted by myself
How did I do this? It was planning and strategy
Here's my roadmap
I started interacting on Producthunt nearly a month before the launch. I created the launch, scheduled it, and then started my interactions.
I interacted with existing launches, as well as participated in discussions actively. I built connections and friends on ProductHunt and found many new contacts on social media around the website.
On the launch day I leveraged my personal contacts and also social media.
I posted on Facebook
I posted on Twitter
I have a group of my existing product users, I posted there.
I wrote an email to my existing buyers (I have 15,000+)
I posted extensively on Twitter to those who talk about ProductHunt.
Result... I got early traction and have been managing to hold #4 on a busy day.
If I finish in the top 5, I'll consider it a success and the valuable lessons that I picked up in this launch will help me in the next one.
Have you ever launched at ProductHunt? What was your experience like? Feel free to share your learnings with me!
Cheers!
I launched quite a few products on PH over the years and I didn't pay anyone to help me out, so I agree with you. It really depends on the hackerish nature of everyone. I mean if you're not a geek or a doer in general, it might worth it to get some outside help. But anyway, here's my advice on a launch:
This is quite practical... Real world advice mate.
How did you fund the curation of all your book summaries in bookstash? I always wonder how founders get such a content heavy app off the ground
Well, initially we funded ourselves (cash wise). Got in a pre-seed round. And after that a seed round. Initially, we had 1 or 2 colleagues that actually curated content. Later on we switched to UGC.
But to be honest, any product you would build, you gotta do the grunt work. And I'm saying grunt, because maybe initially it looks like it's useless. But it's actually the most important thing you can do.
To give you a small example, I wrote specs one full year for a business I never actually "experienced" myself. About 10 years ago, an "Uber for logistics". Wrote the FUCK out of those specs, gathered a team, created a prototype algorithm and app, etc.
But for fuck's sake, I never actually went in my car and try to deliver one of those packages to see how the hell will that work. I failed, off-course. We couldn't sign insurance with anyone (they deemed it too risky).
Moral: add content yourself, use the product, do the best job you can do initially. Nobody else will do the job better than you. Like a PR company won't write your mission better than the worst possible version of what you will write.
Hope this helps.
It does! I completely agree - I think there is considerable work or effort getting something off the ground.
I guess where I am stuck right now is like stuck between not wanting to invest too much time and effort into something that I can't validate - and not having enough signals that tell me it's validated without doing more grunt work.
I guess no one can really help there. It's your own assessment of how much you believe in your product combined with what the market is telling you (eg. are there users who would use/pay for the product?). Not talking about product/market fit per say. The signals you might need could come later. Or they might not come at all. I guess it's what us founders always do: calculated risk.
If you want, I can have a look, maybe I can help with anything. Not sure if I can, but just putting it out there.
How long did it take for you to get to #4? Where did you see the most traffic from?
It's a product of the day, right... So in about 6 hours
Very insightful. Although I'm a newbie. I still hope to learn and grow more.
Sure... Be happy to help you in the journey
I appreciate it ✨
Congrats Cyril! Keep it coming.
My company is currently offering Free QA and Software Testing Services. You can send a mail to [email protected] if you ever want extra insight.
Thanks!
Thanks for this. It’s really helpful to hear this side of it. I’m launching on PH soon and have been active for 25 days on the platform. I’ve only manage a dozen or so followers so considering finding someone to hunt my product for me.
Having a hunter is good, but it's not going to take away the grunt work. If you want to make your launch a success, you'll need to do the heavy lifting. Reach out to me on LinkedIn and I'll be happy to give you some ideas.
I've done two launches this past year and one ended in the top 10 and the other in the top 5. However, I didn't hunt it myself.
Some of the things I wished I would have done when looking at yours:
Congrats on the launch and hope you made it to top 5!
Yep, I learnt outreach matters and you need those early community votes when I started being active on PH and had a number of people reach out to me on LinkedIn. That makes sense... Founders are good folks, they like to support each other.
I have not launched on product hunt yet but I will be sure to follow these tips once I do. Thanks
That's great! Hit me up on Linkedin when you are ready and I might be able to help you more.
Essentially its comes down having some minimum number of audience before launching and then use the existing audience to boost the product hunt launch.
Pretty smart tactics but that means you need to know and build some minimum number of audience. But building audience is one of the hardest thing to do especially if you are a developer. So how to do this ? Is there any way to make it easier ?
My recommendation to make building audience easier is from the start when building make sure the product is in you area of expertise.
If you are expert in software it will be easier to do something that help your community ( this is why most developer do developer tool ). Your voice is more valuable there compare to other place.
It will make you easier to engage and strike conversation in that community. Here if you want understand about having the voice during product hunt launch. Buildings audience before launching on product hunt
Well, the sad thing is, the community is not my buyer.
Congratulations, I am hoping to launch my product too. I am still at building MVP.but I am in dilemma, whether i should let my MVP be a free tool or paid subscription, its B2C and my MVP doesn't have a value of more than $10. what is best thing to do ?
Well, last month I ran a freemium experiment and I am closing it down. It's not working for me... It's back to outright sales
First and foremost, congrats on a successful PH launch. Go you!
Second thank you for sharing these very practical tips!
Thanks! I am glad this was helpful
Hey there! We also launched our product, Aasaan, on Product Hunt and guess what? We secured an impressive spot in the top 2 for the day! 🚀
Wanna know how we did it? Here are some cool tips we followed that might just come in handy for your future Product Hunt endeavors:
Build Meaningful Connections: We got involved in discussions, shared our thoughts, and started building relationships with fellow hunters. It's like walking into a party and making new friends – it makes your presence felt.
Spread the Word on Social Media: We took to Twitter and LinkedIn, finding folks who were also hanging around on Product Hunt. A little message here, a friendly DM there – we introduced ourselves and our soon-to-launch product. It's like extending your social circle online, but with a specific purpose – to get people curious and talking about what's coming.
Launch-Day Discussions: Launch day! The big moment had arrived. We kicked off a conversation on Product Hunt itself. We spilled the beans about our product – its features, how it could make lives easier, you name it. We didn't just want to throw our product out there – we wanted people to know why it's awesome. We also actively joined in discussions, replied to comments, and basically had a blast talking about our creation.
So, there Our journey in a nutshell. These tips might just work wonders for your next big launch. Now go rock that Product Hunt stage like the star you are! 🌟🎉
And hey, if you're curious to check out Aasaan, head over to aasaan app and see what the buzz is all about!
Thanks... these are good tips.
This comment was deleted 2 years ago.
1st lesson; networking is the way to success
Indeed!
I've just launched an AI product as well and I'm not sure where to start with promotion😂.
You have a couple of diffrent roadmaps here.. Better get strted
Seems like this 'I have a group of my existing product users, I posted there.
I wrote an email to my existing buyers (I have 15,000+)' was more important than talking to people on PH?
It was useful... but most of my customers don't have a PH account. So there was not a lot of traction. Some of them went to PH and wrote me positive comments. I do think you still need to talk to people on PH.
I've connected with a lot of PH people on LinkedIn over the last few weeks... I messaged them and requested support
Is ProductHunt only for for-profit apps that can help businesses?
No, it's for every kind of apps.
Thanks Cyril. Maybe I can post my company there to see if it helps bring in more applicants to our community.
Saving this for later, I like the idea.
I'm wondering my app is more in the social media domain and would you recommend product hunt for it. Take a look at viralapp.io just to see what it's about.
I'm just developing the product and unsure of where to start to market it effectively.
Thanks
Congrats
It seems we should build community before ptoduct launch
Sure... but the community has to be of customers, not fellow developers.
Build a community before launching any product.
That's definitely helpful... I've been focusing on building the community for about 18 months now. It takes time
In case anyone is interested. This is the product I launched -> https://www.producthunt.com/posts/shopfunnels
This comment was deleted 2 years ago.