My last 5 month Journey to Launching on Product Hunt

Today I launched my product Potion on Product Hunt.
🧵 Here is the story of the last 5 month journey to get to this point! 👇

November 30, 2020.

I shared that I was going to build a new SaaS in public.

This tweet actually kind of went viral.

I got 1,000 new followers in 24 hours which doubled my current following.

Of course the new SaaS was Potion and from this day on I knew that #buildinginpublic would be a big part of my product's journey.

In the early days I shared a video just about every day! I would talk about the decisions I was making around the product and show the progress I was making.

The whole journey is documented in these videos here. 👇

December 15, 2020.

I created a waitlist page using Potion!

I had built up the product to at least the point where I could use it. I did as much dog-fooding as I could building websites to share content.

January 9, 2021.

I created a free newsletter called Notion Weekly to help give value to the Notion community. Of course I created the landing page using Potion.

January 19, 2021.

I got my first paying customer!

I started a private early access and Orion Seven was so kind and gave great feedback!

Where did my first customers come from?

Mostly Twitter and the people that were following my journey as I built in public.

January 23, 2021.

Second customer! I was getting great feedback from my customers and working hard to make it better while I was in private early access.

February 16, 2021.

I launched early access.

I created a whole new website all built in Potion. I really wanted to show what was possible with Potion and my website was a great way to do that.

February 26, 2021.

I shared my MRR along the way. This was a driver that showed that the product was working and people were getting value out of it.

March 5, 2021.

I started to see customers refer each other.

This was huge! Word of mouth is such a great channel and it showed that people liked my product.

March.

I started to focus more on marketing.

Trying to see if I could find other channels that could do well.

The main two I focused on:

• Affiliate program
• Notion FB Group
• Collabs/integrations with other tools
• Guides on Potion (maybe SEO?)

Apirl 12, 2021.

I continued to make the product better. Including a live editor for changing simple styles!

April 19, 2021.

I added many Potion templates and had other makers help create them. This was a great way to get people up and running with their site quickly.

April 20, 2021.

I created a showcase showing off different Potion sites that users had created.

This was a great way for those visiting the site to see what was possible with Potion!

April 29, 2021.

I got to 50 users! This was a big milestone.

I believe I have proven that the product is solving a valuable problem for people and there is potential here.

May 4, 2021.

Things seemed to be going well. Slow and steady growth.

May 5, 2021.

I started to focus on optimizing some of my metrics.

Mainly activating users by getting new trialers to create their first site.

May 24, 2021.

And that brings us to today!

The last couple of weeks I have been preparing for the PH launch. and making sure the product is ready.

I would really appreciate your support on Product Hunt. It would mean the world to me!
https://www.producthunt.com/posts/potion-2

Thanks to everyone who has been following along my journey.

This is just the beginning!