My story of a failed launch on Product Hunt
How I learned the hard way the difference between being Featured or not.
My first launch
I launched my main project, BaliBam, in early February.
I wasn't sure because it's a B2B SaaS. I thought Product Hunt was more for B2C products.
I was wrong.
It was a success for a solo founder like me (without a trendy AI product):
Position: #5
Featured in the newsletter the next day: Yes
Website visits: 400
New (free) users: 80
I even made a webinar to explain everything. If you're interested, here's the link.
My second launch
Happy with the first product's results, I launched the second one.
It's a FREE tool to calculate ROI for a Software Agency.
It's a lead magnet for BaliBam. But to follow the rules, I got a new domain.
After the launch, I wasn't Featured on the homepage.
I contacted their support, but the reply was unhelpful: "We can't feature all products."
I was frustrated. Upvotes came, but my network reach was low.
Results:
Position: none (I'm at the bottom of yesterday's list)
Featured in the newsletter the next day: No
Website visits: 100
New (free) users on BaliBam: 2
Lessons
You can't rely completely on an external platform for a launch. It can go well or poorly.
Next time, I'll spend less time on a Product Hunt launch.
Thanks bro! After a couple of weeks, I am also willing to launch my SaaS on ProductHunt so that I will consider such things 😉
Feel free to check the link I posted with my insights about the first launch.
I hope it can help :)
Thanks for the tips on PH.. will take a look since I plan to launch something soon!
I hope it helps :)
This is super helpful. I want to launch my new project but I honestly feel stuck. I don't have a following but I have a service that I know has a market and need... it's called emailglow.com - we make building emails suck less by taking it over for brands and services. Any ideas or help you can provide because everything feels random unless you already have some weird following on Twitter....
If you want my opinion about PH, check the presentation of the webinar I linked in this post :)
Thanks for sharing! Any thoughts on what you'd do differently next time around?
I wouldn't launch a new lead magnet on PH.
Even if it's totally another branding :)
Thank you for sharing your experience with launching on Product Hunt and the valuable lessons learned.
It's clear that the difference between being featured or not can have a significant impact on the success of a launch.
Your transparency in discussing the outcomes of both launches is greatly appreciated.
Thanks a lot!
I hope it will be useful for others as well :)
I am totally new to this and, while looking into Product Hunt to showcase my project, I'm always thinking that my project is not ready to go up there; not just yet. I find myself wanting to add just oone more feature, and then another one, etc.
Do you think that being featured in the first round was because of a more complete product or mostly because internal PH processes? Do others have some experience on this?
The second launch wasn't a more complete version, but a free tool (lead magnet).
My suggestion is... if you have already a minimum version, launch it!
Collect feedback and iterate.
thanks for sharing. I think these days Product Hunt is a bit saturated and people rely too much on Product Hunt launch for their Go To market strategy. At least you tried and learned a valuable lesson.
I agree... it's a good community.
But it's now being more complicated since AI and people buying upvotes.
Thanks! I think a lot also has to do with building a community and network before the launch that will support you.
I agree! The base is to create a community of people before the launch :)
From what I've observed, launching a project on Product Hunt often relies on paid upvotes. Don't invest too much time in it 😉
My first launch was with zero paid upvotes.
And I closed #5 without any team :)
Thanks man
I did 2 tests to see if it would work. Option 1 I got a hunter and didnt no anything and option 2 I did it all myself...Made reddit posts, twitter ads, whatsapp group, linkedin
messaged 1000 people
Option 1: came in 3rd - 300 hundred free users
Option 2: was no where, got 120 upvotes and got 0 users.
Save yourself some time just get a hunter
It's not that easy, to be honest.
The hunter gives you just a bit more visibility (the followers will receive a notification). But it's not related to be featured or not
Thank you for sharing your experience. I am currently in a research phase trying to determe the impact of the prospective product. Any suggestions how I can go about it and receive feedback?
I would find your potential customers (ICP) and interview them.
There are many guides about how to do and not do it.
In general: open questions, listen to them, don't propose your solution but instead understand how they are solving right now the problem you want to solve, etc...
Thanks for sharing, I also submit a product on PH, but only got a few followers, it's difficult to obtain users......
It's not that hard.
In the post, there is a link to my presentation. I explain there how to do it quickly.