Next steps I should take after a successful launch on front page of HN?

Nice idea and well done on the successful launch. I saw the HN post and then funnily enough Ryan from FOMO tweeted about sponsoring an event which I wanted to sponsor ;)

Take my feedback/advice with a pinch of salt - I obviously don't know your goals/motivations/numbers...

That said, here are a few things I'd think about in your situation:

• Take a step back and look at unit economics. Sure, you can keep on 'launching', but eventually the excitement will die down. You need to keep matching sponsors and events even after there's nowhere new to post about FreePizza.io ...

• You're basically running a marketplace/matching service. One side of the marketplace is time sensitive (the events), the other isn't. So my first step would be to allow sponsors who want to sponsor an event in category X but none of those events are currently available to leave their email address with you. That way, you can alert them when a useful event pops up. In my case, for example, that would be Shopify/Cratejoy/Ecommerce Meetups. This is really important because otherwise, these sponsors won't keep coming back to check if there's finally a good event for them - they'll just forget and get on with their lives.

• The next thing I'd do is test and put in a replicable process to make sure the sponsorship is maximised at the event. Maybe that's making it obligatory to provide photo evidence, distribute flyers for the sponsor - whatever. Just make sure it's documented and followed through. They should also obviously mention FreePizza.io and maybe distribute some flyers for that too. Referrals will be the best way to grow on this side of the marketplace, so nail that first.

• Photos, videos etc that you get from the events --> include them on the site, on Twitter and on LinkedIn (v. important). Tag the companies and the meetups. You'd be amazed at the reach you'll get from doing that.

• Reach back out to companies once they have sponsored an event. Show them similar events they could sponsor. Maybe lock them in long term as a sponsor for monthly event X, instead of opening it up to a new sponsor each month.

• You don't have that many events looking for pizza yet. Reach out manually to a few. It's easy enough to say something like "hey, I'd like to see if I can get free pizza for your event. If I can, will you talk about the sponsor for X minutes at the beginning?"

Good luck!

Post to Product Hunt, Reddit, reach out to reporters, google free pizza and let communities know about you!

How much traffic did being on the front page of HN bring you? ;)

This comment was deleted 8 years ago