Our first launch as a husband & wife duo (with zero pre-launch hype!) 🚀
Hey IH community!
My husband and I recently launched our very first product, and to be completely honest, it’s been a wild ride.
We built Atlas, a lead scraping tool to automate Google and LinkedIn data extraction.
We didn't build a massive waitlist, and we completely failed to create any pre-launch hype. We just focused on building a great tool, took a deep breath, and put it out there.
It's been a few days since we went live, and we are learning so much as we go. Since my account recently got full access here, I wanted to reach out to this amazing community.
If anyone has a spare minute, it would mean the world to us if you could check out our page, tear it apart, give us your honest feedback, and maybe show some love if you find Atlas useful!
Here is our link: https://www.producthunt.com/products/atlas-lead-scraper
Thank you so much for the support! Let us know if you have any questions about our journey so far.
Congrats on the launch! Love the honesty about just shipping without all the pre-launch hype, experimenting forces us to learn after all!
Quick questions - looking back now that you're live, what was the hardest part of launch prep? Was it organizing what to build/ship first, managing timelines, or something else entirely? Did you know what to expect prior to launch?
I help first-time founders with release prep and coordination and I'm always curious what trips people up the most when launching for the first time.
Thanks for the thoughtful questions, @PrepProject!
Honestly, the hardest part was deciding when to stop adding 'just one more feature' and hit that publish button. As a builder, you always feel like the product isn't 'ready' yet. Managing that internal timeline while balancing a full-time mindset was definitely a challenge.
Prior to launch, I expected a lot of technical bugs to be the main issue, but I realized the real challenge is distribution and messaging. It’s one thing to build a tool that works; it’s an entirely different beast to explain why it matters in a crowded market.
I think what trips most first-time founders up (myself included) is over-preparing the product but under-preparing the story behind it.
Since you help founders with release prep, what’s the most common 'unnecessary' task you see people obsessing over right before they launch?
Ah yes, the infamous 'just one more line of code' paralysis is very relatable! The truth is, especially as an early builder, the product will never 'fully' be ready - there will always be a user with a different request, opinion or experience with your product. At this early stage, provided you feel you have shipped something even 1 user can get value from, the product is ready.
With that said, founders spending days building elaborate roadmaps or detailed project plans that may not be applicable post launch. The backlog changes so fast once real users show up - having a reliable system that actively triages feedback helps structure future releases and influence future project scope.
Since you just went through this - if you were launching again, what would be the first thing you do differently?
That is a profound observation, @PrepProject.
The 'perfect logo' trap is real—it's much easier to spend three days on a color palette than three hours facing real user rejection. We fell into that trap a few times ourselves before deciding to just ship Atlas with its core engine.
Your point about the 'clear value proposition' is exactly what we are testing right now. We realized that 100 verified emails are worth more to a founder than a fancy dashboard that does nothing. We're stripping away the 'shiny' distractions to keep the focus purely on speed and data accuracy.
Thanks for sharing your experience. It’s a great reminder to keep the main thing, the main thing! Catch you around the feed!
Glad to hear your experience! It's hurdles like these that strengthen the quality of your product - quality over quantity anytime!
Good luck with Atlas - excited to see where you take it! Feel free to reach out if you ever need help coordinating future releases.
Thank you so much, @PrepProject!
I really appreciate the support and the offer. Your insights on focusing on quality and handling feedback triaging have been super helpful during this launch week. It's mentors and peers like you that make the Indie Hackers community so great.
I'll definitely keep you in mind for future releases! Looking forward to staying in touch and seeing your projects as well. Cheers! 🚀
Appreciate that! Wishing you all the best with Atlas - excited to see how it grows. Feel free to reach out anytime.
Thanks again! Definitely will do. See you around the community! 🚀
Congrats on launching it, that first launch with no safety net takes more courage than most people admit. The fact that you skipped the hype cycle and just built something real is actually a better starting point than it feels right now, because you'll get honest signal instead of polite waitlist signups who never convert.
One thing that might help at this stage: go back to everyone who signed up in the first few days and just ask them one question. Not a survey, just a direct message saying "what made you try this?" The answers will tell you which message is actually landing and that usually becomes your homepage headline within a week.
Building as a couple brings its own challenges but the one advantage I've seen is that you make decisions faster and stay more honest with each other about what's working. Most solo founders spend weeks in their own head about a pivot that a co-founder conversation would solve in an hour. Good luck with it, rooting for you both.
Thanks for the encouragement, @jseabra!
You hit the nail on the head regarding the 'safety net.' Skipping the waitlist hype and going straight to a live tool was a bit nerve-wracking, but you're right—the feedback we’re getting now is raw and real.
I love your suggestion about the 'one question' DM. We’re actually going to reach out to our first batch of users tonight to ask exactly that: 'What made you try this?' It’s so simple, yet I can see how it helps cut through the noise for the landing page headline.
Also, spot on about building as a couple! It definitely keeps us honest—no room for over-engineering when your co-founder is right there asking 'Does this actually solve the user's problem?' haha. It makes the pivot/decision-making process so much faster.
Since you've seen many founders go through this, in your experience, what’s the most common 'signal' people overlook when they analyze those early DM answers?
Congrats on shipping! Launching without a pre-built audience is hard — most people never get there because they keep "preparing."
A few things that tend to help at this stage for a lead scraping tool:
Narrow the ICP message fast. "Automate Google and LinkedIn data extraction" describes the mechanism, but your best early customers are coming from a specific pain. Cold email agencies, SDRs at seed-stage startups, solo recruiters? Whoever finds you most useful in the first two weeks — talk to them, understand why, and let that shape how you describe Atlas.
The PH page is step one, but the real distribution is the use case. Lead scrapers get shared when someone shows a specific workflow — "I scraped 2k decision-makers in 20 mins before a conference" — not the feature list. If you can document a use case like that (even a short Loom), it spreads in Slack groups and niche communities better than a Product Hunt ranking.
What kind of customers are finding you so far?
Thanks a lot for the goldmine of advice, @RovaAI!
You’re absolutely right—'mechanism' vs 'specific pain' is exactly where I’m focusing right now. I’ve noticed that Cold Email Agencies and SDRs at seed-stage startups are the ones reaching out the most so far. They don't just want data; they want to skip the manual copy-pasting phase and get straight to the outreach.
I love the idea of documenting a specific workflow. I’m actually planning to record a 'zero to 100 leads in 5 minutes' Loom video this week to show the exact workflow for a pre-conference lead list.
Right now, my biggest challenge is narrowing down that 'perfect' ICP, but the early feedback from solo recruiters has been surprisingly strong as well.
Appreciate you pointing me in the right direction! Have you found any specific distribution channels work best for these 'workflow-based' videos besides Slack/niche groups?