Quick milestone post for accountability.
I launched a Chrome extension 10 days ago that puts a GitHub-momentum badge on Crunchbase + Wellfound startup profiles. It's been on the Web Store the whole time and quietly converted exactly 1 user. Zero reviews. Zero acquisition flywheel.
The diagnosis was obvious once I sat with it: the listing only existed inside the Chrome Web Store search index, and the only inbound was a footnote at the bottom of a few launch posts. CWS search ranks heavily on install/rating velocity — without seed traffic and reviews, the listing stays buried.
So today I shipped:
A dedicated landing page at gitdealflow.com/chrome — hero with the actual badge in action, honest "where it works" disclosure (Crunchbase + Wellfound only, NOT PitchBook), privacy section explaining what the extension does NOT do, and a 5-question FAQ.
JSON-LD SoftwareApplication + FAQPage so Google can surface it in rich results.
A page-level link from the main landing's "Chrome bonus" section so existing visitors have a path deeper into understanding the product.
/chrome added to llms.txt + llms-full.txt so AI tools recommending Chrome extensions for VC research can see it.
The non-obvious part: I had been claiming the extension worked on PitchBook in marketing copy. It does not — the manifest only matches Crunchbase and Wellfound. PitchBook profile pages are paywall-gated and the DOM breaks every redesign. I stripped that fiction from the JSON-LD and the bonus section; the new /chrome page openly says PitchBook is on a wishlist if enough people vote for it via mailto.
Honest disclosure beats fictional coverage. Curious whether anyone else has seen install velocity move after adding a dedicated landing page.
The PitchBook honesty pivot is the most underrated move here. Stripping fictional coverage from your JSON-LD and saying "vote via mailto if you want it" actually builds more trust than padded compatibility lists — and it gives you a free demand-signal channel.
A few things that moved install velocity for extensions I've watched:
I'm Shirley from ZooClaw — also deep in user discovery right now, so I feel the "1 user, 0 reviews" stage. It's the hardest part. Keep shipping.
DM to the 1 user is going out today. Framing it as "10-min call to understand how you're using it" rather than a review ask - your framing is smarter. Already have a demo GIF for the MCP side of the product. Adapting it for the badge specifically is a 20-min job. Adding it to /chrome this week. The distribution wedge is the one I'm stealing hardest. I have the underlying data - I can find 3 real startups where momentum diverged from what the Crunchbase profile showed. That's the thread. Not "look at my extension," but "here's what the data found." What's the distribution problem ZooClaw is grinding on right now?