Shipped my first Chrome extension. Launched on Product Hunt 2 days ago. Got 4 upvotes. Here's what I learned.
A few weeks ago I shipped my first side project — a Chrome extension called Pulse.
The idea came from reading The Millionaire Fastlane. There's this concept in the book about producers vs consumers — people who create things vs people who just consume them. It stuck with me because I realized most of my evenings were going toward consuming. Browsing, scrolling, watching. Not building.
So I made the simplest reminder I could think of. One question, once an hour: was the last hour consuming or producing?
No dashboards. No streaks. Just a quiet nudge to stay honest with myself.
Two days ago I launched on Product Hunt for the first time.
4 upvotes. No comments.
I went in blind. New PH account, no one to tell, no plan for the first hour. Just submitted and waited. Nothing happened. Turns out you can't just launch and hope — you need people ready to support you from minute one. Didn't know that until today.
33 installs so far, all organic, zero revenue. Got my first uninstall today too.
But strangers found it on their own and installed it. That part still feels good.
I'm a developer from Cambodia building things after work, trying to see if I can make something people actually pay for. Still very early. Distribution is the part I'm struggling with most right now.
Honest feedback welcome — what would you have done differently?
4 upvotes on PH is brutal but also pretty normal for a first launch without an audience already warm.
What drove the few upvotes you got — and where are you trying next (communities, Reddit, something else)?
The 4 upvotes are all from strangers, feel good about that to be honest; though small number.
I'm still working on build karma in Reddit, yeah continue trying, also at other else platform including X.
Strangers on PH is actually a good sign — means it's not just your network.
Reddit karma grind is real — the hunt and the account trust are two separate problems. Which subs are you targeting for the extension, and what's it do? Curious if you're finding threads where people describe the pain vs just posting about your launch.
In Reddit, I have not posted anything about the extension yet. I am just engaging with genuine comments about their posts, no mentioning about mine, just building my karma, that's it.
r/SideProject, r/MicroSaas, r/ChromeExtension, r/Productivity, etc
Honestly, I had not found any threads mentioning about the pain, it is just myself experiencing it, inspired by the book Millionaire Fastlane, created the tool and actually using it myself every day.
So I think it may benefit other people as well.
But yeah, like you said, build from the real user's pain is the right way to go. It should be that way.
This is the honest take on shipping I don't see enough. The fact that you shipped at all is huge - most don't get past talking about it. And you're right that distribution is the real game.
The good news: those 33 installs are genuine signal. People found it, used it, shared it without you asking. That's what gets to 330, then 3000. For distribution, have you thought about reaching the communities where people actively complain about time management? Reddit, IndieHackers, Twitter - share the tool where people are already thinking about the problem.
Appreciated for the advice and kind words.
In reality, Reddit is just so hard to get in and engage for new users like me, who does not have enough karma. Got filtered out a lot. But I am buidling my engagement there. Not going to give up.
Yeah! IndieHackers, Twitter/X, I will definitely reach out to communities that would benefit from this tool.
Thanks again btw.