The launch day from Hell!
Today was supposed to be the day.
Weeks of building. The Domain Hunter — an AI-powered expired domain finder — was live on Product Hunt. I was ready.
Within hours, Anthropic flagged that my API key was sitting exposed in my frontend HTML. Visible to anyone who opened DevTools. The site went down. On launch day.
Here's what I did next:
The fix:
. Rotated all exposed keys immediately
. Rebuilt the security architecture from scratch — all API calls now proxy through a Cloudflare Worker
. Added server-side rate limiting — 30 requests per hour per IP
. Replaced the localStorage-based paywall (bypassable in 10 seconds via DevTools) with proper server-side KV tracking
. Added www subdomain support
. Fixed a broken local font reference that had been there since day one
Total downtime: a few hours. On launch day.
The result:
Product Hunt — position 465. One upvote. Brutal.
Indie Hackers — climbed from 45th to joint 8th on the Build Board before the day reset.
What I learned:
Never put API keys in frontend code. Not even base64 encoded. It's not hidden.
A broken launch day is still a launch day.
Build in public because the story of fixing it is better than a clean launch.
The site is fully working now at thedomainhunter.io — 3 free hunts, no account needed.
Day 2 starts tomorrow. 🚀
"Lee, that is a brutal launch day story—exposed API keys and a site takedown is a nightmare scenario, but props for rebuilding the security architecture and proxying through Cloudflare so quickly.
Position 465 on PH is a tough pill to swallow after all that work, but the fact that you climbed to the top 10 on the IH Build Board shows there is real interest in thedomainhunter.io. There’s a competition where you can submit this — entry is $19 and winner gets a Tokyo trip. Prize pool just opened at $0. Your odds are the best right now.
A Tokyo trip would be a hell of a way to make up for that Anthropic API key disaster!"
Ha, yeah — exposed API keys and a PH launch going sideways on the same day is the kind of thing that either breaks you or makes you build faster. Went with option B! 😅
Seriously though, cheers for the kind words — the IH traction means a lot more to me right now than the PH ranking tbh.
Re: the Tokyo trip — I'd 100% enter, but here's the thing... if I won it, I'd raffle it off to the first 25–50 subscribers. Feels right that the people who backed The Domain Hunter early should have a shot at it. Tokyo trip as a thank-you to the early community? That'd be a better story than me going anyway! 🗼
What's the comp called btw? it was mentioned the other day and I can't track down the message — want to look into it properly! Thanks 👍
Haha yeah, that’s a brutal combo 😅 but honestly, shipping through that is what separates most builders. Respect for pushing through it.
And I like that idea a lot — raffling the Tokyo trip to early subscribers is actually a way better story. That’s the kind of thing people remember + talk about.
The comp is called Tokyo Lore (tokyolore.com) — still super early, so the odds are genuinely best right now. Takes like 5 minutes to enter.
Also, if you do end up tying it into The Domain Hunter launch, that could be a really strong growth loop — giveaway → subscribers → story → more traction.
Ha, cheers — appreciate the kind words! Yeah it was a baptism of fire but honestly I'd rather have a chaotic launch story than a boring one 😄
Glad the raffle idea landed well — I genuinely think giving something back to the early believers is the right move. If the story gets people talking at the same time, even better!
Just looked up Tokyo Lore — tokyolore.com right? your comp right? Going to check it out properly, cheers for the heads up. Five minutes to enter and best odds right now sounds like a no-brainer.
And yeah that growth loop you mapped out is exactly what I was thinking — giveaway → subscribers → story → traction. Simple but if it works it works. Watch this space! 🚀
Haha love that — chaotic launches make the best stories anyway 😄
And yep, that’s ours.
If you’re already checking it out, I’d say just jump in this round — it literally takes 5 minutes, and since it just opened, your odds won’t get better than this.
Curious to see what you submit 👀