We made $0 on our PH launch. Here's why?
Hello there, we are the team behind VC_OS, an ecosystem designed to help founders navigate the busy world of venture capital and we want to share a story with you. It's not a success story, but a tale of failure, of lessons learned, and of how important it is to critically evaluate every aspect of a product launch. A while back, our Product Hunt launch didn't go as expected. We finished #41 instead of being the top product of the day, and most painfully, made no money whatsoever. We have spent time analyzing where we went wrong and here's what we discovered.
1. Not Talking to Users Beforehand
In our case, the old saying "Assumption is the mother of all failures" rung true. Sadly, we thought we knew what our users wanted without actually reaching out to them prior to the launch. In retrospect, this was a major blunder. User interaction before any product launch is absolutely essential as it not only helps in validating your idea but also provides insights into what the users actually need, their pain points, and expectations. Not having this information meant that extra mile of personalization and user-centered design was missing from our platform. Our lack of direct interaction with potential users left us operating on assumptions that eventually didn't meet the actual needs of our users.
2. Too Much Building, Not Enough Selling
The second reason for our unsuccessful launch was our overemphasis on product building. We wore the badge of "Minimum Viable Product" as an excuse to neglect other important aspects of a product launch like crafting a compelling landing page or writing the perfect copy. Though product development is essential, focusing solely on building and not on selling was a big mistake. Not only is a balanced approach between the two crucial to drive a successful product launch, it's important for the sustainability of any business. The inequitable focus reflected on our launch day when despite having a functioning platform, we couldn't make a single conversion. A potential customer's first impression often comes from the landing page and copy. Without having these optimized, we lacked the necessary tools to attract and retain potential customers.
3. Unfortunate Timing: The Role of Luck
The third reason was simply bad luck. On our launch day, we found ourselves head-to-head with a direct competitor that was also launching. This competitor had focused heavily on marketing their product, overshadowing our less-optimized launch. The significance of timing and a little bit of luck must not be underestimated in the startup world. The simultaneous launch of our competitor affected our visibility and reach to our potential users. This dire circumstance emphasized the importance of market research and strategic planning in picking the most opportune time for a product launch.
Wrapping up
Failure can be a tough pill to swallow, but every failure brings with it important lessons. We've learned ours the hard way. Now, although VC_OS's Product Hunt launch didn’t go as we imagined, these reasons aren’t meant to serve as excuses, but reflections and learnings. We share this with the hope that our dear readers and fellow startup builders can avoid these pitfalls and build a more successful product launch.
Let's Connect
We urge entrepreneurs and founders to check out VC_OS, our easy-to-use ecosystem designed to ease your venture capital journey. And for those who've had similar experiences, we'd love to hear your stories and the lessons they came with. Because no matter how often we stumble and fall, we're all in this together! So, let's connect, share, and grow together.
Thank you for sharing these.
I plan to launch a productized service (not on PH) soon and your team's discoveries might help to prevent disappointments on launch day.
Thanks!
Thanks for sharing. Within every failure is the seed of success, as Napoleon Hill said. You project provides just the list of VCs or personalized intros as well?
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Thanks for sharing you learnings, they are really helpful
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Thanks for sharing this @aposded, really helpful.
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Thanks for sharing. Recently when I tried to search for similar products on PH, I surprisingly found an app launched a few years ago and didn't receive any upvote or review until now. Maybe the creator didn't take it seriously but it warned me that a lot of work had to be done before launching. And people may consider launch as an end of continuous efforts but it's just the start.
I've launched many apps on PH before, and I have learned that the real work starts after launching. I consider this launch as. a test for users to be exposed to my product, and not as a real user acquisition strategy.
I think your product will work for us at https://askgen.ie and thanks for sharing!
Thanks! Hope you like it.
Hey Apostolos,
Thank you for the honest and insightful post-mortem on your PH launch. It takes courage to talk about failures and the lessons they carry. I believe your insights are extremely beneficial for other founders preparing for their launches.
To add another perspective, it's also essential to work on your network before the launch. Rallying a community of supporters who will upvote and share your product can make a substantial difference. This requires time, as you need to genuinely engage with people and offer them value first. It’s about reciprocity, not just asking for votes.
Moreover, consider working on a robust post-launch strategy. If a launch doesn't go as expected, a solid backup plan can help gain some traction back. This could include reaching out to specific target groups, offering webinars or demos, or running a limited-time promotional offer.
Your story will undoubtedly help other founders avoid similar pitfalls. Keep going, iterate on the learnings and I'm sure you'll nail your next launch!
Thanks for sharing this - I'm getting ready to launch my first product and this definitely provided some helpful direction.
Product Hunt is such a weird platform, I’ve never been able to make a product blow up there despite weeks of prep.
Thanks for sharing!
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Thanks you for sharing your tale. Failures is not easy but shared with the right community can be comforting.
I've not taken the time to evaluate your landing page but I suggest you to post on the group Landing page Feedback in order to get people to review it.
Keep the ball rolling!
I did a full branding redesign after the failure. I posted on Landing Page Feedback some days ago.
Good to hear!
These days PH is largely made up of subpar AI tools and Airtable databases paywalled via Gumroad.
It's not you, it's them.
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Thanks for this feedback, it's very interesting !
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Thanks for sharing your story.
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thanks you shares
Looking to do a PH launch at some point in the coming weeks, so I definitely appreciate the insights.
Great post!
Whenever I look at social media, I always only see success stories but yours is different and gives a new perspective towards building and launching. 😊
I learned this the hard way too, just a few weeks ago. As an engineer, I spent 100% of the time building and launched on a short timeline (scheduled it on a Friday to launch on Monday).
I'm realizing that as indie hackers, your personal brand and following are massively important so I'm working on that now. I recommend that to everyone now.
Hi. Im an engineer myself, and it’s been a hard realization to make for me. I still don’t do well in marketing!
Me either! It's definitely not easy but I think chipping at it a little everyday should yield good results.
As with all things!
Thank you for sharing these, I will definitely follow these the next time.
I am also launching my MVP product on product hunt tonight let’s hope it goes well, I think I already did some of these mistakes.
It will be great you can support my product https://www.producthunt.com/posts/ai-web-app-generator
Thank you for sharing and for your thoughtful responses to the comments below. Number 3 particularly stuck out to me... will have to attempt to be careful about timing when we do our PH launch! Best of luck as you hopefully relaunch the product.
To be honest, I don't think there's anything you can do to control that. Just launch and see what happens!
Thank you for sharing, I actually keep a memo on everything I find interesting on IH. Your failures have both helped yourself to realize some of the pitfalls as well as many others, me included. Keep your head up and more importantly, stay consistent and on the grind.
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What I'm doing rn, I working on a new project, and ik it take time to deploy. so I came up with getting the right audience forehand before going online.
Mostly go through Reddit. Every Friday post quality content. On other days, just interact with ppl in the subreddit through replies and also dm them to get in my newsletter.
I got about 20 subs in one week! (https://seacrayon.com/)
Hi Apostolos, I dare to disagree.
These are not the real reasons why you didn´t get any paid customers. We recently also launched on PH, and I got a very deep understanding of their inner proceedings and the underlying marketing strategy. Product Hunt is NOT what people think it is, and it´s not there for the users, as they only see the users (= SaaS founders) as products.
A lesson can be learned here about perfect marketing strategy and execution, and I will tear it all down for you in my blog post. Learn from it and implement it for your products. We are going to launch a new product soon based on these insights.
If you want to read the whole teardown, here it is:
https://vispr.net/teardown-of-our-product-hunt-launch/
Thanks for sharing. I have launched many products on PH before, and I have discovered exactly that: PH is not about getting users, or customers. It's about sharing with other founders.
However. in this launch, the target market IS founders and entrepreneurs. This is why I count this one as a fail.
You said "Not Talking to Users Beforehand", How can you talk to users beforehand?
Getting feedback from customers while building is quite easy.
E.g. launching a beta program where you "recruit" users to give you feedback while building, in exchange for a lifetime subscription.
Edit: I think I see what you mean. I meant "prospective users" i.e. users that fit my ideal customer model.
I think he meant prospects or potential users.