We thought of giving up. Product Hunt proved us wrong 🔥
Hey Indiehackers,
Our new side project “What to Meme” ranked #2 on Product Hunt this Friday. We got around 300 upvotes and a lot of positive feedback from the community.
But this was a complete opposite of what we expected from the launch. We actually thought our product and launch will be a disaster.
Why were we so pessimistic?
What To Meme is a free tool that gives memes ideas on startups & indiehacking.
We were so excited when we got this idea and we have a lot of fun building “What to Meme” as one of our side projects month.
But after we took it live, doubts started hitting us. We kept on over thinking whether community will love it or not since “What to Meme” is not AI generated (AI trend caught us to 🤦♂️)
We even thought of shelving the launch and just moving on to building another product.
But having spent close to a week planning & building it, we didn’t want to give up without atleast giving a try.
So we thought of just putting it out on product hunt and get feedback from the maker community. Then we’ll let the community decide whether to keep it alive or let it die.
And then we scheduled the launch for Friday.
2 Hours before the launch
Me and @sathesh95 (co-maker) connected 2 hours before the launch but instead of working on the marketing material we were talking about building other projects. As we had given up almost 90% of hope that the launch will be a success.
Because
- We felt that What To Meme is not a cool product (No AI) and
- Product Hunt was our first platform to validate and we were so worried whether the community loves it or not.
So, we were already prepared to face if the launch fails on Product Hunt.
And then the launch day started
We haven’t got many upvotes in the initial hours as we didn’t do any reach out this time.
But thanks to product hunt’s new algorithm which ranks products randomly for the first 2 hours (irrespective of the upvotes), our launch still got a lot of traction.
Once the launch went live
- We posted on Twitter and Linkedin
- We shared about our launch in Whatsapp communities
- We posted on IndieHackers and Product Hunt discussions
- We started replying to comments and feedback on product hunt
After 2 hours
When Product Hunt started showing the ranks and upvotes, we were a bit surprised to see our product ranking on #2.
At that time, there was only a small gap between our product and the next product ranking on #3, but the slowly the gap widened after an hour or two.
And community loved our product
As the day kept progressing we got more and more comments for What to Meme and PH community loved it.
We got comments like “We relate to your memes”, “ I’m continuously hitting the generate meme button” and many more.
And Some people started sharing “What to Meme” memes on Twitter!
We were so happy after reading those comments and support from community.
Also, we got some valuable suggestions on how we can improve this.
What we learned from this Product Hunt launch
Before the launch, we were this close to giving up on What to Meme and shelving it. But thanks to Product Hunt launch, we got validation for What to Meme and now we want to continue building it.
Not just that, now we’re so confident on What to Meme and its potential.
It’s natural to have doubts on your product, but don’t close it before putting it out. Launch it on Product Hunt or any relevant communities and take a call based on the feedback.
Let them be the judge of your product.
Also, never doubt yourself that your product is useless or people won't like it just because it is not using AI. Your visitors won't care about your tech stack, all they care is whether it's helping them or not.
So what are we doing next
- Add categories to the memes and make What to Meme more accessible
- Add new memes every week
Also, check out What to Meme and share your feedback in the comments.
Congrats on the successful launch! I've been hitting refresh on your site. The memes are dank!
Thanks a lot 🤗
Please share suggestions if you have any
I actually saw that product, commented and upvoted. Congratulations on the launch!
Thanks a lot for your support buddy 🤗
Great to hear and great lessons learned.
Any monetisation plans for this product specifically or is the aim to simply attract users to Launchpedia (I'm guessing that's your main product?)
As of now the plan is to drive traffic to LaunchPedia. No plans of monetizing it.
Thank you for sharing your experience and from what I can see, What to Meme is indeed great. I can understand why and how you got lost in the AI frenzy happening all over.
I like your product too and the things that you are doing next are exactly what I wanted as soon as I used your site. All the best!
Thanks a lot buddy 🤗
Let us know if you have any feedback 😅
Product Hunt is a great platform for new products and launches. I came across What A Meme on PH over the weekend, and loved the idea behind it!
Yeah, Product Hunt is a great platform to validate our ideas and also to discover new products.
Glad that you liked What to Meme 🤗
Nice! Keep Going!
Thanks a lot Serse 🤗
Amazing work, Karthik!
Thanks a lot Sneha 🤗
it all comes together
I second that!!
Seen many times in my life.
I loved the memes that you guys created!
Glad that you liked our memes, let us know if you have any feedback
Glad to hear you finally got the traction🙌
Congrats guys🥳
Thanks a lot Rutvik 🤗
Yah Product Hunt is amazing. I launched depto.me on it and it's doing well
Awesome, congratulations buddy
Hey, great to hear that! One thing I'll remember from this post: Never say it's over and always believe :) Congrats and best of luck
Yeah, want give up, give your last shot and then decide.
Thanks a lot David 🤗
This is brilliant -- your story and your product. Thanks for sharing.
I always say: let the market (users) decide; you'll always be surprised. If you aren't surprised, then you're either not listening hard enough or asking the wrong questions. I'm glad to see you got some surprise validation.
RIghtly so, I might add. I love the product -- it delivers delight in a single click. The first 3 memes were spot on for my current founder journey. I'll keep on trucking though, and see what the market decides :)
Good luck!
What you said is absolutely right 💯
Glad that you liked what to meme, let us know if you had any feedback 🤗
Hey Kartik, congratulations on the launch. It is a very nice idea. But I have found a security issue on the website which I have dm you on Twitter.
Okay Ram, will check it ou
At first glance I thought it's another meme product. But then realized it's a meme generator for indie hackers. It's super fun!
Glad that you liked it 😍
Thanks a lot
It doesn't need AI to be a cool product. Because it IS a cool product. 👌
Your words mean a lot 🥹
Thanks a lot Frank
Super cool product, I can see why you got great response!
Thanks a lot buddy 🤗
Never give up!
That's the way 🚀
Congratulations on the success of your Product Hunt launch for "What to Meme"! It's great to see that the community loved your product and that you received valuable feedback and suggestions for improvement.
Your experience highlights the importance of launching and getting feedback from the community, even if you have doubts about your product. It's essential to put your product out there and let your potential users decide whether it's useful or not.
Your decision to launch on Product Hunt and engage with the community through various channels like Twitter, LinkedIn, and IndieHackers was a smart move. It allowed you to reach a broader audience and get valuable feedback.
Adding new memes every week and adding categories to the memes can help make "What to Meme" more accessible and engaging for your users.
Keep up the good work and continue to iterate and improve your product based on user feedback!
Thanks a lot Joel 🤗
Let us know if you have any feedback
It sounds like you were feeling discouraged about your product or project, but then you had success on Product Hunt that gave you a boost of motivation and confidence. Congratulations on the success of your product on Product Hunt! It's always great to have external validation and encouragement when working on a project. Keep up the good work and continue to push through any obstacles or challenges that may come your way. Remember, success often comes after many failures and setbacks, so don't give up on your goals and dreams.
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Yeah, success comes after many failures, successful ones are the ones who won't give up easily.
Glad it worked out! Product Hunt is always daunting (we just launched ours today: Boring Report). Congrats on the great product.
Oh, no probs!!
Try launching on other platforms like Reddit, Betalist and Indiehackers.
Also, add some new features and relaunch on Product Hunt.
All the best
wow, congrats, i just the whattomeme and it is soo cool
Thanks a lot 🤗
Please share your feedback and how we can improve it
Congrats! And What To Meme is a fun product!
Thanks a lot 🤗
I’m glad you didn’t give up👏🏾
Yeah, give one last shot before giving up makes all the difference.
Just checked out What To Meme, and love it. Good to hear about you getting positive response on PH.
Thanks a lot buddy 🤗
Let me know if you have any feedback
This inspiring story of triumph on Product Hunt! Actually is a must-read for anyone looking to turn their startup dreams into reality. Thanks.
Thanks a lot Keth 🤗
Glad to know that our story will inspire others 🥹
Congrats on your successful launch! Did you decide to schedule your launch on Friday for any particular reason? I'm trying to figure out the best day to launch on ProductHunt myself.
We built What to Meme on Wednesday and Thursday, and we want to launch the next day itself without any delay. So, we launched on Friday itself.
Regarding best days on PH,
weekends are best for getting badge,
Weekdays are best for traffic
Just tried the product, it's really fun! also congrats on being ranked 2nd :)
Product Hunt is definitely a great platform, we also got a lot of traffic for our saas, ruttl from there and recently also won the golden kitty award in the bootstrapped and crowdfunded category.
Thanks a lot Harsh, let us know if you habe any feedback 🤗
Congratulations for the golden kitty award 🏆
You're right; we need to test things before abandoning them. I remember once I had the idea of creating a website that generates business names, taglines, and similar ideas.
I completed some initial work for this, but then I noticed that Shopify and a few other popular sites were ranking high, so I left the work unfinished. The basic code was working fine and showing results as expected.
The only task remaining was to create a one-page site and implement the logic so I could validate the idea with users. Suddenly, I abandoned it, thinking this tiny product wouldn't be enough. Now, when I use similar websites daily, I remember that if I had my own site, I would use it instead.
Why didn't I build it? Because I didn't have time to manage more products, as I was working on a significant project at the time, Churnfree. Churnfree is a B2B customer retention tool that helps businesses retain their customers and grow their revenue.
I plan to revisit my old idea and combine it with new ones because now I have better ideas from working on the marketing side.
Oh, okay. Good that you want build it again and launch it. All the best James 🎉
Thanks for sharing your experience, I did support What to Meme!
Thanks a lot for your support man 🤗
I'm glad to hear you've finally been able to get some traction with your campaign
Good job guys, congrats!
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ok
congrats for the launch !
Which Whatsapp communities are you referring ?
The product is really good, congrats, looking forward for more contentful memes.
Sure Ravi, we are planning to add memes once every week
Congrats on your successful launch. It is a fun product
Thanks a lot Ferba 🤗
Upvoted the product on the launch day! It's super easy and fun. No wonder it ranked in top 3!
Thanks a lot Sruti for your support 🤗
The creators of "What to Meme" were initially pessimistic about their product and launch, but after receiving positive feedback and ranking #2 on Product Hunt, they gained confidence in their project and learned the importance of launching and receiving feedback from the community. They plan to continue building "What to Meme" and improve it by adding categories and new memes.
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