I just launched Racoons AI on Product Hunt. It flopped: 32 followers, 11 upvotes. But I learned more in 24 hours than I did in the year I spent building in stealth. Here's what I wish I knew going in.
1. LinkedIn won't save you
I posted my launch to my network expecting some traction. Turns out Product Hunt essentially doesn't count upvotes from new accounts. So unless your connections are active PH users, those shares are basically useless. Same goes for texting your friends to upvote.
If you want to be able to utilize your network get them active days before the launch happens.
2. Meet Product Hunt users where they are
The key to ranking is engaging people who actually use the platform. Post in communities where PH users hang out, not just your regular audience.
I saw one guy going around on LinkedIn asking founders that had posted on Product Hunt what worked for them and then sending the link to his launch afterwards.
3. Now is better than later
I spent way too long polishing before launching. The feedback I got post-launch was more valuable than months of building in isolation. Don't over bake your idea. Ship it.
4. Don't reinvent the wheel
Look at top performing launches and structure yours similarly. People format their posts a certain way for a reason.
5. A launch is a step, not the destination
There's this narrative that a successful PH launch is make or break. It's not. Most launches don't win for a million reasons. Learn from it and keep going. And let's be honest, your target audience probably isn't even on Product Hunt anyway.
If you're curious, here's my launch
Anyone else have PH launch stories (wins or fails)? Would love to hear what worked for you.
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