How I Prepared My Show HN Launch — A Solo Dev Checklist

I'm launching on Hacker News tomorrow. Here's everything I did to prepare.

After building DonFlow, a browser-only budget tool, I spent two weeks preparing for Show HN. Not building features — preparing for people.

Here's my checklist. Steal it.

1. Make the Demo Instant

HN users won't sign up. They won't download. They click, look for 10 seconds, and leave.

// ?demo parameter loads sample data instantly
if (url.searchParams.has('demo')) {
  await loadDemoData();
}

2. Write the Docs Nobody Reads (But Everyone Checks)

HN commenters will ask about:

• Privacy policy — "what data do you collect?"
• Data portability — "can I export my data?"
• Architecture — "why not just use a spreadsheet?"

I wrote pages for all of them. Not because people read docs. Because one commenter will check, and their response shapes the entire thread.

Docs I wrote:

3. Prepare Your Maker Comment

The first comment on a Show HN is almost always from the maker. Don't improvise it.

Mine covers:

• Why I built it (personal pain point, tried spreadsheets for 2 years)
• Technical decisions (IndexedDB over cloud, no AI, SheetJS for imports)
• What I want feedback on (specific questions, not "what do you think?")

4. Pre-Write FAQ Answers

I listed every question HN might ask and wrote answers in advance:

Question	Prepared Answer
"Why not just use a spreadsheet?"	Spreadsheets don't auto-detect budget drift
"How do you handle recurring expenses?"	Built-in recurrence engine
"What about mobile?"	PWA, works on any browser
"Is this open source?"	Yes, MIT licensed
"What's the business model?"	None. It's a side project.

Having answers ready means I can respond in under 5 minutes during the golden hour (first 2 hours after posting).

5. Optimize for the HN Click

• Title: Under 80 chars, no exclamation marks, no "Amazing" or "Revolutionary"
• URL: Direct to the app, not a landing page
• OG tags: Clean preview image and description
• GitHub link: In the README, prominently

6. Cross-Link Everything

When HN traffic comes, it should find you everywhere:

• GitHub README → links to live demo + docs
• Dev.to articles → link to app with ?demo
• App → links to GitHub ("View Source" builds trust)

7. The Night Before

My checklist for tonight:

• [ ] Load ?demo URL — does it work?
• [ ] Click every doc link
• [ ] Open on mobile
• [ ] Read the Show HN text one more time
• [ ] Sleep

The preparation is done. Tomorrow is execution.

---

The Tool

Stack: React + TypeScript + IndexedDB (Dexie.js) + SheetJS. MIT licensed.

If you're preparing your own Show HN, I hope this helps. The preparation matters more than the product.

What did I miss? Drop it in the comments.

---

📘 Free Resource

If you are building with a $0 budget, I wrote a playbook about what works, what doesn't, and how to think about the $0 phase.