Flo Merian
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Flo Merian

Launching on Product Hunt

Published on: 2024-05-04. Last updated on: 2024-11-20

I've launched 42 dev tools on Product Hunt in the last 2 years — or maybe 55? To be honest, I've lost count.

I could bore you with the details of how Specify launched or that Product Hunt awarded me Community Member of the Year in 2022 (runner-up).

No. What you probably care about is what my key takeaways are.

So, here we go — what I learned from 42 (or 55) dev-first product launches on Product Hunt.

Why Product Hunt

Product Hunt definitely is a great place to launch — a place where many developer-first products launched successfully: Supabase, Resend, and Warp, to name a few.

According to similarweb.com, Product Hunt gets 4.8 million unique visitors every month, and according to Ahrefs, it has a 91 domain rating.

Product Hunt helps raise awareness, get feedback, and enable early traction.

Rishabh Kaul, Head of Marketing at Appsmith, who launched in March 2023 and ranked #5 Product of the Day, adds:

One of the often overlooked parts of Product Hunt is the reviews that you get during launch. They are customer testimonials for your marketing site.

— Rishabh Kaul, Head of Marketing, Appsmith

The question isn't if you should launch on Product Hunt. It's how. — repost this

Launching a dev tool on Product Hunt? Keep it simple

To start, some definitions:

  • Maker: a user who works on the product;

  • Hunter: a user who submits a product and doesn't work on it;

  • Upvoter: a user who upvotes a product;

  • Commenter: a user who comments on a product;

  • Launch page: where your launched product lives;

  • Kitty coins: Novice (Level 0-100), Bronze (Level 101-500), Silver (Level 501-1,000), Gold (Level 1,001+);

  • Ranking: Product of the Day / Week / Month / Year (i.e. Golden Kitty Award).

Let's be upfront. Over the years, I've contributed to launching many dev-first products and, is there a secret sauce? No.

When Specify launched, we planned weeks ahead and launched on a weekday — we thought it would maximize exposure. We ranked #2 Product of the Day, #9 Product of the Week. We hit 2.5K unique visitors.

When Documenso launched, it was the opposite. We had no plan and launched during the weekend. We ranked #1 Product of the Day and #9 Product of the Week. We hit 2.5K unique visitors, too.

Two different launches; same results.

Take Peer Richelsen. Peer is the co-founder and co-CEO of Cal.com. He launched 6 times on Product Hunt and got 10 awards. He puts it very simply:

Have a good product.

— Peer Richelsen, Co-founder and CEO, Cal.com

You don't need to overthink to launch on Product Hunt successfully. Keep it simple.

Despite what you can read here and there, there certainly isn't a formula to launch on Product Hunt. Still, there's a set of principles to help maximize your chances with your launch:

  1. Polish your content and visual assets;

  2. Engage with the community;

  3. On launch day, launch at 12:01 AM PST and spread the word;

Setting up the launchpad

Polishing the details

To start, below are the required inputs to submit a new product on Product Hunt. You can find them here on GitHub to get started.

  • Name of the product: simply the name of your product in 40 characters or less;

  • Tagline: a concise and descriptive tagline in 60 characters max; avoid hyperbolic words and emojis — keep it simple;

  • Product description: a short description of what the product does in less than 260 characters; supports basic HTML: <strong>, <em>, <a>, <li>;

  • Launch tags: up to 3 tags — see the full list here;

  • First comment: tells the story, explains why you’re building the product, and invites people to join the conversation; supports basic HTML, too;

  • Thumbnail: a 240 x 240 pixel thumbnail;

  • Image gallery: 2 to 8 images to show your product; avoid stock images and marketing fluff; show the product, i.e. product screenshots. You can add social proof and a call-to-action to inspire action; the first image is used as the social preview when you share the link to your launch page.

For inspiration, below are some images from great dev-first product launches:

Appwrite shows the product.
Lago highlighted testimonials and GitHub stars.
Supabase added a call-to-action to inspire action.

Tanya Rai and her team launched LastMile AI in October 2023 and ranked #2 Product of the Day and #4 Product of the Week. In this blog post, Tanya shared some lessons learned, and I really enjoyed this quote on polishing the details:

We spent some time nailing the messaging in a way that was palatable to the Product Hunt community. It's good to tailor your messaging and media assets to the community — it will resonate more.

— Tanya Rai, Product Manager, LastMile AI

Now that you've polished the details and tailored the messaging and visual assets in a simple and straightforward way, it's time to schedule the launch and submit the product. I recommend finding a Hunter.

Finding a Hunter

Do you need someone specific to submit your (dev-first) product on Product Hunt? By default, the answer is no. According to Product Hunt, using a Hunter isn't a barrier to success:

  • 79% of featured posts were by makers who self-hunted;

  • 60% of #1 Product of the Day winners were self-hunted.

If finding a Hunter isn't a requirement per se, you may need one for three main reasons:

  1. a Hunter reviews your inputs, gives feedback, and suggests improvements;

  2. on launch day, a Hunter can support by upvoting and replying to comments;

  3. a Hunter can leverage networks by promoting your launch on socials;

When done right, a Hunter is a catalyst for your launch. — repost this

Take n8n, an open-source Zapier alternative. When the team launched its 1.0 in June 2023 (ranked #1 Product of the Day and #2 Product of the Week), it partnered with Chris Messina, and Luis Guzmán, Head of Marketing, puts it very eloquently:

A recognized Hunter makes a difference. We partnered with Chris Messina to be our Hunter, and it helped a lot — even when Product Hunt says it doesn't.

— Luis Guzmán, Head of Marketing, n8n

Olga Bedrina from JetBrains, who launched TeamCity Pipelines in March 2024 and ranked #3 Product of the Day, shares the feeling:

We contacted Chris to best position ourselves on Product Hunt and how to adjust our visuals so that they're really striking the chord. It was really helpful.

— Olga Bedrina, Technical Marketing Writer, JetBrains

Here's another example. When we launched Specify, we collaborated with Hiten Shah. We chose to partner with Hiten because he has an influence on Product Hunt and beyond. Above all, it was a fantastic feeling for the team, e.g. an extra source of motivation before the launch.

More personally, when I collaborate with teams to help them launch, like Corbado (launched in January 2024, ranked #4 Product of the Day), I'm committed to challenging every aspect of the launch plan and supporting teams on launch days by leveraging my network.

We can recommend Flo to every developer tool that is planning to launch on Product Hunt.

— Vincent Delitz, CEO, Corbado

If anyone can submit a product on Product Hunt anytime, a Hunter certainly helps with the launch.

Warming up

In this blog post, Product Hunt's founder, Ryan Hoover, wrote:

Building a startup? Build an audience, first.

— Ryan Hoover, Founder, Product Hunt

This could apply to product launches, too: if you're launching on Product Hunt, build an audience first. — repost this

You can schedule your launch up to 30 days ahead. Below are some ideas to get started:

  • Create a Coming Soon page;

  • Add your upcoming launch on hunted.space;

  • Schedule as much content as possible: social posts, website banner, email campaigns;

  • Host an AMA session — see examples from Documenso here and Supabase there;

  • Support other product launches.

Also, make sure to tease your network and community early.

We let our network and product community know that we had planned to launch on Product Hunt. It was super valuable for us to have support from our existing users and network and they came through for us.

— Tanya Rai, Product Manager, LastMile AI

In this file, I suggest some ideas to leverage your community:

  • List some key elements to play and mix;

  • Include links to posts and comments for inspiration.

Let's recap.

So far, you have:

  • polished the details: messaging and visual assets;

  • found a Hunter;

  • scheduled your launch;

  • scheduled as much content as possible;

  • started raising awareness, reaching out to your influencers, and engaging on Product Hunt;

You're ready to go live.

On launch day

Here's the day. Launching on Product Hunt is a 24-hour race — and it starts at 12:01 AM PST.

For the first 4 hours of the day, Product Hunt hides upvotes and sorts the homepage randomly. According to Product Hunt, this should give products "a more distributed chance at exposure early." Your objective is to rank in the Top 5 within that time to maximize exposure.

When Product Hunt unhid upvotes, we were already in the Top 5. This helped us be more visible on the front page.

— Olga Bedrina, Technical Marketing Writer, JetBrains

Pro tip: use hunted.space to monitor your launch day in real-time.

https://hunted.space/dashboard/{yourProduct}

During the day, upvote and reply to every comment. Make this day an opportunity to engage: start conversations and ask for feedback.

Laura Du Ry and the Appwrite team launched its Cloud Beta in October 2023 and ranked #4 Product of the Day. Laura tells:

The team was quick with responding and engaging. We cleared a part of the teams' calendar to be able to engage.

— Laura Du Ry, Growth Manager, Appwrite

Tanya Rai from LastMile AI shares the feeling:

On launch day, we had the whole team on board to respond to messages almost instantly. This was a round-the-clock effort by the team to show that we were actively engaged and interested in what feedback we were receiving from the Product Hunt community. We left no questions or comments unanswered.

— Tanya Rai, Product Manager, LastMile AI

Make this launch day an opportunity to celebrate your efforts with your team and community. Make the most out of it by engaging in conversations and brainstorming new ideas, and above all, enjoy it. — repost this

Two more things

Maximize efforts

With the assets you've worked on for your Product Hunt launch, you can maximize efforts by launching on more places, like Hacker News and Dev Hunt, an open-source alternative for dev-first products.

Launch early, launch often

Launching on Product Hunt isn't a one-time opportunity. Launch early, launch often.

You can pre-launch your product.

When submitting a new product on Product Hunt, you can mark it as pre-launch.

You can launch multiple times.

Take Stripe. The company launched 68 times on Product Hunt in the last 10 years. Supabase launched 12 times in the last 4 years. Raycast has launched 11 products since 2020. — repost this

Launching multiple times creates a tailwind.

Luis Guzmán, Head of Marketing at n8n (launched 5 times since 2019), sums it up perfectly:

Every follower we collected from past launches receives a notification about recent launches. This helps get more exposure.

— Luis Guzmán, Head of Marketing, n8n

So, keep launching.

Further inspiration

Below are more stories for inspiration:

You can find here more resources to help you get started:

Wrapping up

That's a wrap!

Product Hunt definitely is a great place to launch a developer-first product. If there certainly isn't a formula to launch successfully, there may be a set of principles to help maximize your chances:

  • Polish the details: keep the tagline and description simple and straightforward;

  • Show the product: no stock images, no marketing fluff;

  • Find a Hunter;

  • Schedule your launch early;

  • Schedule as much content as possible: first comment and social posts;

  • Raise awareness: build an audience, support other product launches;

  • Go live at 12:01 AM PST on a weekday for maximum exposure;

  • Rank in the Top 5 within the first 4 hours;

  • Engage: upvote and reply to every comment;

  • Launch early, launch often.

Over to you! I hope this post gave you some insights to prep your launch on Product Hunt. I enjoy contributing to launching dev tools and am happy to help more folks.

If you're launching something new, feel free to reach out on Twitter / 𝕏 or LinkedIn.

Enjoy your launch day!

Thanks to Laura Du Ry (Appwrite), Olga Bedrina (JetBrains), Tanya Rai (LastMile AI), Luis Guzmán (n8n), and Rishabh Kaul (Appsmith) for your contributions. Thanks to Jack Bridger for bs-checking this post. They're all in the Developer Marketing Community, a place where 2,000+ tech founders and marketers from awesome dev-first, open-source companies hang out to share insights and best practices. Join the fun!

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