What s worked for us looks very different from spray-and-pray.
We ve learned that outbound works when it s intentional at every step.
A few things that made the biggest difference for us:
Getting the ICP really right. Sometimes the first outreach isn t to the buyer, but to someone who can open the door. Personalization isn t optional. Company context, role, recent updates. Generic gets ignored fast. Channels are chosen by output, not comfort. We double down on what actually converts. The first message rarely works. Conversations usually start around the third or fourth touch, if there s value each time. Timing matters more than volume. Funding news, hiring, social posts. Showing up when the problem is top of mind changes everything. We focus on relationships, not just pipeline. Some buy later. Some refer. All conversations compound. Context before calls helps. If someone engages multiple times, the conversation feels very different. Signals matter. Engagement often tells you when to reach out, not just who.
We ve literally spent the whole summer working on this. Long nights, countless iterations, and endless feedback loops.
Starting tomorrow, Crono 2.0 will be live for everyone.
We began with a massive problem (source: Gartner): 83% of sales teams today lack the basic capabilities to run outbound sales effectively.
And yet, humans remain essential to the sales process so much so that 40% of AI SDR projects will be shut down by the end of 2026 (again, according to Gartner).
Last week, OpenAI announced a full-year free subscription for Indian users starting November 4. On top of that, they ve rolled out a Learning Accelerator program offering 5 lakh ChatGPT licenses to students and educators, and begun hiring engineers in Bengaluru.
So why the sudden focus?
Here s my take:
India is now OpenAI s 2nd-largest user base, and probably the fastest-growing.
By locking in early brand trust and language familiarity, OpenAI is essentially building a moat for the next billion users.
The country has 700 million + internet users, but very low per-capita SaaS/AI spending. That s a huge conversion opportunity.
Local competition is heating up as Perplexity, Gemini, and even smaller Indian startups are fighting for daily-use adoption.
We got 5 Leads from Product Hunt last week! It didn t happen overnight. We stayed active on forum threads, joined conversations, and showed up for the community. Here s what we did: Stayed consistent on Product Hunt discussions and threads. Divided the pool between those who already launched and those planning to launch. For those who had launched, we asked if they needed the solution we re building at Flexprice. For those preparing to launch, we helped, shared notes, answered questions, and stayed available. That s where the leads came from. We realised one thing; when you show up for the community, it always gives back. How have you benefitted from Product Hunt so far?
Over time, I ve realized how much effort we put into our websites on landing pages, pricing, testimonials, product tours and yet, most visitors only ever deeply interact with one or two sections depending on your ICP.
For developer-first products, that s usually docs.
For consumer apps, maybe it s onboarding or pricing.
For enterprise tools, perhaps case studies or ROI calculators.
I have been a Product Hunt user for 5 years now, and it's been amazing to see how much the platform has evolved.
That said, I sometimes feel the absence of AI-native features. Things like smart filtering of fake profiles during the signup stage, automated link health checks on launch pages, or even an AI-driven support assistant (remember the old chat widget?).
Sometimes I have a problem to have a look at my past milestones or things I have achieved so far. When I think about it, even creating my first product was a success for me. I ve always been a bit shy and afraid to show what I was working on, or I just didn t know how to present it properly, so it took me a really long time.
My first product was an online workout program with a payment gateway, and the monthly price was ridiculously low. But I managed to monetise it and had my first customers. I was probably around 20 at the time.
What was your first product?
What would you do differently to maintain it and make it successful?
I am Koshima, co founder of Flexprice.io, an open-source metering and billing platform for AI & Agentic companies.
In simple words, you can call us Chargebee for AI and Agentic companies. You can launch usage based pricing, credits, and enterprise contracts, so your engineers can focus on building product, not billing.
I ve been here for almost three years, and over time, I ve started to see this platform as a social network.
I know that many people come to launch their products and, due to time constraints, do not have time to establish a strong presence here, but I m glad some regular users focus on building the community.
