Shalini Umrao

I posted a random thread on X about the cost of living in the Netherlands. Nothing about what we're building. Just genuine thoughts about life in the Netherlands.

It hit 1M+ impressions. And here's the weird part we got a ton of signups and paid users for Starnus from it. Without ever mentioning the product.

Meanwhile, my "here's what Starnus does" posts? Way less engagement.

This genuinely messed with my head. I'm sharing the actual X post below

I recently saw a marketer with 10k+ followers launch and finish 6th with 348 upvotes. They followed a proper pre-launch and post-launch plan, did everything right, and still the outcome felt unpredictable.

Now I m launching @Curatora next week.

I m not a marketer. I have a little over 1k followers. Of course, asking for support helps. But I also keep hearing that a large part of the Product Hunt community shows up mainly for their own launch, then goes quiet until the next one.

That makes me wonder: how much of success here is strategy, and how much is timing and network effect?

Hey everyone! I'm Gianmarco, a software engineer based in Italy. After years of planning trips for friends and family (and being the unofficial "travel agent" of my group), I decided to build something that could do it better than me or at least faster.

I'm working on Aitinery (aitinery.com), an AI-powered travel planner that specializes in Italy. The idea is simple: instead of spending hours on Google Maps, blogs, and TripAdvisor trying to piece together an itinerary, you tell our AI what kind of trip you want and it builds a complete day-by-day plan with real places, accurate travel times, local restaurants, and hidden gems.