Reverse-engineering Cursor's recent Product Hunt launches
Last month, Cursor launched for the fifth time on Product Hunt in 2025.
The 2024 Product of the Year [1] still hits the charts. They have launched web and mobile agents, a visual editor, and 2.0, consistently ranking in the Top 5 Products of the Day.
I had a look at their recent launches. Here's what I found.
The Cursor way to launch
Straightforward tagline. The 60-character tagline might be the most important part of a launch. [2] It's the first thing you see on the front page. What makes Cursor stand out? They highlight the features, not the benefits.
Minimalist visual assets. The image gallery is the first impression of your product. It sets expectations. Cursor's recent launches highlighted 2 to 4 images. No stock images, no marketing fluff, just product screenshots. They show the product.
Found a Hunter. @benln was the hunter of their latest launches - an established user with 50K+ followers, among the 2022 Community Members of the Year (runner-up). [3] It might help increase their reach.
Feedback first. Like the tagline and visual assets, the first comment is the simplest. No looooooong background stories, they're just genuinely curious about what the community thinks of the release.
Riding the tailwinds. Last but not least, the launch timing. They first announced the product updates on X, gained momentum, and then launched on Product Hunt the next day, riding the tailwinds.
Final thoughts
For context, @Cursor has 20K+ followers on Product Hunt. It certainly helps get more exposure. However, IMHO it's only part of the formula. Straightforward tagline, minimalist image gallery, simple comments... It all resonates with developers, their target audience. To quote @leerob on what great developer marketing looks like: [4]
Great marketing values your time; every word matters. Show them how to build interesting things; don’t fill a post with 1,000 words of garbage.
Developers are resistant to anything that looks, sounds, or smells like marketing. Cursor keeps it simple, and it works.
How to apply this to your launch
Keep the tagline relatable to your audience
Show the product in your image gallery
Find a Hunter — may this thread help
Engage with the community thoughtfully
The right time to launch could be now
Over to you! What are your key learnings from your previous launches? What worked, what didn't work?
References
[4]: On developer marketing by Lee Robinson (2024)
Replies
This is such a solid breakdown! That @leerob quote hits hard—"don't fill a post with 1,000 words of garbage" is basically the whole philosophy in one sentence.
The feature-forward tagline thing is interesting because it goes against literally everything we're taught about product marketing. But you're totally right—devs don't want to be sold to. They just want to know what it does.
Genuine question though: Do you think this works outside the dev tools space? Like I'm trying to imagine a design tool or some B2B SaaS doing the ultra-minimalist thing and I'm not sure it would land the same way. Have you seen anyone pull this off in other categories?
The X → PH timing strategy is smart. Most people seem to do it backwards and then wonder why there's no momentum.
One thing I've noticed from watching launches—the hunter probably matters way less than we think when you're already established like Cursor. But for smaller products trying to break through? Yeah, finding the right person to hunt you is huge.
Btw, have you looked at whether their "what do you think?" first comment actually gets better engagement than the typical founder story wall of text? Would be curious to see if there's a pattern there.
What made you dig into Cursor specifically? Just studying what works or planning your own launch?
Humans in the Loop
not 100% sure tbh. been in this space for 5 years, working for dev-first companies like Clerk and Mintlify, and marketing to developers definitely is different. you can put down your playbook, traditional b2b marketing techniques do not work
@fmerian Yeah that makes total sense. Five years is long enough to know what actually lands vs what just sounds good in theory.
I feel like the feature-first thing could work for other categories but you'd need that same kind of built-in BS detector in your audience. Like maybe privacy tools? Or anything where the users are just exhausted from being marketed at.
But you're probably right that most B2B spaces still need some hand-holding around the "why should I care" part before they even look at the what.
What's the biggest difference you've noticed between marketing to devs at Clerk vs Mintlify? I'm assuming the audiences overlap a ton but curious if there were any weird surprises in what resonated differently.
Also kinda jealous you got to work at companies that actually get the developer audience. So many places are still out here trying to do enterprise sales tactics on engineers and wondering why nobody's buying lol
Community Figma MCP server
Or it is just a great product and great company... And a proper place for them: a website for dreamers who make their own products. And the tool that is exact for them!
Humans in the Loop
definitely both! and yes, @Product Hunt is a great place for developer tools
Lightfern for Email
Super interesting in how this is coordinated. I wonder if they feature highlight simply because people already know Cursor and what it does. If I didn't know about cursor before, "our first coding model and new interface for agents" doesn't really tell me much about the product. But totally agree re relatability -- it's clear they understand their audience is already familiar with their product.
I did a few launches at Facebook and it was always a massive coordination effort. Lining up all the comms, external press releases, product switches and flags, to make sure the day goes as smoothly as possible. For a launch you probably want to plan everything 3~4 weeks out. Things like a launch video can take a lot of time and require advance planning to execute well. It's also important to drum up momentum before a launch. People look for social proof and most people don't want to feel like they're using an unknown, untested product.
Humans in the Loop
@dougli 100%. We had this exact debate when launching @Ultracite v7: Shall we highlight the latest features or the USP? We opted for the latter, to help raise awareness.
Great breakdown @fmerian 👏
I especially agree with the point about "features over benefits" for a dev audience. But that doesn't mean it's any easier to design.
As stated at the end of your post, @Cursor already has a very large fan base, which makes the example a little biased, in my opinion. Do you know a recent launch of a devtool that worked really well, but whose brand was relatively unknown? It's tough to find...
Humans in the Loop
@sachamorard that's right! fwiw you can find more examples from @Aikido Security, @Kilo Code, and @Ultracite here:
A look at Aikido's first launch on Product Hunt
How Kilo Code launched
Launched Ultracite on Product Hunt twice. Here's what I learned.
hope it inspires!
More great info! Always delivering @fmerian Thank you!
Humans in the Loop
@fmerian I'm really deep diving into the assets as an example. You always provide really concrete analysis and hit things I would have missed!
@fmerian (also, I see what you did there!) ;-) #learnfromthebest
Definitely seen some product taglines that don't tell me what the product does at all! Clear & concise over marketing fluff any day please. I think we're all tired of seeing those long obviously ChatGPT generated posts and marketing copy
Humans in the Loop
@tiasabs spot on!