Not looking for the usual "DM people on LinkedIn" or "personalized cold emails"

I want the weird stuff you tried that had insane results.

I'll start: We sent 50 pizzas with custom packaging to super specific people in our target persona.

Result: 95% called us back and hopped on a call.

Every AI product lands on credits eventually. The underlying cost is real and variable and you can't absorb it forever, so you pass it through. Fine.

The problem is that credits break the moment the user has to guess. Nobody knows what 500 credits buys them. Everybody knows what $19 buys them.

Honestly, I thought the hard part was building the product.

It wasn't.

I launched GST Maker a free GST invoice generator for Indian freelancers about a month ago. Here's what actually went wrong after launch, because nobody really talks about this part.

1. I focused too much on the product, not enough on distribution

Hey Product Hunt community!

Quick question that's been on my mind: When your free trial ends, which companies have handled the transition gracefully?

Builders, for those of you who have launched on Producthunt or actively engage in comment sections; What is the ROI here? As a new user and builder myself, how do you get the most value out of this platform?

For those who've launched: How many people are actually following through with feedback, beta testing, or staying in contact long term? Are those 10-20% of people worth it?
For those active in threads: How do you get value? How often does the scratch my back and I'll scratch yours exchange actually take place/help? Are you just here to scroll?
If you come here looking for an answer, how much time do you spend looking for it before you go to the next platform? Is reddit the alternative?
If you have any good strategies, let me know!! Would love to learn more.

For us this is a dilemma of letting the users to use our tools and generate content in our time travel platform or use it internally and building and delivering the high quality content.
user can have the ownership and engagement in the UGC style but the QA and content control could be nightmare, but with high quality company generate curated content the quality and engagement is secured for users but we may give that ownership feeling away.
which one you choose and how you think anyone can handle this situation?