We had the worst launch in Product Hunt history - but we went #4. Here's what happened.
Honestly launched this past Monday and we ended up Top 4 with 350+ upvotes and 40+ comments. It doesn’t feel real, because:
1. The support we received from hundreds of strangers across the internet was incredible, and we are beyond grateful for it.
2. We didn’t plan this launch. At all.
We’ve been so deep in building the product that we kept pushing our launch back again and again and again. All of a sudden, on Monday we woke up to dozens of “Congrats on the launch!” messages. In our pre-coffee, foggy brained states we were really confused as to why. But then it hit us: we forgot to change our launch date.
To make matters worse, we didn’t have any of the essentials: No hunter, no maker comment, no demo video (added in midday). There was just a placeholder of v0 materials we already iterated upon internally countless times. Our logo was even outdated, and the link to our product and website was nowhere to be found in the comments. Not one upvote or comment came from anyone we knew within the first hours of launching.
Because our day wasn’t crazy enough, the website broke, so most businesses couldn’t fill out our interest form properly, and our consumer facing Chrome extension encountered a huge bug where users couldn’t use our product after installing it.
A situation like this usually means guaranteed failure, yet to our surprise, we climbed to a Top 5 position on the leaderboard and were swarmed with PH notifications all day. Even outside of Product Hunt we were being battered with notifications.
We’re extremely thankful for the outcome, especially considering the circumstances. This is not a scenario that happens often, but it proved something vital to us:
Even with a shell of a launch, we’re making something people want.
We always believed finding real, trustworthy reviews online mattered. But this experience made it clear it’s not just important, it’s necessary. As AI-generated content continues to blur the line between real and fake, the need for verified, authentic opinions is clear. That’s the mission we’re pursuing with Honestly.
Now What? Top 5 Product of the Week🏆
Now, we aim to build off this accidental momentum by getting into the Top 5 for Product of the Week. We know it’s a very daunting task, but we try to reach for the stars like the many great PH Makers before us. Every upvote, comment, and review helps us get there. If you’ve tried Honestly, glanced at our website, or just thought we had a wild launch story, we’d love your feedback on our Product Hunt page :)
Oh and if you hit bugs, have ideas, want to connect, or just feel the need to tell us we’re crazy for forgetting our launch date, please don’t hesitate to reach out at scott@usehonestly.com.
For those who want to try the Chrome extension or see what the internet thinks about your business, check us out here: usehonestly.com
Replies
Curious how much of that early traction translated into actual usage, considering the bugs and broken flows.
It’s a strong signal either way, but the difference between people checking it out vs actually using it would say a lot about the demand.
Honestly
@arun_tamangWe managed to fix the broken workflows pretty early! We saw 30 brands sign up for a demo which was shocking bc our product hunt launch was consumer facing.
Consumer side the conversion from website to chrome extension was horrible because the website was made for brands basically. In retrospect we should have sent them to the chrome extension page or a separate landing page dedicated to the consumer product. We will have to wait and see what cohort retention looks like! Will probably make a post on it in the following weeks.
@honestly That 30 brand signups number is a strong signal, especially since you weren't optimizing for them at all. The consumer conversion problem makes sense in hindsight. When the landing page is built around one audience, it filters out everyone else before they even reach the product. Sending consumer users to a brand-focused page broke the funnel at step one.
The cohort retention data is going to tell the whole story. How did those 30 brands actually find you? Was it organic PH traffic or did they come from somewhere else?
This is probably the strongest kind of validation you can get, people were interested even when half the launch was broken.
Honestly
@oliver_nathan2 We were very annoyed and mad at first but one of the things we got out of it was knowing we're solving a real problem which is nice!
Honestly, a messy launch that still performs says way more than a polished on that only works because everything was staged perfectly.
Honestly
@paige_lauren1 That's actually a great point! Although it would have been great to get the top product of the day haha
The fact that people kept engaging through bugs, outdated assets, and missing links is a very loud signal that the core idea is landing.
Honestly
@reid_anderson3 Agreed! You bring up a great point that reminds me of the "Launch before you're ready" mantra in YC to find demand as early as possible. We are grateful that's the way things turned out for this launch.
Weirdly, this kind of chaos can be useful because it strips away the launch theatre and shows whether people actually care.
Honestly
@trevor_nicholas1 So true! I'm still convinced we could have done a little better at converting people once they click on our website but hey... we got a second launch for that :)
Also shows how often founders overestimate launch polish and underestimate how far real curiosity can carry a product.
Honestly
@hailey_brianna1 Very true. Perfectionism is often a threat to progress as a business, and this launch was an extreme case of why that haha.
If anything this sounds less like "worst launch in PH history" and more like "strong product signal with terrible timing and logistics"
Honestly
@ian_maxwell1 Haha, yeah that's very true!
Scade.pro
This is an amazing story. I knew guys who, on the contrary, were so eager to launch that they fought until the very end and were only included in the race at the end of the day. But despite this, they took the top spot. If the product is good, it will get a hundredth place on the podium.
Congratulations, you showed an excellent result.