What I Learned Relaunching My App on Product Hunt After 3 Years
First of all, I want to thank you for voting for us in yesterday's launch - you still can, the week is not over. 👉 HERE
Second thing, I summarised some things that I realised, reflected on, and maybe should have known sooner:
There is still a large, strong supporting community in the first place.
( @marclou , who is widely known and has 263k followers on X, showed us this yesterday – none of us had a chance)
Asking for help in DMs still works.
Contributing to Reddit didn't help that much.
People in WA groups are supportive; they even respond by saying that they voted.
It would definitely help if we had an external hunter (and not just me)
It would help if we launched on Weekend – not because of the badge, but because of the character/category – productivity solutions are doing better at that time.
What surprised me?
In general, after the launch, at least 7 people contacted me offering to help boost the launch. Prices ranged from $40 to $450 and up. They even got into the private email of the founder, who is quite sensitive about sharing that one.
What pleasantly surprised me was the help from @konrad_sx – thank you so much for your proactive approach.
We ended up 6th on that day, and I hugely appreciate that because the competition was strong and the week was pretty busy.
Thank you so much, guys!
Just out of curiosity:
Do you try your best to position yourself after the launch day as well? (for the launch of the week, month, etc.)
Replies
Congrats on the launch, Nika, and thank you for sharing your insights! What's the main thing you're keeping with you for the next launch / future launches?
minimalist phone: creating folders
@andreitudor14 Hey Andrei, thank you for your kind words. As for me, I would definitely reach out to more people :D Tho I hate outreach :D
My post comes with a caveat! I'm new here. So this is a fresh user's perspective (we plan to launch our app here in a couple of months!). It can be very easy to look at the metrics you want to push (positioning yourself well after the first week, month etc). However, it might be better to think of the audience put them at the centre of your decisions? What would early users like to know about the app?
At first glance, I'd say it'd be interesting to know about your design philosophy, how you made decisions on constraint, hierarchies and how you want the user to feel. This could give you a nice feedback loop where you'd learn more about why people download it, what they think about it, and what they'd improve. As a by-product, we'll see screenshots and an overview of minimalist phone. But, crucially, a by-product.
This post is a great example about giving back to others Launching - and in turn get our support as appreciation for what you've shared. So, I'd say more of this, keep it authentic and give us some bts glimpses. It'll spur on customer love.
minimalist phone: creating folders
@jessiescheepers When is your launch Jessie?
as a new PH user and soon-to-be launcher, what advice would you have for someone with no followers? Should I wait to get more followers before we launch? Thank you for your feedback!
minimalist phone: creating folders
@veronica_buron1 Definitely would advise creating a strong community. But of course, you do not have to wait; you have to prepare to reach out to people a lot.
This is a very honest post, thanks for sharing it. The takeaway that still hits every time: community + direct outreach beats most “growth hacks.” Also interesting (and a bit worrying) how fast paid boost offers show up after launch. Finishing 6th in a crowded week is solid. Curious to see how others here think about post-launch momentum too as launch day feels loud, but the real work usually starts after
minimalist phone: creating folders
@oprincew are you about to launch too?
I am new to product hunt and thinking of launching soon for my app, and when you said "It would definitely help if we had an external hunter (and not just me)" it made me want to also seek a hunter to maximize results. How important would you say an external hunter is on a scale of 1-10 and where do you find them?