Launching on Product Hunt without preparation. Yes or No?

Ghost Kitty
99 replies
I think you can launch without preparation if + You have a big audience + It's a side product/project + It's not your first launch (so you know how PH works) For everything else, you need good preparation. What do you think?

Replies

Tapan Patel
A big no to launch without preparations, especially when it is the first time.
Ivan Dudin
Bad idea. We one time launched a product so randomly, we collected as many as 28 upvotes!
@myprlab that’s better that 27 :) but props to you for launching. Did you relaunch?
Ghost Kitty
The LinkedIn Inbound Playbook
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Brenna Donoghue
Here's what I kind of like about a launch with little prep - then it truly is about the idea and the product, and not about the networking. Don't get me wrong, I love engaging with this community, but I also don't love the pre-launch flutter of discussions for the sake of network-building. Which might bite me in the ass because we launch next week and I haven't done that in the way that I have in the past.
Zed Tarar
@brenna_donoghue agree--if pre-launch prep is bad-faith community engagement hoping for more upvotes.
Brenna Donoghue
@zed_tarar That's it. I love the community engagement when it's genuine community engagement. But I know it's a hard balanace to strike.
Ariel
@brenna_donoghue You product has so many followers! Can you share with us how to do it?
Steve Liu
Portrait Art
Portrait Art
@zed_tarar @brenna_donoghue From the number of followers your pre-launch has, it seems that you are doing very impressive work!
Brenna Donoghue
@stevels and @gingerkidney I think this is the accumulation from having launched twice before and just being active on Product Hunt for a long time. We have found sound great feedback and engagment from this community, so it's where we spend time. I sometimes wonder how much of a game changers followers are... obviously it is a help since those people are notified of a launch. But I also get the sense (and happy to be challenged on this!) that PH has a lot of churn in active users between launches, so it'll be interesting to see how much additional exposure this brings in.
Maksym Astakhov
The first launch should be prepared as much as you can. But later, when you try it on yourself, gather the community, you can spend less time. I think that 24 hours makes it very hard to go viral for the product and stay Product of the Day without any preparation But as more launch experience you have the less time you can spend.
Sia
More or less what I will do, reaching out to a few friends and advisors (probably you among those). I just think releasing quick is the fastest way to learn. Kind of a "Do lots of mistakes fast" approach, if that makes sense?
Anthony Latona
350+ E-Commerce Tools Database
I don't think it's worth the time to launch without preparing. Sure, you can list your product but without knowing the platform and optimizing, it's very unlikely to be successful. If you have a huge following, there's a chance you can get enough votes to make it work but in my opinion, it's better to fully prepare and go all in instead.
Ruuusch
i going to launch the first time next week, without a big audience and with a small sideproject. The main goal is to learn a lot!
Relja Denic
You always need some kind of preparation. So always yes :D
Ghost Kitty
The LinkedIn Inbound Playbook
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Hitesh Joshi
side projects, absolutely. But still a little bit of preparation won't hurt ;)
Imran Razak
I don’t think it’s ever a good idea to launch without preparation. That being said some things like having a large audience and figuring out the platform you want to launch on and what things matter on it. I don’t think you need a large audience to launch, I think you need to workout the fundamentals to launch. Get those right.
Iya Mendoza
Based on my journey with Logomakerr.ai, I'd recommend caution when launching on Product Hunt without any preparation. While there are exceptions like what you have mentioned, solid preparation usually leads to a more successful launch.
Rohan Chaubey
Product Hunt allows multiple launches hence I would recommend one can launch with minimal preparations too. :)
Rohan Chaubey
@konrad_sx yes :) each progressive launch gets better. And even sincerely distributing the launch for a day should help make it to Top 5 😊
Erick Philbert
I think preparation is a must...
Lisa Steingold
Interesting. I'd say if you're not too obsessed about the results you can launch without preparation
K John
yes i am always prepare for launch
Tornike Tsiramua
No, I guess you need to build a community, stay engaging and that will be translated to better chance to achieve success
@tornike_tsiramua1 community is key. And it take a genuine effort to build it!
Arz
No way!
Daxeel Soni
I completely agree with you. Launching without adequate preparation may work for established brands with a huge following, however, for startups and new brands, proper planning and strategy is key. Knowledge about the platform, thorough research about the audience's interest and well-crafted messaging can significantly improve the success rate. So, plan and prepare even if it takes time.