AMA - how to craft a launch strategy that will break Product Hunt

@dan_difr some additional context about what you're building would be great! For now I can share about our planning.

I'd prepare for about Month and plan out what products would go viral on the day. A day or two days before launch things that people will find useful or funny or something cool. Then once it kinda hits its peak, then translate that to Product Hunt. The important thing is showing what's unique about your product and how people can use it. Almost like dogfooding your own product.

@dan_difr 

Q: prepping the launch? (if you have a product that can build other products)

F: Start 1 month before. Think about launches using your product that could be valuable. Time those launches before the PH Launch. When it reaches its peak, launch main product on Product Hunt.

Make sure people understand how your launches use your core product.

Q: prepping the launch if you have a singleplayer productivity app - e.g. if I were to launch Todoist
F: Give people templates for things you have domain expertise in that might be useful to lots of people. E.g. todoist list for how to do a product hunt launch...try to have that go viral.

@filip_kozera I'm building tool that helps users manage & analyze their job search & tailor their resumes to each opening (difr.me) I'm not sure if is bad form to list the url, so I will remove if it is frowned upon)

I guess I'm asking a more basic set of questions: did you do most of your promotion here on product hunt, or did you need to invest lots of time and energy into building a community of supporters before using product hunt? If that was an important part of yoru strategy, I am curious what you have learned from that.

@rajiv_ayyangar interesting ideas about going meta with your product to promote it. I'm not sure this would applicable in my case, but it is something I am curious about and will be considering. thanks so much for taking the time to respond!

@gabe @filip_kozera 

Q: Tell us about that viral moment?

Filip: our anthropic bill went insane until we put a paywall up. We barely slept. Some of our providers went down...then Japan discovered this (we localized it) - went viral in Japan and other markets!

@gabe @filip_kozera 

R: How many of the 10m visitors used wordware?
F: 350k users -> 96% churn, but that's ok. People need to hear about you.

R: yes - launches are about seeing who wants what you're building and getting the word out.

@gabe @filip_kozera 

R: What do you think about folks prepping for a launch or hesitating because they aren't ready?

F: The lean startup method doesn't really work. People just love a good story and if you're able to tell the story through a launch and/or your product. Do weird Sh*t, show your personality, and try to handle your imposter syndrome.

R: I think it's a balance of where you need to see the future and that sounds what you're hinting at.

F: I think you need to throw a whole bunch of marble balls to see what lands on the plane and takes off. Take big risk and once you figure out what can take off, then the lean startup method works.

@gabe @filip_kozera 

F: We actually changed the ICP after the launch. We always thought it was going to be a bottom up PLG movement but we're seeing a lot more top to bottom.

R: Can you tell us the story about the Instacart founder?

F: Instead of getting a team, he locked himself in a room and since he knew exactly what he needed. He trained the model, got it working, then passed the API to his engineer team. As technology evolves, the chain of command evolves and they start taking the responsibility upon themselves.

@gamifykaran don't just spam folks to upvote or ask support. Provide value to folks and then have them support through the value you provided, like a good laugh!

@filip_kozera 100% on point, thank filip for your time 🙏🏽

Thank you @producthunt for hosting the AMA 🧡

@alanchristophx 

Q1: How did you come up with the twitter personality test?
F: Think about allowing people to generate something really cool vs. an empty page.
E.g. Notion: launch with useful templates.

E.g. StartupStash - number one launch...annoying :)

@alanchristophx 

3. AI memory for teams:

Filip: Instead of talking about it, try showing it. E.g. what if Tanka set up a fictional public slack for the Manhattan project? Show, don't tell.

@alanchristophx 

Sometimes its so simple with these AI product. It's about allowing people to generate something really cool. A good comparison is like when Notion launches, it has a whole bunch of templates so it's useful right away.

So for example Tanka and the current launch, they could set up a public chat for, say, The Manhattan Project, with each member being able to converse with potential users. This way you show your product not just talk about it.

@noureldin_elshenawy 

Q: Building a better duolingo...how do you launch without being too salesy?
F: Duolingo needs to be better. Talk about what people are struggling with. Show the gaps.

Hi @noureldin_elshenawy!

See your looking to build the next Duolingo.

Thinking of how Duolingo needs to be better and creating a video that showcases the issues of Duolingo, like learning obscure words. Can even create a video that has two people going to Spain, one studied off Duolingo and the other the app you're building and having the one that used your app being more useful in Spain. Should be kinda funny for virality.

Create some sort of tie-in with the Product + Content + an offer (like share the video for 6months free) so the marketing doesn't feels salesy.

Put a lot of effort into it and combine it with some sort of Dropbox-like virality (benefit) that would be something that is super cool and doesn't seem salesy because it's value. Good sales lead with value.

If you lead with value it will never feel salesy.