We re getting ready for our second Product Hunt launch on Jan 31, and a post by @busmark_w_nika got me thinking.

What to do (that we didn't do the first time):

• Plan your launch. What does it mean?

  • Write down everything you need to do before you launch.

  • Cleaning your copy

  • Your product images

  • Your product video (demo under 60 seconds if you can)

  • For our first launch, we didn't do anything. Even though we got 2nd Product of the Day, I would not recommend others to leave it to their luck. Plan and maximize your chances of success.

• Keep it simple, stupid.

  • Don't overcomplicate your page with lots of marketing language.

  • Simplicity, clean product screenshots, and clear language.

  • I think this is the single most important thing to take into account when launching, and why we probably did so well on our first launch.

    • Ask yourself: Does the tagline make sense? Will others understand what the product does and what it is in under 10 seconds?

    • For us at @Pretty Prompt: Grammarly for prompting. (Grammarly = it is an extension.) Improve prompts in one click. (super clear what it does).

    • You can straight away visualise how you might use the product and what it will do for you.

• Focus on your strengths.

  • Don't give everything you got in one go.

  • Earn the right for people to read and scroll down. Read and scroll down.

  • Save some stuff for your pinned post.

  • People have a short attention span.

  • Hook people on your most important feature, showcase it front and centre, don't give me everything together cos I'll forget, and also I'll get lost.

  • For us at @Pretty Prompt: Improve your prompts in one click. Works inside ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, Lovable, and more.

  • Even though you have about 10 other features on Pretty Prompt, we don't talk about them right in the beginning; we just feature that one "killer feature" and let users dive deeper afterwards.

• Product assets = show, don't tell.

  • Your images and video should be about your product.

  • Don't make it marketing-heavy. Make it product-heavy.

  • Show me what the product does, don't tell me about it.

  • For us: 60-second demo video actually using the tool. Screenshots of the top features (Improve - Refine - Save - History). Not fancy Figma designs, I mean screenshots of the actual product.

  • If you get big like Notion, Cursor, Claude, etc. you may also be able to add a more human video of you talking about the product, or new functionality, your story, etc. But for the majority, just show your product, and let the product win.

• Learn from others.

  • Though no two products or launches are the same, you can learn from others and pick the best things that fit your own product.

  • Checkout this post by @fmerian on "The Cursor Way to Launch". Great tips.

• Warm up the Audience.

  • Don't just rely on your followers.

  • Use as many channels as possible to maximise the reach and get people excited about your launch, even before you launch.

  • If you do this step well, the launch is just 50% of the job, and you're already a step ahead of most.

  • For us: I did a community post, Substack one, LinkedIn one, Slack one. We'll be recording a founder video too. I want it to be as human as possible; people buy into people.

Today, we declare the death to Search.

For too long, we've let Search dictate the way we work.

I believe that your chances of becoming visible on this platform also depend on how credible you appear.

In the past, there were even bots on Product Hunt, which led to the introduction of certain measures:

I see OpenAI as a tech giant that sets the direction in AI, and I try to follow their steps.

Right at the beginning of the year, 2 news items that reached my news horizon resonated with me:

I put together a digest of the last few months building Ting - the good, the meh, and the lessons I can imagine me wanting to tell future founders so they can dodge the bruises and get to the good stuff quicker...

The good:
- Nearly 1,000 users - ~50% MoM growth with no ads.
- Added Outlook, Teams, Zoom + multi-calendar.
- Launched Memories, micro product moments when the AI remembers small details + you feel seen.
- Team is now 2 founders, 2 engineers, AI QA + day-one consultant. Oh, and a baby was born yesterday!
- Inbound pilots from a top 10 tech company, top 3 ad network, top 3 bank.
- Great investor convos at Web Summit + SF.

This morning I did not plan to launch.
I genuinely thought I needed at least another week.
I still have pages to redesign, feedback to implement, UI to clean up.
I was stuck in a cycle:

Test. Get feedback. Fix. Get new feedback. Repeat.

I kept telling myself one more round and then I ll launch.
But the truth is that cycle can last forever. So here's what I did: I asked myself "if I had to make 30 days of progress in one day, what would I do?"

Hey everyone,

I've been doing a lot of pitching recently.

I went to Web Summit where I got pitched at a lot.

I wrote a list of all the things I learnt by becoming a first-time founder and leaving a role in big tech. It s more than I had when I started, so I hope it finds you at the right time:

Here we go:

• Getting going: Make sure you have a clear reason and those in your life are on same page. It is consuming!

• Unfair advantage: Founders aren t special, they just optimize to what makes them different (becomes important when raising too). It can be as simple as "worked in big company, saw firsthand the XXX problem"

• Getting started isn t easy: Make sure you consider the financial impact if leaving a job to get going Consider 12-18 months of no revenue or funding and if you can manage that

• Full-time or nothing: You can t do both a job and a startup. Investors won t back part-time conviction

• The pitch doc: Forces clarity, the problem, the customer, the market, and why you should solve it

• Raising money: Start with belief and momentum. An idea, a plan, and an MVP are enough to find your first backers

• Accelerators: Early programs like YC or Techstars can help refine your product and give you fuel to move faster. I have a longer list of Accelerators in case anyone needs it...?

• Foundations: Lock down your domain, name, trademarks, and structure early - future you will thank you

• Advisors: Find people who open doors and offer perspective, not control, ideally top % in their domain

• SaaS reality: You ll spend more on tools than you expect, it s part of building

• Building: Nothing s real until users touch it. Ship early, get feedback, iterate. It was extremely painful to hear users complain about our early bugs, but without that, we wouldn't be more reliable now...

• Co-founder: Pick someone with complementary skills and shared energy. You ll need each other

• Runway: Track every cost. I have a spreadsheet with every single one, also helps with tax reporting. Burn awareness is survival

• Energy: In a startup, you are the momentum. Working Saturday isn t working Saturday , it s pushing your dream forward

• Loved ones: Communicate early. The work will consume you; don t let it quietly consume them too

• Attention: Building is one thing. Getting noticed is harder. You ll code-switch between product, marketing, finance, and sanity

• What if you fail: Most startups do. But you ll come out sharper, braver, and more ready than ever