A startup’s guide to launching on Product Hunt

The playbook I wished I had for my first launch

Learning what doesn’t work is part of the journey

As a startup founder, my default instinct is to just ship it. Move fast. Test, iterate, and learn.

This philosophy of iterative development has always been a core part of Statsig’s culture. From product and feature releases to our marketing moments, we run through quick cycles to learn from each experience. So when we decided to launch on Product Hunt, we followed the same principle: just ship it.

After watching other startups rank in the top 10 for the day, we assumed it was going to be easy…famous last words. Our first launch did OK, our second launch did not, but we think we figured it out for our third one.

Here’s what I learned across three Statsig Product Hunt launches, and the playbook I wish someone handed me.

Launch 1: Statsig (Day Rank #14)

It was back in August 2021, we had just onboarded our first cohort of customers and we wanted to have one of our first big marketing splashes. Product Hunt was an obvious choice since the social platform is dedicated to helping startups gain exposure. What wasn’t obvious was how their day ranking algorithm worked.

We decided to post in the morning with a long blurb and a few screenshots. But looking back, the first mistake we made was leaving the post alone for a good chunk of the day.

I did a few page refreshes and periodically checked on the launch. When I saw that we weren’t performing as well as we’d hoped, I reached out to friends and family to upvote our launch. But the initial momentum had died down already. By the end of the day, we ranked number 14.

At the time, I didn’t do much research, and I was a bit naive to think the upvotes would come organically. On a side note – one piece of advice I got was to include a bunch of emojis in my post, so that’s what I did. (I’m still unsure if this helped or hurt the upvotes 🤷🏻‍♂️.)

(Image of the first launch with my emojis)

Overall, the experience taught me a lot, and I figured we’d rank higher on the next go.

Launch 2: Statsig Free Feature Management Platform (Day Rank #34)

In 2023, we made feature flags free to everyone. This was a huge announcement for us, and it was an update we wanted to share with other product builders. So we decided to launch on Product Hunt again.

This time, we did a lot more preparation. We created video assets and scheduled our launch for 12:01 AM PST to maximize our 24-hour voting period (we read this was the recommended approach). We also made an internal announcement to have employees be on standby, asking everyone to engage with the launch and respond to any comments.

Unfortunately, things didn’t go as planned. There was a bug (or a user error) that posted our launch earlier in the evening. No one on our side knew that we were live, and our launch sat on Product Hunt with little engagement.

By the time we noticed, it was too late for us. We didn’t have the initial momentum to push our post higher in the ranking algo. Lessons learned: triple-check the schedule/draft settings, and when in doubt, stay up until 12:01 am and ship the post yourself.

Launch 3: Session Replay (Day Rank #8)

Since our last launch, we’ve shipped several new products and features. One of our recent launches was Session Replay, which allows customers to see their products through the lens of their users. We felt this product would reach a new set of developers and founders, so we wanted to create a moment out of it on Product Hunt.

Here’s what our launch plan looked like.

The Product Hunt Playbook

1. Prep Work

   • Set a clear timeline preparation: We opted for two weeks of prep. We posted about the upcoming launch on Twitter and LinkedIn. We also created a “Coming Soon” on Product Hunt to build up the hype.

   • Gather visual assets and create engaging content: We added screenshots, created branded images, and recorded a short video showcasing the product.

   • Inform your team early on: We created a Workplace group chat called “The Hunters Game” where we sent periodic updates and reminders leading up to the launch. The Product Team was involved from day one.

2. Launch Strategy

   • Launch early to maximize exposure: As planned, we launched at 12:01 AM PST and made sure there was an early push of upvoters – which helped us hit the Feature Page.

   • Use email and social media to notify your audience throughout the day: We sent a launch email to our customers and made several social posts 11am – this helped keep the momentum of upvotes.

   • Engage with comments and monitor progress: After launching, I stayed up until 3 AM responding to comments and tracking progress. When I logged off, Matt, one of the engineers on the team, woke up early to cover the morning shift.

3. Post-launch Engagement

   • Encourage customers to leave comments and feedback: We asked our most engaged customers and some employees to leave comments to boost our ranking.

   • Reach out to active community members on LinkedIn: We reached out to developers and startups that we found on the “Coming Soon” page. The hope was to get these frequent users to engage with our post. It paid off with 10 responses and even a “Hunter” interested in our next launch.

A few resources we found helpful

1. Product Hunt Launch by Nick Costelloe

   1. This playbook highlights that Product Hunt isn’t a growth strategy but a PR event that can help you build traction for your product.

2. Product Hunt Launch Guide: Analyzed 15+ Successful Launches

   1. This guide analyses 15 successful launches and provides clear examples of tactical actions that successful “Makers” have done.

3. How to successfully launch on Product Hunt (when it’s right for your startup) by Leo Boseuner

   1. This newsletter includes interviews with the founder of Social Growth Labs who has helped over 160 companies hit the top 3 on Product Hunt and share tactical decisions.

What’s next for us?

Even though Product Hunt hasn't always been our most successful tactic, following this method helped us jump from #34 to #8 in daily rankings, triple our follower count, and snag the #2 spot for SaaS products of the week.

Hopefully, you will avoid making the same mistakes, and this launch plan will help you rank higher than we did.