At a time when everyone allows themselves to build any solution using AI, it is difficult to differentiate themselves, and makers are betting on more aggressive distribution.

Some differentiate themselves with good tech support, some build their personal brand as a founder, and some pay influencers.

Hello friends, and welcome back to the changelog. The devs have been running on a balanced diet of espresso shots and questionable amounts of energy drinks, which means you guessed it: fresh updates are here. From saying goodbye to Coming Soon, to giving you a shiny red self-destruct button, to sprucing up Alternatives, and a shiny new footer, we ve packed a lot into this round.

Coming Soon Forum Threads

The old Coming Soon pages have officially retired (and you lot noticed). From now on, every new product you create gets its own forum thread. It is your place to share updates, drop teasers, or just shout into the void while you wait for launch day. People can still follow from your forum page to get notified when you go live, but now you can actually start the conversation early.

Adam Cohen is the cofounder of @Weave , an engineering analytics company that helps teams go AI-first. Before Weave, he was head of operations and sales at education software firm Top Hat and VP of operations and revenue at @Causal , which was acquired by Lucanet in 2024.

Despite the quiet season typical for summer, I do believe you experienced some business highlights.

(Product Hunt was full of launches, which surprised me in a good way.)

A lot of new makers get confused about how PH works, so let me explain it in the simplest way possible through reality TV.

Think of American Idol / Indian Idol / The Voice.

Early-stage building is full of hacks and sometimes the fastest, scrappiest experiments teach you more than months of proper work.

I ve heard of people testing demand with:

• A fake door sign-up button that went nowhere (but proved interest)

• A quick landing page with nothing behind it

• Cold DMs to potential users with a mockup

• Even just a Google Form dressed up as a product

I noticed that Product Hunt discontinued the teaser / coming soon section this week, and I m curious if it did help you build genuine traction? 

My take (from hunting PH launches):

I keep hearing about AI taking jobs.

I have to admit that I have seen a lot of people complaining about job cuts, but that was in the local market.

You ve put in the hours.

You shipped the MVP.

You posted on all the platforms.

You got some users. Or maybe not.

I keep running into this problem as an indie hacker:

I need an audience to get feedback.

I need feedback to grow an audience.

Classic catch-22.