How to overcome the fear of flopping a launch in Product Hunt?
Launching a product that I've been working on for a while, solving a problem that I am passionate about, and truly believe can help thousands of people. But then, getting nothing other than crickets from the community, seems like a very daunting prospect to me.
I'd love to know if you have had a flop launch in the past, what did you do to turn it around. Or if you haven't turned around, what are you planning to do?
What have you learnt from success stories, best practices, things that really make you feel ready for that launch and take anything that you get back from it..?
Replies
Slice of Music
I can tell you don't have enough experience failing yet ;)
In all seriousness, failure is a big part of finding success, and it's a useful data point for you to leverage. As you launch and market your product on different platforms, the reception or lack there of is crucial to better understanding your product market fit, who your actual customers are, and if you need to fine tune your messaging
So in a sense, feeling daunted from a failed launch is like feeling daunted at useful feedback. It's completely natural, but don't let it discourage you in any way
I've had a some VR projects I've launched in various places, and they bombed here, but got great reception elsewhere, and that's because my actual users for those projects weren't here, but on BlueSky and Discord and required a more personal approach to marketing
So just dive in, see what happens, and iterate. And welcome to the club :)
@gaurav_d_kale Thanks Gaurav. This is very heartfelt, and totally on point. I guss the first step is indeed figuring out where your audience is, and what makes them tick.
What would you recommend to do to have smaller, "safer" launches to test the waters?
Slice of Music
@dg_ I think Product Hunt is actually a very nice spot to start for a safer launch, especially if your customers are business owners themselves. They let you launch again if you have significant updates to your application so it's not a do or die situation if your first launch flops
@gaurav_d_kale Ohhhh, I didn't know about the relaunch. That is actually a fantastic thing.
Atlas
hey! we're getting ready to launch and we're terrified as well. we're scrambling to do all the things to let our community know about our Launch (on June 11th :'-))
we picked a launch date and it was self-imposed. so, that gets everyone on the team rowing in one direction. it's nice. we've picked up a lot of momentum because of it.
i don't know how else to help other than, i'll find out soon enough what it's like to launch. fingers crossed! LOL
@laura_cruickshanks sounds very exciting!
How did you build your community? Did you already have a community before you started building a product?
Atlas
@dg_ we're still building out our community. mostly posting, liking, commenting or sharing on LinkedIn and following those that are active in the pricing, billing, and monetization community. finding the people who also preach what you preach is a really easy way to slide into the conversations.
We've also been growing our community in the startup world. We've been doing this by going to a bunch of conferences the past few weeks. As you start to network and connect with people on the same startup journey, you grow your community in a different direction. it's been really fun if you're comfortable talking to strangers. as an introvert, if you are one, it might be a bit more of a challenge. What's fun is that we're all rooting for each other to succeed. That's what makes me feel encouraged. :D
@laura_cruickshanks if you are part of online communities of startup founders, I'd love to join :D
Atlas
@dg_ i've just been meeting people in person (at conferences) and connecting on LinkedIn. I'm also not a founder, so I wouldn't be able to refer you to any.
You could go to https://lu.ma/discover and find events near you and try meeting people in person.
Very few products maintain consistent upward momentum, and flops are inevitable. But they happen for different reasons, and identifying the cause is crucial.
First possibility: your messaging was too much hype, setting unrealistic expectations. Users come in expecting one thing and find something completely different - of course they'll bounce. This requires examining your marketing at the source: are you genuinely confident in what you've built, or are you overselling for strategic reasons?
Second scenario: your messaging is honest, but the user experience isn't compelling enough. You're missing those "aha moments" that make users realize the value. They walk away thinking it's just another mediocre product. This is about execution and user journey optimization.
Third case: you might be solving a pseudo-problem. Users can live without your product just fine, which is the classic PMF mismatch. But here's the good news - if this is the issue, congratulations on discovering your PMF gap early. Now you can actually address it.
Each type of flop gives you different actionable insights. The key is being honest about which category you're in, because the solutions are completely different for each scenario.
You can keep re-launching once in every few months. Learn from your previous launches and make incremental improvements in your product and marketing strategies. :)
@rohanrecommends 100% This is great. The only thing is, what if you have no feedback at all, how to make decisions on what to change?
@dg_ That requires a re-look into the product positioning and messaging.
I totally feel this. The fear of launching and getting no response is so real. But I try to remind myself that silence doesn’t mean failure.
@stephane_thrasher I like that way or thinking. Trying to remember that it is not the end of the world, but maybe the beginning of adjustment...
honestly, product hunt is just another channel. sure it's unique and great in it's own way, but it's just another traffic channel to test. I know not all are going to work. if it doesn't, I just move on.
also getting crickets is the standard day-to-day for all founders. just stay in the game.
@emikes919 what other channels do you recommend for early stage companies?
Hey DG, would love to hear more about your idea. We run Idea TBD, a newsletter that features products from builders like yourself for free. Just trying to help this community grow!
@chaosandcoffee That sounds fantastic. Let's connect. Where can I reach out?
Kalyxa
Totally get this. The fear is real, but the flop isn’t failure—it’s feedback. I think of every launch as a test: what resonates, what doesn't, and who actually shows up. Worst case, you learn. Best case, you grow. Either way, you keep building.
I launched last month and it did fail in terms of traction, but I'am happy that at least I reached the first milestone of launching the product and I learned my lesson to work more on marketing and building the community first. So I will keep working and improving the product and the community around it =)
@nikita_polovinkin Thanks for sharing this, and for the great reminder about marketing and building an audience!