From Zero to #1: How We Planned and Executed Our Product Hunt Launch

TL;DR (If You’re Launching Soon)

• Don’t just launch, strategize from a PH editor’s POV
• Tweak your website: clear copy, visuals, and immediate value
• Pick the right launch day
• Warm up your community early, Product Hunt rewards momentum
• Prep launch assets that don’t just show your product, but tell your story
• Monitor the launch like your metrics depend on it, because they do
• The Product of the Day title = massive website traffic + goldmine of user feedback

In this post, we’re breaking down exactly how to launch on Product Hunt, from timing and messaging to what really made the difference for us. Consider this post your unofficial Product Hunt launch guide.

1. We Started by Rethinking Our Product From a Stranger’s Perspective

When you build something, you’re too close to it.

You know what your product does. You know what problem it solves. But someone landing on your site from Product Hunt? They don’t know anything and they’re judging you in seconds.

So we paused. And asked:
If someone from the PH editorial team (or a curious scroller) landed on our homepage, what would they see?

Answer: Not enough.
Too many words. Not enough clarity. And definitely not enough “ah, I get what this does.”

Like any SaaS product launch, our success hinged on making sure people understood the problem we were solving and how we solved it within seconds.

What we did:

• Rewrote our landing page with crisp, benefit-first copy
• Added annotated screenshots to show how it works, not just say what it does
• Simplified product messaging into a “why this matters” narrative

Then we dug into PH’s own advice for featured products. According to them, they prioritize:

• Usefulness
• Innovation
• Good design
• Creativity

That’s when we realized our website needed to reflect all four. Not just function. Not just aesthetics. All four.

2. Timing Is a Strategy, Not a Coin Toss

We originally thought we’d launch on a Tuesday. Seemed like a strong day, right?

Wrong.

Turns out, Tuesdays are the most competitive days on Product Hunt. And the first week of the month? That’s when all the big dogs drop their launches because they’re gunning for Product of the Month and want the longest runway.

So after speaking with someone from the community, we made a strategic call:
Move the launch to Friday from Tuesday.

It felt like a quieter time, and still gave us the weekend window for visibility.

Lesson: It’s not just about when you launch. It’s about when you’ll have the best shot at standing out.

3. We Built a Teaser Page and Started Outreach Early

Product Hunt lets you create a teaser page in advance. Think of it like a “coming soon” trailer for your launch.

We set ours up a few weeks in advance and encouraged:

• Early supporters to hit “Notify me”
• Friends to share the page

But the teaser was only one piece. The real work was in warming up our community, weeks before launch day.

What we did:

• Started telling people about the product through DMs and soft previews
• Encouraged friends to be more active on Product Hunt (so their accounts wouldn’t look cold or spammy on launch day)
• Created a “how you can support us” message for friends 

• And crucially: We started building our LinkedIn network well in advance
  

Why? Because LinkedIn caps new connection requests at 200 per week.
If you’re planning to rely on your LinkedIn community for launch support, you can’t build it two days before. Start early. Build real relationships. So that on launch day, you’ve got a warm list of people who know your story and want to back it.

4. We Prepped Our Launch Assets Like a Campaign

Product Hunt isn’t just a platform, it’s a stage. If your visuals and storytelling don’t click within seconds, you’re toast.

So we treated our launch assets as key parts of our product marketing strategy:

• A 1.5-minute demo video that showed the magic without the fluff
• Clear, scroll-stopping product visuals for the gallery
• Branded assets that explained the “why” and not just the “what”
• A thoughtful first comment that shared our story, not just a sales pitch

We also studied what top launches did well clarity, confidence, creativity and used that as a checklist.

Pro tip: Don’t let your launch visuals whisper. Make them sing.

5. Our Community Was Our Secret Weapon (Especially in India)

Our official launch time was 12am PST, which conveniently meant midday in India a win for our globally distributed team and friends.

Here’s what we did:

• Created a small group of early supporters and messaged them right at launch
  
• Got friends to leave genuine comments (not just “🔥🔥🔥 bro”), which helped boost credibility
  
• Reached out to past collaborators and curious followers on LinkedIn with a “We’re live! Would love your support if it resonates” note
  
• Asked friends to help with outreach too especially those familiar with PH etiquette
• We also had Zac Zuo as our Hunter, his credibility gave us a trust boost from the start, and his comment added legit weight to our listing.

Outcome: We hit the ground running within the first few hours and that early traction snowballed.

6. Launch Day Was a 24-Hour Sprint (and We Had No Chill)

PH automatically launches you based on the launch time you schedule beforehand. This is not carved in stone and you can change this date and time if you wish to. Once we went live at 12:01 AM PST, it was game on.

Something wonderful happened with us, we already had 55 votes as soon as we went live. We’re not sure how. Either 55 people who had notified themselves upvoted us or these were active PH members online at the time. 

There’s this feeling right after launching, part adrenaline, part dread. You’ve done the prep, but now you’re refreshing every 3 minutes wondering:

“Is it working? Is anyone clicking? Why is the upvote count stuck?”

We split our team across time zones and did this for nearly 24 hours straight:

• Monitored upvotes and comments like hawks
  
• Continued sending personalized messages to friends, early users, and past leads
  
• Posted on LinkedIn, Twitter/X, PH Slack/Telegram groups, and relevant groups
  
• Responded to every single comment with thoughtfulness and speed
  
• Shared behind-the-scenes updates with our friends to keep momentum going

We learned that how to trend on Product Hunt isn’t just about upvotes, it’s about consistent engagement, relevant traffic, and community support throughout the day.

And then… the twist.

We were #1… until we weren’t sure we’d continue to be. 

The final hours were nerve-wracking. We were neck-and-neck with another product, and getting to #1 on Product Hunt came down to every single vote and comment. The last 3 hours? Absolute chaos.

We weren’t just hustling for vanity. We knew that:

• Top 3 = visibility
  
• #1 = credibility + insane traffic boost
  

So we rallied. More DMs, more comments, more support. It worked.

We held onto that top spot.

But it was cut-throat till the last minute.

7. What Helped Us Most: A Tight Community

Having a Hunter isn’t mandatory, but it definitely helps.

We had Zac Zuo as ours, someone already respected in the Product Hunt community. He didn’t just list us and disappear. He left a meaningful, supportive comment that added legitimacy to our launch and nudged curious users to explore further.

Other things that helped:

• Friends and advisors who’d launched before. We learned a lot from their playbooks
  
• Warm PH accounts supporting early (so our page didn’t look like a ghost town)
  
• Honest feedback from people who weren’t just trying to hype us, but actually tried our product and cared
  

This is where we really saw how amazing the PH community can be. It’s not just a bunch of cheerleaders, it’s product people who genuinely want to help you improve.

8. Aftermath: Traffic Spiked. Feedback Poured In. Analytics Lit Up.

We expected a badge.
We didn’t expect the goldmine that came after.

Here’s what happened post-launch:

• Website traffic spiked for one week straight. Not just visits, but engaged traffic
  
• We got dozens of comments and DMs that included:
  
  • Specific use cases we hadn’t thought of
    
  • Clarity gaps in our messaging
    
  • Small bugs users found instantly (painful but helpful)
    
• Signups saw a meaningful jump
• We now had a community of engaged Product Hunt users we could tap into for feedback, feature testing, and future updates.
  

But the real win?

We had data. Beautiful, precious data.

We saw:

• Where people dropped off
  
• What pages they spent the most time on
  
• What messaging resonated (and what clearly didn’t)
  

Pro tip: Set up analytics BEFORE your launch. You don’t want to watch a traffic spike in real time and have zero idea what’s working.

9. Final Thoughts: It Wasn’t Just a Title, It Was a Turning Point, Our First Real Product Hunt Success Story

We launched on Product Hunt hoping to get some visibility and validation.
We walked away with:

• A clearer product narrative
  
• Stronger community ties
  
• Real momentum
  
• And yes, the #1 Product of the Day badge, which we now wear on our site like a gold star in kindergarten
  

But more than that, this launch reminded us what it takes to cut through noise:

• Clarity
  
• Community
  
• Consistency
  
• And just a little chaos
  

Would we do it again? 100%. Looking back, this experience gave us a repeatable startup launch checklist from building early traction to post-launch follow-up for a successful product launch. 

But we’d still do it with a plan. And caffeine. Lots of caffeine.

Thinking of Launching? Here’s What We’d Say:

Don’t just wing it.
Don’t just chase the badge.
Use the process to clarify your story, connect with people, and learn faster than you could by lurking on Reddit.

Product Hunt is a mirror. It shows you what you’re really saying to the world. Make sure it’s a story worth sharing.

Check out our Product Hunt launch page here: https://www.producthunt.com/products/coursecorrect

Check out our website here: https://coursecorrect.fyi/