Launch Week: Getting Your First Users (Week 3)
You have a live product. A real website. Active distribution channels. Now it is time to tell the world.
Launch week is not a single event. It is a coordinated five-day campaign across multiple channels, timed to create the maximum possible burst of attention. Think of it like lighting fires in different places at once; each one feeds the others.
The Launch Calendar
Here is your day-by-day plan for launch week:
Monday: Soft Launch
- Switch Stripe from test mode to live mode
- Send your product to 5-10 friends and contacts for feedback
- Fix any critical bugs they find
- Prepare all launch assets (descriptions, screenshots, links)
Tuesday: Product Hunt Launch Day
- 12:01 AM PT: Submit to Product Hunt
- Morning: Engage with every comment on your PH listing
- Midday: Share PH link on all social channels
- Evening: Thank early supporters, respond to feedback
Wednesday: Content Blitz
- Publish a "Why I built this" blog post
- Share it on LinkedIn, X/Twitter, Hacker News, and relevant subreddits
- Email your waitlist with launch announcement
- Post in relevant Discord and Slack communities
Thursday: Outreach Day
- Email the 10-20 people from your validation outreach (Chapter 2)
- Message every relevant LinkedIn connection personally
- Reach out to 5-10 niche bloggers or newsletter writers
- Respond to every piece of feedback from the first 3 days
Friday: Double Down
- Analyze what channels drove the most traffic and signups
- Create more content for the top-performing channel
- Follow up with every trial user who signed up
- Plan your outreach sprint for weeks 3-4
Product Hunt Launch: The Complete Guide
Product Hunt can drive a burst of visitors in a single day if you launch well. Here is the playbook:
Before Launch Day
Your listing needs:
- Product name and tagline (under 60 characters, clear and specific)
- Description (2-3 short paragraphs, focus on the problem you solve)
- 3-5 screenshots or a demo video (under 2 minutes)
- A "first comment" ready to post (the maker's story)
- A link to your live product
You do not need a hunter. Product Hunt's own help center says "You don't need a hunter" and recommends posting your product yourself so you keep control of the launch. Post from a personal account; company accounts cannot post products.
Timing: Launches go live at 12:01 AM Pacific Time, and the homepage runs on a 24-hour cycle (Product Hunt launch guide). Day choice is a trade-off between traffic and competition. Pick a day when your audience is likely to show up and you can be online for the full 24 hours.
Launch Day
12:01 AM PT: Submit your product. Immediately add your "first comment", a personal story about why you built this. Be authentic. Tell the story of the problem you discovered and why you decided to solve it.
Example first comment:
"Hey PH! I'm [Name], and I built [Product] because [personal story of encountering the problem].
After talking to [X] people in [industry], I found that everyone was [workaround]. So I spent [timeframe] building a tool that [solution].
I'd love your feedback, especially on [specific aspect you want feedback on].
Happy to answer any questions!"
Throughout the day:
- Respond to every comment within 30 minutes
- Share the PH link on LinkedIn, X, and other channels
- Ask friends and supporters to check out the listing and leave genuine feedback (do not ask for upvotes)
- Post updates if you fix bugs or add features based on feedback
Do not ask for upvotes. Product Hunt's sharing guidelines say asking specifically for upvotes is against its policies, and contests that reward upvotes are prohibited. Instead, ask people for feedback or comments and share the link. Genuine interest produces genuine engagement.
After Launch Day
- Thank everyone who engaged with your listing
- Follow up with people who asked questions or showed interest
- Write a "lessons from our Product Hunt launch" post (great content)
- Update your website to say "Featured on Product Hunt" (if applicable)
Hacker News Launch
Hacker News (HN) can drive significant traffic, especially for technical products. But HN has a distinct culture and written Show HN rules that you need to respect.
What works on HN:
- "Show HN" posts for something people can try right away. The rules ask that it be easy to try without signing up, so offer a demo or a no-signup mode. Landing pages and sign-up pages are off topic.
- Detailed technical write-ups about how you built the product
- Honest, non-promotional descriptions
- Engaging with comments thoughtfully and technically
What does not work:
- Marketing language or buzzwords
- Self-promotion without substance
- Asking friends to upvote or comment (against HN's rules)
- Getting defensive in comments
Your HN post:
Show HN: [Product Name], [one-line description]
I built [product] to solve [problem]. [One paragraph
about the problem and why existing solutions are
insufficient.]
Technical details: Built with [tech stack].
[One paragraph about interesting technical decisions
or challenges.]
It's live at [URL]. Would love feedback, especially
on [specific aspect].
Many founders post on weekday mornings, US Eastern Time. Treat that as folklore rather than a rule; a clear title and a working demo matter more.
Reddit Launch
Reddit is powerful but dangerous. Each subreddit has strict rules about self-promotion. Violating them gets your post removed and can get your account banned.
Strategy:
- Identify 3-5 subreddits relevant to your product
- Read each subreddit's rules carefully
- Participate genuinely in each community for a few days before posting
- Share your product as a genuine contribution, not a sales pitch
Subreddits to consider:
- r/SaaS (for SaaS products)
- r/startups (general startup discussion)
- r/Entrepreneur (general entrepreneurship)
- r/InternetIsBeautiful (if your product is visually impressive)
- Industry-specific subreddits (r/marketing, r/webdev, r/smallbusiness, etc.)
Post format that works:
"I built [product] to solve [problem]. Here's what I learned."
[Tell the story of building it. Share mistakes. Be vulnerable. Include genuine learnings that help the community.]
[At the end, mention the product with a link. One sentence. No hard sell.]
Email Your Waitlist
If you collected emails in Chapter 6, launch week is when you email them.
Subject line: "[Product Name] is live, you're first in line"
Email structure:
- Remind them they signed up (they may have forgotten)
- One sentence about what the product does
- What makes it different from alternatives
- A clear CTA button: "Start Your Free Trial"
- A personal note from you (the founder)
Keep it under 200 words. One CTA. No walls of text.
The personal touch. For your first 20-30 waitlist signups, send individual emails instead of a mass blast. In my experience, a personal email from the founder converts far better than a marketing email. "Hey [Name], I remember you signed up for [Product] a few weeks ago. It's live now, and I'd love for you to be one of our first users. Here's the link: [URL]. I'm personally available for any questions."
Social Media Launch Posts
LinkedIn (post on your personal profile, not just the company page):
I just shipped [product name].
[One paragraph about the problem]
[One paragraph about what you built]
[What makes it different, 2-3 bullets]
If you know anyone who deals with [problem], I'd appreciate a tag.
[Link]
X/Twitter:
Just launched [product name]: [one-line description]
Built it in [timeframe] with [interesting detail about the build]
Free trial, no credit card needed: [link]
Would love feedback from anyone who deals with [problem] 🧵
Follow up with a thread explaining the backstory, what you learned, and what is next.
Measuring Launch Week Success
Track these metrics during launch week. The "good result" column is my working benchmark for a small launch, not an industry standard:
| Metric | Where to Find It | Good Result |
|---|---|---|
| Website visitors | Cloudflare Analytics | 500+ unique visitors |
| Signups | Your database | 50+ trial users |
| Product Hunt upvotes | Product Hunt | 50+ upvotes |
| Social engagement | LinkedIn/X analytics | 100+ combined reactions |
| Waitlist emails sent | Your email tool | Clicks to the product (open rates are inflated by mail privacy features, so watch clicks) |
| First paying customer | Stripe dashboard | At least 1 |
Do not panic if the numbers are lower than expected. Many successful SaaS products had quiet launch days. What matters more than launch-day vanity metrics is whether the people who do sign up actually use the product and find value. 10 engaged trial users are worth more than 500 tire-kickers.
Handling Your First Users
Your first 10-20 users are the most important users you will ever have. They will tell you what is broken, what is confusing, and what is missing. Treat them like gold.
For every new signup in Week 3:
- Send a personal welcome email within 2 hours
- Ask them what they are hoping to accomplish with the product
- Offer a 15-minute call to walk them through setup
- Follow up 3 days later to ask about their experience
- If they hit a bug, fix it immediately and tell them it is fixed
This does not scale. It is not supposed to. You are doing things that do not scale to learn what your product needs to become. Paul Graham's essay "Do Things that Don't Scale" (2013) makes the case. I think it is some of the best advice in startup writing.
End of Week 3 Checkpoint
By the end of Week 3, you have:
- Launched on Product Hunt
- Posted on Hacker News, Reddit, and at least 2 other channels
- Emailed your waitlist
- Published a "why I built this" blog post
- Personally messaged 20+ potential users
- Responded to every piece of feedback
- First 10-50 trial users
- (Ideally) First 1-3 paying customers
Total additional spend: $0
You have launched. You have users. You have feedback. The next two weeks are about converting attention into revenue.