2 builders who never spoke to each other

Treat the launch as an event, not a channel

The launch day bump from your list and the boards happens once, and two builders learned it the hard way by making it the entire growth plan. One product took thousands of visits, produced forty five signups, no revenue and a monthly hosting bill; another founder found the boards helped only slightly and had to build repeatable distribution to move signups at all. Run the launch, then go and build the channel.

The method

1. 01

   Expect a launch-day audience bump from your list, Product Hunt and Indie Hackers, but treat repeatable distribution channels as the thing that actually raises signups.

2. 02

   Posting to Product Hunt and Hacker News and then stopping is not distribution. It produces a visit spike attached to nothing.

What it returned

• 2

  Transistor launched August 2, 2018 with 75 signups that month, partly pent-up waiting list demand; Product Hunt and Indie Hackers helped only a bit.

• 45

  Those two posts were the entire growth effort for Phoenix. Thousands of visits produced 45 signups, $0 of revenue and about $30 a month of running costs.

Sources

• How many trials should I be getting for my SaaS?Justin Jackson · justinjackson.ca · How many trials should I be getting for my SaaS? · undated
• Phoenix: Failed to Keep It Stupidly SimpleEnrique Benitez · failory.com · How did you grow Phoenix? · undated