Learnings unpacked (Vela OS): How to be #1

Yigit Ihlamur
15 replies
When we launched the first version of our product last year, we got to #3. This year, we reached #1, because we did many things differently. Here's what we did differently this year. 1. Build real relationships This is no BS. There are real and helpful people here in this community. I met @cem_ozcelik (https://www.producthunt.com/@cem_ozcelik) via the community after seeing him on a streak. I reached out to get his advice and learnings. In an hour conversation, he shared all the key things to make our launch a success. Afterwards, he was super helpful to give feedback to our content, guided us what to focus on and what to ignore, how we should engage with the community before launch and how we should be a valuable member. He shared all the useful tools to track our launch. Then he was available to chat with me and jump on a call to complete our hunting process. During the launch day, he was available and continuously supporting me as the product's hunter. And, he did all this without expecting anything, as a solid friend. A real community member. I'm so grateful for this support. Without his involvement, we wouldn't do what we achieved. 2. Create value before launch Don't rush your launch. We waited for a month to monitor the community's launch, and gave back to the community. Not upvoting randomly, but making genuine comments after using their products as early adopters. People really appreciate this, and that's the magical flywheel that keeps ProductHunt going over the year. Give back. 3. Get your close team members to engage You're likely not alone in this game. You have co-founders, early team members, investors. Get them involved in the community before the launch, like you do. This process creates more value to the community, but more importantly, they internalize the launch process and see what's good and not good. 4. Prepare solid visual materials Put enough effort into preparing visuals to explain your product. More importantly, prepare a video. We're all builders with small budgets, so be scrappy and do a Loom video. I know preparing a video is not for everyone. I also don't do it. However, for this launch, I decided to keep it friendly and genuine. So rehearse your video a few times, and record a genuine demo of your product. Many people reached out and shared how much they liked the visuals and the video. 5. Pick the right day I thought about the right day to compete. I definitely did not want to compete on a day when OpenAI releases a new product. Last week was Thanksgiving in the US. The thesis was that most US-based large companies would avoid making a launch on a Monday after the holiday. 6. Clear out your calendar Once you pick the day, clear out the calendar. You can't take meetings. Ask your team not to do anything that day but just to focus on the launch. You'll receive so many signups. Things will break, and you'll need to fix. Your team should hustle to engage users and their network as much as possible. ProductHunt launch should be the only thing that you should think on for 24h. 7. Ready to sleep less You'll likely have to be awake most of the time. I slept only 4h. You need to be on it in each step to coordinate your troops. 8. It's a marathon, don't give up You can't slow down in any moment. Your competitor is behind you all the time. The moment you feel you may be winning, the competition may be gaining momentum. Ping every person you've interacted about your business, and ask for genuine if they really like and believe in what you do. Hope this helps. Please feel free to shoot any questions if any!

Replies

Edmundas (Eddy) Balčikonis
Eddy Travels for Messenger
Hey, thanks for the awesome summary! What was your primary business KPI behind reaching #1 on PH?
Yigit Ihlamur
Vela Terminal
Vela Terminal
@edmundas_eddy, thanks for the feedback! The primary KPI was brand building, around our product-led approach. Our thesis was that this brand building activity could result in relationship building opportunity with entrepreneurs we'd want to invest in and like-minded LPs that we want to interact with.
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Alex Gordon-Furse
Well done this is awesome!!
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Tony Tong
Thanks for sharing your journey, Yigit! I love how you emphasized the importance of building real relationships, it's so true that this community is about genuine connections, not just transactions!
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Success.ai
Success.ai
Launching soon!
Choosing the right launch day is such a strategic move, and your timing post-Thanksgiving is a clever call. 🙌 Here's a thought: Have you considered monitoring competitors' launch patterns and planning around them for future launches? Also, how do you decide if a competing product on the same day is worth worrying about or not?
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Yigit Ihlamur
Vela Terminal
Vela Terminal
@hamza_afzal_butt great question! In fact, @cem_ozcelik recommended me to analyze all the days prior to launch. I checked the vote counts on each day, and I looked into the previous year to see the relative relationships of the vote counts. Then, I noticed that pattern with post-Thanksgiving, and decided to pick that day to reduce competition risk. @cem_ozcelik also had a great suggestion about understanding the competing products. He suggested me to keep an eye out on the upcoming launches and see if there's any serious competition ahead.
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Charlotte Allen
How did you decide which day was optimal for your launch?
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Yigit Ihlamur
Vela Terminal
Vela Terminal
@charlotteallen, I analyzed the patterns each day by looking into the archive launches. Analyzed Monday, Tuesday and vote counts of each day. Then I looked into the previous years on similar days to see if there's a seasonality. I've seen some days that it was consistently 1.5K-1.6K votes, and I wanted to avoid those days. And they were typically Thursdays. I wanted to pick a day that would still be a work day but I wanted to avoid the possibility of a well-planned launch. Monday and post-Thanksgiving were the right pick for us, because I could not imagine big company employees wanting to prepare for a launch during their Thanksgiving break. They would rebel to it! :) Also, I thought about our network of users. We have strong presence in Turkey, Europe, Ghana and United States. So I wanted to have strong momentum early in the morning when Turkey wakes up and keep that momentum in Europe/Ghana, and then the United States to follow. So I liked the idea of a Monday rather than a Friday because of that reason.
Inid Leksina
Such great insight, thank you for this! Will look to use this for our launch.
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Yigit Ihlamur
Vela Terminal
Vela Terminal
@inid_leksina of course, please shoot any questions as more questions come up. @cem_ozcelik is the person whom I look up to, and I'm just sharing what I learned from him.
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Bill Frad
I’ve always found it tough to get in front of the camera too it feels unnatural at times. As someone who's camera-shy, what helped you push past that and make the video feel authentic? I’d love to hear any tips that worked for you.
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Yigit Ihlamur
Vela Terminal
Vela Terminal
@bill_frad great question! I really don't like to record myself too. I'm more of an introvert who likes to write, and I don't even like going to events. I'm kind of a shy person, and I like 1:1 deep conversations more. I thought that being authentic and being myself is the right way to go, so I tried to speak rather than over a script. I created an over outline of what I want to do. I decided to show myself less but still put a face out, so that people feel that it's a real person behind. However, I focused the majority of the video on the product. The outline was: 1) Introduce myself and say the value proposition, and keep it short to 30-60 seconds max. 2) Walk through a journey of a user via a product demo. I picked some features that I wanted to show to tell that story. I wanted to do a 2 minutes video, but then I noticed that it was too surface. Then I decided to stick with 5 minutes limit. Lastly, I think I recorded the same video 15-20 times. On the 20th time or something, my story got much better and I knew what to say. Hope this helps!