I recently won #1 Product of The Day on Product Hunt. That may seem like a brag, but it’s not as this wasn’t my first experience launching a product on the platform.

I’ve launched the same startup, Microns.io, twice on Product Hunt: the first was in 2021, and the second was just in April 2024. I condensed all the lessons I learned from the first launch with my research for this recent one. So it’s safe to say I know a thing or two about launching a startup on Product Hunt and successfully winning the #1 Product of The Day.

Without further ado, let’s get into the lessons, shall we?

11 Lessons That Helped Me Win Product of The Day on Product Hunt

For context, we got 622 upvotes, and the website traffic we got that day was the highest I’ve had in a long while. Plus we got a good number of new customers. So how did we achieve this feat, the ‘almighty’ Product Hunt’s #1 Product of The Day trophy? 

Fasten your seat belts as I spill the tea.

1. Prepare, prepare, prepare

Benjamin Franklin famously said, “By failing to prepare, you’re preparing to fail.” This holds even for your Product Hunt launch. Product Hunt is a unique platform and launching on it has its quirks. Many people don’t put enough effort into this part, resulting in subpar results. 

I knew my preparation could just be what would’ve made or broken my launch, so I took my time to prepare. 

I spent a whole month researching other successful launches: the tactics and copy used. I then reworked everything to fit the Microns.io brand style.

But that’s not all. I made sure I picked a day where I would get optimum attention for my startup. From research, I found that weekends are the best days to launch if your goal is to be the #1 Product of the Day. However, they’re also the worst because you get little traffic/exposure on those days. 

Another thing to consider when launching your product regarding the launch date is that you want to steer clear of days of high-profile tech events like Google I/O or Apple WWDC events. You stand no chance of attracting enough attention to your product on those days.

More on the preparation as we proceed.

That said, if you can’t prepare your launch by yourself, you may use a hunter. I didn’t use one, but some people do and advise you to. A hunter is like a PH influencer who will submit your product to Product Hunt. They’re quite reputable and typically have quite a good following on the platform and social media; so they’ll help you promote your product and launch on Product Hunt. However, they’ll likely come at a cost.

READ: What Is Micro-startup Acquisition?

2. Get your product working

This piggybacks off your preparation. 

My product, Microns (a platform for people to buy and sell micro-businesses – micro-SaaS startups, newsletters, blogs, ecommerce businesses, mobile, and web apps, etc.) has been up and running for some years now. However, before this relaunch, I reworked the website: I redesigned the UI, making it more beautiful and optimized for a better user experience. 

While my product was fully functional, yours doesn’t have to if it isn’t already. This may sound counter-intuitive but hear me out.

Instead, you want to ensure you’ve built a working product that solves a core problem. You don’t need so many new features: just that which is enough to solve your target audience’s core problem(s). But if you haven’t, consider that the more features your product has, the more bugs you’ll have to deal with, and the longer you’ll have to wait to launch your product.

On the other hand, if your product isn’t working, you’ll get bad reviews and downvoted. That’s the last thing you want if you want to win the golden #1 Product of The Day trophy.

Also, manually test all your automation, emails, and forms to ensure everything works as intended.

READ: How to Build A Profitable Micro-SaaS Product

3. Schedule a weekday launch date

I scheduled a launch day two weeks ahead - yours could be much longer to give you ample prep time. 

Earlier, we talked about the worst days to launch your startup. Now the actual best days to launch a startup on Product Hunt are weekdays like Tuesdays, Wednesdays, or Thursdays because they’re the most competitive days and have lots of active users - even if you don’t win #1 Product of The Day, you’ll still get lots of eyeballs on your product (which is mostly what we all desire). 

I picked Tuesday, April 30^th.

Another thing to keep top of mind is that PH runs on engagement, so choose a day you’ll be 100% available and active all day to engage with the discussion. You’ll have to be glued to your laptop for 24 hours upvoting comments and answering queries.

One little-known tip is that PH has a ‘Coming soon’ page where you can list your startup pre-launch and get followers who will receive a notification when your product goes live. Leverage this page and get listed on it.

4. Create a compelling story

I wrote a personal story of how I started Microns.io. I talked about my motivation, the first launch in 2021, and how much the marketplace has grown. For every launch, I tell a personal story to connect with my prospective users on the platform, telling them how Microns.io can benefit them.

Here’s the story of my most recent launch;

Source: Product Hunt launch story

I believe telling personal stories like this has a way of compelling your prospects and building that personal connection with your business. Plus it builds trust. You should consider it.

READ: Best Profitable Micro-SaaS Ideas with Examples

5. Create a stunning video

Virtually every piece of info I found online about winning Product Hunt’s #1 Product of The Day said to shoot or create a video, so I took the plunge. This was my first time working with a motion designer, and I was truly impressed with the results.

The video was sub 1 minute and highlighted Microns.io’s ease of use; from signing up to listing businesses and enquiring about a sale. It showcased our biggest selling points and social proof like the number of startups sold and deals closed, websites we’ve been featured on, and the number of businesses currently listed on our marketplace.

I highly recommend you create one – try to show your product in 1 minute: the problem it solves, how it works, social proof and CTA, and you’re good to go.

Here’s my video: Microns Video Presentation 2024

READ: Best marketplaces to buy and sell micro-businesses

6. Leverage your email subscribers

Many creators, solopreneurs, founders, marketers, and indie hackers now run newsletters. If you have one, it’ll do your launch a lot of good as you can create pre-launch emails asking for your subscribers’ support.

Over the years, I’ve grown a newsletter audience of startup buyers and sellers, so I reached out to them. I sent a total of 7,000 emails. If you don’t have an email list yet, consider building one.

READ: How to Evaluate A Newsletter’s Worth

7. Announce it on social media

I’m very active on X, so I’ve grown quite a bit of following and reputation on the platform around building startups. Before launch day, I notified my X followers about the upcoming launch. The tweet got 2K impressions and 15 comments – not too bad.

Source: My pre-launch tweet

So if you’ve got a social media following, leverage it. Build excitement among your followers by announcing the launch a few days before the ‘D-day’. Connect with whoever comments or likes your post. 

One thing that'll help you succeed in your launch is the network you've built. I've been active on social media and supported other indie hackers in their launches, engaged with their posts, and chatted with them in the DMs. So I've built a relationship of some sort with them over time. So if you’ve become friendly with some of your followers, DM them about the launch. You could request they also post about your launch to bring it to their audience, depending on your relationship. This will give you a much-needed boost in the start.

8. Reach out to your team

If you’ve got a team, invite them to support and upvote you on launch day. Even though I’m a software engineer, I now work with another developer and a designer, so I asked them and a couple of contractors I work with to comment and upvote the product. Since it’ll be a 24-hour marathon, you could allocate time slots for each member to engage online.

If you haven’t got a team, you can invite friends, partners, or colleagues – every upvote counts. 

READ: Best, Profitable AI Micro-SaaS Startup Ideas for Solopreneurs

9. Promote the launch on social media

Now it’s launch day: so what are you going to do? Make some buzz on social media.

Write a tweet announcing the launch. Here’s mine;

Source: My launch announcement

But I didn’t stop there. I ‘built in public,’ which is Twitter’s way of saying share your business’s milestones, etc. I posted something on X about the launch to keep the momentum high and attract new users every 2-3 hours.

Source: Launch update

Also, you need to be active on both PH and social media because there will be lots of enquiries. Respond to everyone that shows interest in what you’re doing. If you don’t build your product’s momentum, no one else will.

10. Don’t give up

Things started pretty slow. Microns was in third place in the first half of the day. We weren’t just third, we were trailing the top two products by quite a huge gap.

We almost lost to a VC-funded startup, but that didn’t deter us. I kept pushing, and eventually, we won the #1 Product of The Day.

READ: Factors for Micro-startup Success

11. Be organized

Finally, wear your project management hat and be organized. It’s easy to draw a map of all the tasks and timelines in your head, but without putting these down on paper, you’ll barely get through them.

Have a spreadsheet or Notion document to show the progress of your tasks.

READ: How to Evaluate your Micro-SaaS Startup Worth

Conclusion

If you do these, you may clinch the #1 Product of The Day or be among the top contenders. Regardless of what position you finish, brandish your achievement on your website, newsletter, and social media pages to build credibility with prospects. I placed mine at the bottom of my website. Don’t forget to send a ‘Thank you’ note to everyone who supported you.

Source: Microns.io’s homepage

That being said, we’ve got a robust library of micro-startups that you can buy on our platform and launch on Product Hunt. There are also ecommerce businesses and a wide range of micro-businesses listed on our platform. And if you’re interested in selling your startup or any online business, list it on our platform for free.