PostHog
Developer tool · first 1,000 users
They got the first 10 users from personal networks, then posted on Hacker News, which produced 300 deployments within days. A small paid Twitter push and steady community work took them to 1,000 users.
Reported: 10 users from personal networks; a couple dozen from outreach; 300 deployments within days of a Hacker News post; about $2,000 on Twitter promotion; 1,000 users by May 2020
“We reached 300 deployments within a couple of days – five weeks after we started building.”
Word of mouth, Cold outreach, Launch platforms, Paid ads
Hacker News
posthog.com, James Hawkins, June 2024
1000 Pound Club
Consumer web · first 100 users
He launched a powerlifting web app on the same day across Reddit, Discord, Indie Hackers, Twitter and Hacker News. Niche subreddits and Discord servers brought 85 of the first 100 users, while Twitter and Hacker News brought none.
Reported: Reddit 60, Discord 25, Indie Hackers 15, Twitter 0, Hacker News 0; 100 users in the first week
“Reddit was by far my best launch platform, giving me 60 out of my first 100 users.”
Communities, Launch platforms
Indie Hackers
Hacker News
indiehackers.com, Alexander Chen, September 2023
EarlyBird
Other · first 500 customers
They launched on Product Hunt on Christmas Day and promoted the launch across Slack, Discord and Telegram groups and forums. That produced 500 customers in three days.
Reported: 500 customers in 3 days
“Our efforts paid off and we got our first 500 customers within 3 days!”
Launch platforms, Communities
Product Hunt
indiehackers.com, Leo Baishun, September 2023
Supademo
SaaS · first 10 paying customers
He launched an interactive demo tool on Hacker News and Reddit, then personally followed up with every user and shipped their feedback fast. That produced 340 signups and 10 paying customers.
Reported: 340 signups; 10 paying customers; 70 upvotes on Hacker News; 70 upvotes on r/SideProject
“The users who saw me implementing their feedback trusted me and became my first paid customers.”
Launch platforms, Communities, Word of mouth, Cold outreach
Hacker News
news.ycombinator.com, Koushik, November 2022
Tally
SaaS · first 1,500 users
The founders built lists of hundreds of prospects from Product Hunt and Twitter and cold-emailed them asking for feedback, and shared progress publicly. A Product Hunt launch later doubled the user base.
Reported: 184 users and $64 MRR by October 2020; about 1,500 users before Product Hunt; doubled to about 3,000 after
“We scanned Product Hunt and Twitter and made lists of hundreds of prospects and started doing cold outreach, asking for their feedback.”
Cold outreach, Communities, Launch platforms, Social media
Product Hunt
blog.tally.so, Marie Martens, October 2021
Loom
SaaS · first 20,000 users
A Product Hunt launch brought roughly 3,000 users in a few days. Champions inside companies and a $5 referral credit carried growth from there to 20,000.
Reported: About 3,000 from Product Hunt; 3,000 to 20,000 through champions and referral credits
“First ~3k came in from Product Hunt on launch day + 1-2 days after.”
Launch platforms, Word of mouth
Product Hunt
lennysnewsletter.com, Shahed Khan, May 2020
The App Design Handbook
Info product · first $1,000 in sales
He built a 795-person email list from blog posts and Twitter during the three months he spent writing the book. Emailing that list on launch day brought in $1,000 in ten minutes.
Reported: 795-person prelaunch list; $1,000 in 10 minutes; $6,469.90 on launch day; about 600 visits from Hacker News
“I’ve been working on it for 3 months and had built up a pre-launch list of 795 people.”
A waitlist, Content marketing, Social media, Launch platforms
Hacker News
nathanbarry.com, Nathan Barry, September 2012
Buffer
SaaS · first paying customer
He tweeted a landing page to test demand, then added a fake pricing page to test willingness to pay before building. The rough first version got a paying customer within four days.
Reported: First paying customer 4 days after launch; 500 users; about 4% upgraded to paid
“I had my first paying customer within 4 days of launching the “rough around the edges” product.”
A waitlist, Social media, Launch platforms
buffer.com, Joel Gascoigne, February 2011
Booktalk
SaaS · first 400 signups
The founder of a Slack book club app posted on Hacker News and hit second place within half an hour. That one post brought 320 signups at a 6.8% conversion rate.
Reported: #2 on Hacker News; 4.7k visitors and 320 signups on day one; 5.8k visitors and 402 signups after a week
“Within ~30 minutes, the post hit #2 on the front page and stayed between #2–4 for about 4–5 hours”
Launch platforms
Hacker News
reddit.com
LangFast
AI · first users from Hacker News
A Hacker News launch of an LLM prompt playground brought over 6,000 visits and about 80 signups but no paying customers. The founder concluded HN tests curiosity, not fit.
Reported: 6,000+ visits; about 200 tried it; about 80 signups; 0 paying customers from the launch
“HN validates curiosity, not fit. Treat it as an attention test, then prove activation on a narrower ICP.”
Launch platforms, Communities
Hacker News
reddit.com
Reflame
Developer tool · signups after Show HN
A Show HN post for this developer tool reached sixth on the front page. The resulting 5,200 visits more than doubled the user base with over 100 signups.
Reported: #6 on the Hacker News front page; 5.2K unique visits; 100+ signups
“These 5.2K unique visits turned into over 100 new signups (and counting), which is more than double the size of our existing user base.”
Launch platforms
Hacker News
blog.reflame.app
Reply.io
SaaS · first paying customer
He answered sales questions on Quora, which brought the very first customer. A later Product Hunt launch produced 600 signups in two days.
Reported: First customer via Quora; 600 signups in 2 days from Product Hunt
“used Quora to land his very first customer, and launched on Product Hunt to get 600 signups in two days”
Communities, Launch platforms
Product Hunt
saasclub.io, Oleg Campbell