From founders' own write-ups of their launches and their first users. The numbers are theirs; we haven't checked them.
How 50 startups got their first users.
Aidlab
Other · Show HN front page
The research wearable maker reached the HN front page on its second try. Visitors explored the site and shop, but nobody bought, and the only business outcome was a few research inquiries.
Reported: Second Show HN, after one about 5 years earlier was buried; about 468 active users on launch day, 350 from HN and GitHub; about 6k page views; 500+ unique visitors from HN; about 20% bounce; 170+ shop visitors; no direct conversions; 4 inbound inquiries; 8 LinkedIn invites
“Sadly, no direct conversions, though, just a lot of curiosity.”
Launch platforms, Communities
indiehackers.com, October 2025
Brick 1100
Mobile app · multi-platform launch
Launched with no preparation on several platforms in the same week, the mobile app flopped on Hacker News but did well on Product Hunt, Peerlist and Reddit. Downloads spiked, but revenue stayed tiny.
Reported: Hacker News: 3 upvotes, 1 comment. Product Hunt: 200+ upvotes, 30+ comments, #9 for the day, newsletter feature (an earlier Product Hunt launch got 5 upvotes). Peerlist: 60+ upvotes, 250+ views, #2 for the week. Reddit: 170+ upvotes, 31k views. Downloads up 166% on Google Play and 1033% on the App Store at the peak; $7 from 4 subscriptions and $20 from ads
“I got 4 monthly subscriptions (priced at $2 each) on both platforms, making a total of $7.”
Launch platforms, Communities
peerlist.io, April 2025
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
posthog.com, James Hawkins, June 2024
hacker-jobs.com
Consumer web · Show HN front page
A GPT-parsed list of Who is Hiring jobs touched the front page only briefly. The maker published minute-by-minute traffic, and aggregator sites roughly doubled the total afterwards.
Reported: Show HN on March 22, 2023; 68 points; 28 comments; 35 to 40 unique visitors a minute on the front page, about 10 a minute on page two; 3,500 to 4,000 visitors from the front page; almost 8,000 unique visitors over 4 days
“we got about 35 to 40 unique visitors per minute while being on the Hacker News front page.”
Launch platforms, Communities
marcotm.com, January 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
indiehackers.com, Alexander Chen, 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
news.ycombinator.com, Koushik, November 2022
Vidds
SaaS · Show HN #2
The video editor team launched a free browser tool as engineering-as-marketing rather than the paid app. It drew thousands of visits but only 15 signups to the main product, though the backlinks later helped search rankings.
Reported: Free WebAssembly video tool reached #2 on Show HN for about 12 hours; 3.8k visits, 160 uses, 98 upvotes, 20 comments, 15 app signups, no paid users; about 290 backlinks
“3.8k visits(1) -> 160 uses -> 98 upvotes (~12 hours at #2 spot) -> 20 comments -> 15 app signups (no paid users)”
Launch platforms, Content marketing
indiehackers.com, Andrew, March 2021
FirstPayingUsers
Info product · first 500 email subscribers
He commented on founder and startup threads and linked his newsletter at the end of each comment. It worked until the moderator noticed the pattern.
Reported: Each HN comment mentioning the site brought 20 to 30 email signups; 500 subscribers in total; stopped after a warning from the main HN moderator for repeating the same link
“Once I saw that each comment i left on HN brought me 20-30 new email sign-ups, I went full-blown into it and seized every opportunity to mention my site.”
Communities
indiehackers.com, Darko Gjorgjievski, January 2021
Qbserve
Other · Show HN launch
The Mac time tracker's founder spent days answering HN comments and support requests after the Show HN. That one month out-earned the whole following year.
Reported: Show HN became a top submission of the week; over $20,000 in one month; $4,269 peak day when most trials ended; only $15,370 in the following year; $2K/mo at the time of the post
“we earned over $20,000 in one month, with a $4,269 peak on the day when the trial ended for most new customers.”
Launch platforms, Communities
indiehackers.com, Ivan, January 2021
Webflow
SaaS · Show HN launch
The cofounder recalls the 2013 Show HN as a last-ditch effort after other channels failed. It stayed #1 all day, and he says without it the founders would have gone back to their jobs.
Reported: Show HN in March 2013; #1 for the entire day; over 25,000 beta list signups; VentureBeat story the same day; earlier attempts on Digg, Reddit and design forums had failed
“Over 25,000 people signed up for our beta list. VentureBeat wrote a story about us that same day.”
Launch platforms, Communities
news.ycombinator.com, January 2021
Supabase
Developer tool · alpha launch on Hacker News
The HN post was made by an early GitHub follower while the team was still alpha testing, so the launch was unplanned. It brought a flood of signups the infrastructure was not ready for.
Reported: Top of Hacker News on May 27 and on the front page for 24+ hours; 30,000 new visitors and over 1,400 signups in 7 days; later over 1,000 databases
“On May 27 Supabase hit the top of Hacker News and stayed on the front page for more than 24 hours.”
Launch platforms, Communities
supabase.com, July 2020
YC Review
Marketplace · Show HN front page
A side project built in under a week went to Show HN with no plan and only basic analytics. It hit #2 within an hour.
Reported: Front page in under 30 minutes; #2 within 60 minutes; almost 2K users and over 4K page views in a day; enough signups to keep the maker busy for days
“My first “Show HN” submission on Hacker News got to the front page in under 30 minutes (and reached #2 in under 60 minutes).”
Launch platforms, Communities
hackernoon.com, July 2018
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
nathanbarry.com, Nathan Barry, September 2012
I Done This
SaaS · first 5,000 users
The daily log app's modest Show HN got about 150 signups on day one. A well-placed comment on a related front-page story did better than the submission itself.
Reported: Show HN at the bottom of the front page for 3 to 4 hours; about 2,300 visitors over 1.5 months, 1,400 on day 1; 150 launch-day signups; a comment on a #1 Lifehacker story sent about 25% more traffic than the submission; about 400 signups from 3,000 new visitors across HN and Reddit; Lifehacker later sent 25,000 visitors and about 4,500 signups
“In total, we got about 400 signups from 3,000 new visitors which tripled our user base.”
Launch platforms, Communities, Press
blog.idonethis.com, April 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
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
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
blog.reflame.app