Hey! I’m Elena, Co-founder of Kvistly—an AI-powered quiz maker for training and team-building. We gamify education, making learning fun and helping teams connect in an engaging way no matter where they are, while learning something new. And today I will tell you a story how we became the #1 product of the week in Education on Product Hunt and got 500 users in 48h spending $0 on promotion
Why we decided to launch on Product Hunt:
Firstly, Product Hunt is one of the most effective ways to get early users for a product. It’s free, available to everyone, and if you can pull off a great launch, Product Hunt can change your startup’s growth trajectory. Companies like Notion, Loom, Zapier, Robinhood, and Front all found their first set of users this way A successful launch provides access to an international audience of over 6 million people and brings a range of tangible benefits:
- Hundreds of new users for your product, sales + new clients.
- Inbound requests from VC funds and business angels.
- Exposure to tech bloggers and PR benefits.
- A widely recognized credibility indicator (for pitch decks, website, sales).
- Product feedback and a source for customer research.
Secondly, Kvistly exists 1 year and we decided to launch now because we made a full redesign of the product and added exciting new features.
We had 2 goals for this launch:
- To become one of the top 3 products of the day
- To share our 1 year progress with a wider audience
Our story begins with a team of 2—our designer and me. We spent 2 months preparing for our Product Hunt launch, gathering all the information we could find. We read articles, Reddit posts, and Product Hunt guidelines, but the most valuable advice came from another founder, Max Prilutskiy from Replexica (YC F24), who had successfully launched on PH and became the #2 Product of the Day. I incorporated his best practices into our strategy, and now I’ll share them with you.
We initially aimed to launch on October 1st but eventually moved it to October 8th. Good to know: You can edit your Product Hunt launch page and move your launch date as many times as you need, so don’t stress too much about it.
Key steps to prepare:
- Choose the right day: The busiest days with the most traffic (but also the most competition) are Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Even companies like Apple launch on those days. Monday and Friday are less competitive but get less exposure. We launched on a Tuesday, simply because we felt ready.
- Warm up your audience: Create accounts for each team member at least 8 days before the launch, sooner is better, follow each other and people you know, and engage in comments. We created a teaser page with a “Notify Me” button and shared it across communities, including LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Telegram, and PH launch groups. This was crucial for building anticipation.
- Reach out to your clients/users: We also emailed our clients and sent a team picture to make it personal. I posted regularly on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram to ensure our audience was warmed up.
Mistakes to avoid:
One big mistake we made was telling our corporate friends to upvote. Many of them didn’t have Product Hunt accounts, so when they created new accounts, their upvotes didn’t count due to PH’s algorithm. Ensure your supporters have active accounts in advance!
The emotional side:
Launching on Product Hunt is an emotional rollercoaster. I was sick with the flu and managing the launch from bed with a fever, which made it even more draining. People will criticize your efforts, but push through. Some might even try to sell you promotional services for hundreds or thousands of dollars—I received over 100 messages from people in India offering such services. Our goal was to spend zero on promotion—and we did it! We believe in our product and didn’t want to buy votes. Real people’s voices say it all!
Launch day strategy:
- Get featured: We didn’t know the exact criteria for getting featured, but we made sure our visuals, slides, and product page were polished. Having beautiful visuals is crucial! We got featured right away, which boosted our visibility.
- First 4 hours are critical: The first 4 hours can make or break your launch. Products appear randomly on the homepage, and the goal is to climb to the top. Once you’re up there, people start upvoting you naturally because of the snowball effect. We kept our pace steady, gaining upvotes consistently throughout the day.
- Keep the momentum going for 24 hours: Product launches operate in San Francisco time, so we launched at 9 am our time in Barcelona. For the next 24 hours, we were in constant contact with everyone, asking for support. One of the competing products on the list had support from a well-known hunter, Chris Messina 🏆 #1 Hunter! (with over 38k followers). We were switching between first and second place for several hours. My main KPI was 30 upvotes per hour.
We continued reaching out to all our communities, reminding people to support us. A big win was being featured, so I started each pitch with, “Hey, we’re featured among the best! Please support us!”
- Tracking Progress: We used tools like hunter.space to track our upvotes and speed.
Lessons Learned:
• Find a hunter: While we didn’t have one, it’s a huge advantage if you do. Hunters with a large following can give you a significant boost.
• First comments matter: On your product page, ensure your first comment explains what your product does, who it’s for, and why it’s important. Also, reply quickly to comments to show that you’re active and engaged.
• Beautiful slides over video: You don’t need a video! No one watches them. Focus on making your visuals beautiful.
Key results:
• We became #1 Product of the Week in Education and #3 Product of the Day
• We ranked #5 among AI products.
• We gained over 550+ upvotes and 100+ of comments.
• Our user base grew by over 500 users in 48h, including entire school teaching teams in the US.
• We attracted attention from 3 potential investors.
Be unstoppable! There are so many good people out there ready to help—you just need to ask. Focus on building a great product and tell everyone about it. The world deserves to know what you’re creating!
Thanks to everyone who supported us. Kvistly is on a mission to make learning fun and easy with our AI quizzes. Try it out—it’s free for teams up to 10 people. Let’s make learning fun!
