HN Explorer

Ask HN: What are some success stories that start with a Show HN thread?

1 points by nvln ↗ HN
Bootstrapped/pre-seed success stories to be precise.

Success:

1. Adoption / User growth. 2. Funding (Have there been cases where investors have approached a founder directly after seeing a Show HN thread?) 3. Acquisition / Acquihire 4. or more generally hitting any major milestone that was doubtful for the submitter/founder before Show HN.

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EDIT:

So, you’ve poured in the blood, sweat and tears and you have something that you are convinced solves a problem and solves it well for your target audience. You decide to showcase it on HN. Until this point the story is yours and somewhat private. When you post it on HN, the public part of your story starts.

I’m curious to know the stories where at that point there was a spike that lead to success.

2 comments

[ 5413 ms ] story [ 49.1 ms ] thread
PaulHoule
I don't think any story starts with hitting it big on TechCrunch, HN, or Product Hunt.

For one thing there is a lot of blood, sweat and tears involved in getting your product ready to show.

On the other hand I think a lot of people don't have respect for how much work marketing is. Back when I was the PR director for the college radio station at a small college I would put up hundreds of signs to advertise a dance. We went from having a handful of people show up to having a huge crowd. My posters were part of it but we also had better DJs than me (people would boo when I took over the board) who could rock the crowd and get a good reputation that would keep people coming.

A lot of people bet it all on one marketing channel but that's not how you succeed.

nvln
Thanks for this. I don’t think I phrased my question well in hindsight.

To clarify:

So, you’ve poured in the blood, sweat and tears and you have something that you are convinced solves a problem and solves it well for your target audience. You decide to showcase it on HN. Until this point the story is yours and somewhat private. When you post it on HN, the public part of your story starts.

I’m curious to know if there are any stories where at that point there was a spike.

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I’m in agreement with your stance here:

A. Having a good product / service is non-negotiable B. A good marketing pipeline / set of channels /effort is essential to drive carry forward any momentum from the HN or any other channel.

Loved your college radio station story. I think a lot of education comes from activities like this. Thanks for sharing.