Launch Failed - What Went Wrong

Nov 3, 2026 • Nyeki •

woke up at 10 am to post in hacker news, checked how the product hunt launch went.

zero. none. nothing. no signups, no comments, no upvotes, and 1-2 visitors an hour. steady, but that’s it.

so, time to figure out what went wrong. and i barely got any clicks to the product hunt launch, which tells me i likely had an issue with either discoverability or the tag line.

product hunt had at least 660 product launches today. duckity is #660, that’s how i know. they recommend not asking people for upvotes, otherwise you’ll be flamed, so i was a good boy and didn’t overtly promote it everywhere. mistake #1, bring your people with you beforehand.

i had posted about what i’m doing yesterday in /dev/null. not enough. without an actual follower base or hype, they won’t come after you next day, so i have to build a little follower base to get me started before the next launch.

i am getting clicks on /dev/null and twitter, and my cold emails got clicks too. yet zero replies? actually, my cold emails got the most clicks out of them all. when i wrote them by hand, obviously. the only opinion i got on duckity beforehand was that they didn’t know whether it worked, and that’s a fair complaint. i’ll be working on it as i said on my earlier blog posts.

also, i’m thinking credibility may be that issue stopping people from answering my emails.

okay wait. the hacker news launch is giving me a spike of clicks, so i’ll post an update if something interesting happens. if nothing gets posted, assume nothing happened.

either way, i’m starving and these are the things i’ll be working on next:

going to get developers by hand

fixing the credibility problem, as talked about earlier today

good luck with whatever you’re building!

p.s. i’ve read somewhere within yc that a founder who has time to blog doesn’t have time for their company. there’s some sort of truth on that, i gotta start working x2 now that i lowered anxiety.

Woke up at 10 AM to post in Hacker News, checked how the Product Hunt launch went.

Zero. None. Nothing. No signups, no comments, no upvotes, and 1-2 visitors an hour. Steady, but that’s it.

So, time to figure out what went wrong. And I barely got any clicks to the Product Hunt launch, which tells me I likely had an issue with either discoverability or the tag line.

Product Hunt had at least 660 product launches today. Duckity is #660, that’s how I know. They recommend not asking people for upvotes, otherwise you’ll be flamed, so I was a good boy and didn’t overtly promote it everywhere. Mistake #1, bring your people with you beforehand.

I had posted about what I’m doing yesterday in /dev/null. Not enough. Without an actual follower base or hype, they won’t come after you next day, so I have to build a little follower base to get me started before the next launch.

I am getting clicks on /dev/null and twitter, and my cold emails got clicks too. Yet zero replies? Actually, my cold emails got the most clicks out of them all. When I wrote them by hand, obviously. The only opinion I got on Duckity beforehand was that they didn’t know whether it worked, and that’s a fair complaint. I’ll be working on it as I said on my earlier blog posts.

Also, I’m thinking credibility may be that issue stopping people from answering my emails.

OKAY WAIT. The Hacker News launch is giving me a spike of clicks, so I’ll post an update if something interesting happens. If nothing gets posted, assume nothing happened.

Either way, I’m starving and these are the things I’ll be working on next:

Going to get developers by hand
Fixing the credibility problem, as talked about earlier today

Good luck with whatever you’re building!

P.S. I’ve read somewhere within YC that a founder who has time to blog doesn’t have time for their company. There’s some sort of truth on that, I gotta start working x2 now that I lowered anxiety.