Both engineers
One focused on the technical side, the other on the rest: product/users/social
Pitch
Basically a Sunrise replacement, with the aim to be even better.
Q
When and how did you decided to create a replacement for Sunrise?
-> 13rd of May: Sunrise will die end of August. 1st of June, we register kin.today.
How long did it take to build it?
-> Couple of weeks for the first version.
How many beta users did you have before the launch on PH?
-> 3.5k before PH
How did you choose them?
-> Targeted discussion on Twitter
Pitch
Users: grow your community, listen to them and improve your product based on their feedback
Hunter: find someone respected by the community, be humble when you ask, listen to them.
Timing: not too early, listen to PH people, adapt to your product (ex: Sunrise was set to die on the 31st, we had to go on PH this day)
Time: be available, be quick to answer, be prepared.
Q
Was it your first launch on PH?
-> Yes
Why did you decide to launch on PH instead of press or Hacker News?
-> We always knew we would launch on PH. HN is way tech than PH. Reddit can be a mess. Press comes after.
Why is it important to have an experience on launching on PH before?
-> It’s important to know the basics about PH: community, community, community.
Did you change the product/design/ux to launch it on Product Hunt?
-> No reason to.
How did you choose the time for your launch? (you've mentionned the date, august 31st but not the time)
-> Morning in Europe to get enough votes to be first when the US wake up.
How and why did you decided to reach out Julie for the launch?
-> We knew her, we asked her the day before.
Pitch
8k in 24hrs, 22k total
+ 300 followers in a week
+ 100 likes
Q
How many french users vs. international did you got from PH? ( approximate % )
-> 73% English / 5% French / JP-NL-RU-DE-ES
Do you think the PH campaign had a good ROI (time spend vs. leads & conversions)?
-> Hell yes.
How many users did you got from Product Hunt in 24h? in 1 month?
-> Around 6k in 24hrs. 14k?
Do you still get leads from Product Hunt page today? If yes, how many (approximatively)
-> Yes, a couple dozen per day.
Pitch
9k pageviews in 36hrs
6.5k after
If you had to launch again, what will you change?
-> Better material: gif/screenshots/videos
What will be your special move?
-> Be prepared for the launch of Kin iOS
What are the next big steps for Kin? Will you focus on acquisition, retention...?
-> Retention, iOS app and then we’ll see.
What do you need to achieve these steps?
-> Awesome devs