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With these "I had a wild overnight viral success, here's what I did" posts there is always secret sauce that the author leaves out of the equation. I just love

With these "I had a wild overnight viral success, here's what I did" posts there is always secret sauce that the author leaves out of the equation. I just love that in an article titled "How I got my startup to #1 on both Product Hunt and Hacker News by accident” that the author never actually answers the question properly. Chances are he doesn't really know why it went to #1, or is avoiding the truth to make it seem like it was just sheer sweat that pushed it over the edge. The factors that pushed authors of these "how my thing became an overnight hit" posts to the top are pretty cut and dry. The winning combo was typically that they A) have already built up a key early distribution network of viral influencers via twitter a blog etc and B) that they have an uncanny knack for nailing down sticky, well designed, well positioned products in an exciting niche - a skill that for most people doesn't come naturally. I know of at least 3 people who tried to make similar products that never got a lick of attention. Why? A) They have no audience and a social network with zero influencers and B) Their products we clunky/ugly and kind of sucked. Just wish more of these posts stopped beating around bush and misleading junior entrepreneurs into thinking that simply building something is enough to score a hit. You need to have an audience to distribute it to, and you need to be really killer at nailing down product / market fit early on. That's the secret sauce.

pieterhg 12y ago
I see your point, but to be fair most of the visitors simply came from submitting it to Hacker News and Product Hunt. The rest followed suit from there.
k-mcgrady 12y ago
>> "You need to have an audience to distribute it to" If you've read the article the take away should be this isn't the case. He used the audience available on ProductHunt and HN to make it go viral. It was also a really useful product.

pieterhg 12y ago

I see your point, but to be fair most of the visitors simply came from submitting it to Hacker News and Product Hunt. The rest followed suit from there.

k-mcgrady 12y ago

>> "You need to have an audience to distribute it to" If you've read the article the take away should be this isn't the case. He used the audience available on ProductHunt and HN to make it go viral. It was also a really useful product.