Lessons learned from launching and reaching #2 on HackerNews

Hey everyone!

I’ve been a lurker in this sub, and other entrepreneurial ones for over a decade now. Jeez that’s a lot now that I think about it. Anyhow, I’ve always wanted to create a product/side project but I could never fully commit to it, until now!

As I take my first steps, I wanted to give back to the community by sharing my experience of doing a soft launch on HackerNews and reaching #2 on the front page—hopefully, some might find valuable insights in it.

For the last few months I’ve been working on and off on Booktalk, a Slack app that makes book clubs easier to run. The story is that me and a few of my coworkers wanted to create a virtual book club since we are all working remotely and decided why not automate it. For now it will allow a team to get details and suggestions about books, vote on books that they want to read, set a timeframe for their reading cycle, and when the cycle ends, it reaches out with a few relevant questions about the book.

Pre-launch

I built the landing page using Framer, which allowed me to execute fairly quickly and create a beautiful experience without much coding. The page was minimal, just a form and a few cards explaining what the app does. I also added a survey after sign-up to better understand my user base, which consisted of 12 questions, with the last 3 being open-ended (pay attention to this!).

Crunching numbers

I debated on posting in other indie hacker communities first, but said f it, and posted directly to HackerNews! The day and timing was about right, I posted last Sunday at around 9am EST.

  • I created a post with a link to booktalk.club and added a description in a comment
  • Early on, the post got a few upvotes and a comment, so I made sure to reply to every comment to keep engagement going
  • Within ~30 minutes, the post hit #2 on the front page and stayed between #2–4 for about 4–5 hours, spending a total of 10 hours on the front page

During that time:

  • 4.7k unique visitors
  • 320 signups (6,8% conversion)
  • 107 survey responses (33% conversion from signups)

Even after dropping from the front page, the post remained in the "Show HN" category for 4 more days. Over those extra days, another 52 people signed up, with a third of them completing the survey.

Now, a week later:

  • 5.8k unique visitors
  • 402 signups (~7% conversion)
  • 141 survey responses (~35% conversion from signups)

Interestingly, conversion rates have risen slightly, which suggests that users who visited the landing page after it left the front page were more likely to engage with it.

Regarding the survey itself, I saw the completion rate drop by ~50% for each question after the 9th one. I guess that’s where people got bored or exhausted, but open-ended questions tend to be tougher overall.

I’m not entirely sure how to interpret these numbers since I haven’t found anything concrete to compare them to, but I think it did pretty well. That’s also the reason why I’m sharing this!

Mishaps

  1. Accessibility
    A couple of commenters pointed out that the text lacked contrast (white text on a pale pink background). That was an important accessibility issue, so I went ahead and fixed it quickly!

  2. No automated emails
    Since I’ve never expected this much publicity and engagement, I hadn’t set up automated emails for welcoming new users. Oops! I researched a few solutions and since I was already using Zoho for emails, I sent the first 300 something emails with Zoho Campaigns. Their free tier is really generous so it served me well for a quite a bit. I then automated everything with Loop, and my mind is at peace.

  3. Confusing messaging
    Some comments mentioned a bit of confusion about what the product is all about. Most of them weren’t sure if Booktalk is meant for businesses or if it also worked for communities. Others weren’t clear if it was a community in itself or just a tool. Messaging is hard to get 100% right, so I’ll be putting out an update in the landing page to address this.

Lessons learned

  1. Be human
    Authenticity truly matters. You have to genuinely ask for feedback and engage with people. Don’t try to impress or run a marketing campaign, if it feels like a sales pitch users won’t be inclined to interact.

  2. Make your value proposition extra clear
    As I mentioned earlier, clarity is everything. Your value proposition should be crystal clear, so avoid vague or overly generic wording. Finding the right balance between simplicity and depth should reflect your ideal persona as well.

  3. Momentum matters
    Engagement fuels engagement. Replying to every comment early on helped keep the post alive, and the same applies beyond launch day. You have to keep the conversation going, share updates, and act on feedback in order to maintain interest.

I’m incredibly grateful for this community, as I’ve learned so much over the years, and I’m excited to put that knowledge into action! Not sure if I’ll go with the building in public thing, but I’ll definitely be sharing updates whenever I have valuable insights.

PS: Would love to hear your thoughts, so shoot your feedback!

Cheers!