# Product Hunt Launch Plan — Due Diligence Agents

> Research-backed, step-by-step plan to launch `dd-agents` on Product Hunt for maximum exposure and engagement.
> Synthesized from 7 launch playbooks incl. two #1-Product-of-the-Day case studies (GojiberryAI, Momen), a Top-5 retrospective (Meetric), Unusual Ventures × Social Growth Labs (100+ top-3 launches), and two OSS-growth guides (Preevy 1.5k★, OpenSaaS 6k★). Author/maker: Zohar Babin (solo maker).

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## 0. The honest framing (read first)

Product Hunt is **not dead, but it rewards a coordinated 24-hour campaign backed by ~3-4 weeks of prep** — not a "post and hope." Two truths shape everything below:

1. **It's a B2-developer-and-prosumer audience.** PH works best for self-serve tools tech people can try in minutes. Our **developer story** (open-source, `pip install`, Docker, forensic AI-agent architecture) is the PH-native hook. The **M&A-professional story** is the depth, but it converts better on LinkedIn/legal channels (Artificial Lawyer, LawNext, r/legaltech — see the broader launch plan in project memory).
2. **We are a free, open-source project with no signup funnel.** That changes our goal. We are **not** optimizing trial signups — we optimize **GitHub stars, `pip`/Docker installs, newsletter/secondary-channel reach, and durable social proof** (the "Product of the Day" badge + DR-91 backlink). Frame success accordingly.

**Our starting position (verify the live numbers before launch — stars/forks/version drift):** a public repo with a growing star/fork base on [GitHub](https://github.com/zoharbabin/due-diligence-agents) and [Releases](https://github.com/zoharbabin/due-diligence-agents/releases). Assets already in hand: interactive [sample report], the golden Project Atlas demo + recordings, full logo set, social preview, and the launch copy pack. This is a strong asset base — most of the asset-production work is *done*; the remaining work is the runway (§4) and scheduling.

---

## 1. Goals & success metrics (define before launching)

Pick explicit targets so we know what to optimize (every playbook insists on this):

| Metric | Floor | Target | Stretch |
|--------|-------|--------|---------|
| Rank | Top 5 Product of the Day | Top 3 | #1 Product of the Day |
| Upvotes | 250 | 400–500 | 600+ |
| Comments | 40 | 100 | 150+ |
| GitHub stars (launch week) | +150 (→ ~190) | +300 | +500 |
| Reviews on PH | 5 | 10 | 15 |
| Referral visitors (sample report + repo) | 1,500 | 3,000 | 5,000+ |

**Why Top 3 matters disproportionately:** only the top 3 sit above the fold on the PH homepage; Meetric's retrospective showed upvotes ≠ visitors — the traffic concentrates on #1–#3. Top 10 still earns a next-day **newsletter** feature. Hitting any top-5 spot earns the permanent badge.

Caveat to log honestly: a solo maker with a modest star base and a niche (M&A) audience is realistically fighting for **Top 5 on a low-competition day**, not a guaranteed #1. Plan for Top 5, build the machine that *could* reach #1 if the dev-tool angle catches.

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## 2. Timing decision

**Not yet launched.** Pick a target **weekend** and lock it so the §4–§6 runway can be dated backwards from it. Solo maker; schedule a DevHunt dress-rehearsal a couple of days prior.

> ⚠️ **Give the runway room:** the high-ROI "founder DM flywheel" (§4) needs ~3 weeks to compound into 50–150 reciprocal supporters. A compressed (~1 week) runway yields ~15–30 supporters and a realistic ceiling of a strong **Top 5**; a true **#1** run wants the full 3-week warm-up. Choose a launch weekend at least ~3 weeks out and date the countdown from it.

**Why weekend, 12:01 AM PT (general reasoning):**

Reasoning (consistent across all sources, and right for our profile):
- Weekends have **20–25% less traffic but far less competition** — historical data cited: ~366 upvotes won #1 on a Saturday vs ~633 on a Monday. Momen deliberately chose **Sunday** and hit #1 with ~500 upvotes.
- We don't have a 10k-person email list to brute-force a Tuesday. Our edge is *winning the day*, not *maximizing raw traffic* — the badge is the durable asset.
- Avoid: Monday (weekend backlog dumps), Friday (traffic decays into weekend), US public holidays, and any day a major competitor/big-name is launching (check the "upcoming" / "launching soon" pages a few days out).

**Hard rule:** go live at **exactly 12:01 AM PT** (= 3:01 AM ET for the maker — set an alarm, or use PH's native scheduled launch). Launching late throws away hours of the 24-h ranking window.

**Decision needed from Zohar:** confirm the target weekend. I'd suggest the **second or third weekend out** (gives ~3 weeks of warm-up — see §4). Lock the exact date so the countdown in §4–§6 can be dated.

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## 3. How the PH ranking actually works (so we optimize the right thing)

From the Unusual/SGL breakdown and corroborated elsewhere — the algorithm weighs:

1. **Number AND velocity of upvotes** — but it *prefers steady engagement across the day* over a front-loaded midnight spike followed by silence. Don't blow the whole network at 12:01; pace it across timezone waves (§6).
2. **Comments & answered questions** — *the most underrated lever.* SGL measured **one substantive comment ≈ 40–50 upvotes** of ranking weight. ⇒ The maker replying to **every** comment, in depth, is the single highest-leverage launch-day activity.
3. **Quality/credibility of voter network** — votes from **old, active, high-karma** accounts count; brand-new accounts created just to vote get **discounted or stripped** (PH actively de-weights and removes suspicious votes mid-day — Meetric watched a competitor lose 200 votes this way). ⇒ Warm up supporter accounts *weeks* early (§4).

**Three bright-line rules we never cross** (instant-penalty / ban risk):
- ❌ Never **ask for upvotes** explicitly. Ask for *feedback*, *thoughts*, *a look*. (Upvotes follow.)
- ❌ Never **buy upvotes** or run a vote-ring. PH detects velocity/new-account anomalies and strips them.
- ❌ Never tell people to **create new accounts to vote** — those votes don't count and flag the listing.

---

## 4. Pre-launch runway (T-minus 3 weeks → launch)

### T–3 weeks: accounts, network, "Coming Soon"
- [ ] **Maker account hygiene (Zohar):** real photo, bio, Twitter/X (@zohar) + LinkedIn connected. (Already an established account — good. PH favors older, active accounts.)
- [ ] **Warm up daily:** every day until launch, upvote that day's launches + leave 1–2 *thoughtful* comments. Build karma + familiarity. This is non-negotiable per every guide.
- [ ] **The "founder DM" flywheel (highest ROI prep tactic):** each day, upvote ~5 launching products, then DM/connect those founders on LinkedIn: *"Just upvoted your PH launch — I'm launching dd-agents in a few weeks, would love to send you the link if you'd like to support."* Do this daily for 3 weeks ⇒ **50–150 reciprocal supporters** with *real, active* accounts. This is how solo makers beat funded teams.
- [ ] **Create the PH "Coming Soon" / scheduled launch page** → unlocks the "Launching Soon" badge and lets people **subscribe to be notified** at launch (pre-loads day-0 velocity). Add teaser tagline + banner.
- [ ] **Build the supporter list (spreadsheet):** name, channel (LinkedIn/X/email/WhatsApp/Discord), timezone, "has PH account?". Target **40–80 people** with existing active PH accounts. Mine: prior GitHub stargazers (37), forkers (8), Anthropic Discord, legaltech contacts, personal network.

### T–2 weeks: assets & copy lock (mostly done — audit, don't rebuild)
- [ ] **Audit existing assets against PH specs** (we already have most):
  - Logo/thumbnail: square, 240×240+ (have `logo-512.png`, `logo-198.png`). Consider an **animated GIF thumbnail** (<2MB, no blank first frame, animates on hover) — proven to lift feed click-through.
  - Gallery: **4–6 images**, 1270×760+, each = one feature with an embedded caption. Sequence as a mini-walkthrough: *(1) what it is → (2) the 13-agent architecture → (3) a real cited finding → (4) the HTML report verdict → (5) Excel/chat export → (6) `pip install` / Docker one-liner*. Pull from existing `screenshots/` + the sample report.
  - **Demo video:** build from the golden Project Atlas run + the recordings in `recordings/` and the script in `video-brief.md`. Re-cut to **≤ 2:00**, founder-narrated, show the real Atlas run producing the cited cross-domain finding. Upload to **YouTube (public/unlisted, full link)**. Add captions (many watch muted).
- [ ] **Write & lock the copy** (templates in §7): product name (≤40 char), tagline (≤60 char), description (~260 char), 3 tags (2 broad: `Artificial Intelligence`, `Developer Tools` or `SaaS`; 1 niche: `Legal`/`Finance`), the **maker's first comment**, and the PH-exclusive offer.
- [ ] **Collect 3–5 testimonials** (specific, named, outcome-focused) — from any early users / beta readers / advisors. Reuse in gallery + first comment + landing.
- [ ] **Decide the PH-exclusive "offer."** We're free/OSS, so the offer isn't a discount — make it *community value*: e.g. "PH launch = we're taking feature requests live in the comments + first 50 commenters get a personal Loom walkthrough / priority on a good-first-issue / shout-out in release notes." (Meetric's #1 regret was having nothing to offer because they were free — we pre-empt that.)

### T–1 week: dry run & logistics
- [ ] **Create the draft listing**, preview on desktop *and mobile* (>60% of PH traffic is mobile), click every link, watch the video through.
- [ ] **Repo readiness** (this is our "onboarding funnel"): README hero GIF/screenshot up top (✓ have roster now), `pip install dd-agents` and Docker one-liner work cleanly, the [sample report] loads fast, GitHub Discussions open for Q&A, 5 good-first-issues live. The README is the landing page — the "5-minute aha" = open the sample report, no install.
- [ ] **UTM + tracking:** PH auto-appends `?ref=producthunt`; add UTMs on links we control. Set GA/Plausible to watch referral spikes. Decide the *one primary CTA* for PH traffic → **the interactive sample report** (zero-friction aha), with secondary = **GitHub star**.
- [ ] **Pre-write everything:** social posts (X thread + LinkedIn), the launch email, community messages — per timezone wave (§6). Don't improvise at 3 AM.
- [ ] **Schedule the launch** natively for 12:01 AM PT, or set the alarm.
- [ ] **Send a heads-up** to the supporter list with the exact date/time + a 1-line "here's how to help" (comment with a question/feedback, not "I upvoted").

---

## 5. Asset & copy checklist (PH spec, condensed)

| Asset | Spec | Status |
|-------|------|--------|
| Product name | ≤ 40 chars | draft in §7 |
| Tagline | ≤ 60 chars, benefit-first, no buzzwords | draft in §7 |
| Description | ~260 chars | draft in §7 |
| Thumbnail/logo | square, 240×240+, GIF <2MB (no blank 1st frame) | ✅ have `logo-512.png`; GIF = nice-to-have |
| Gallery | 4–6 imgs @1270×760+, captioned, walkthrough order | ✅ source from `screenshots/` + sample report |
| Demo video | YouTube link, ≤2 min, founder-narrated, captioned | ⚠️ build from Atlas run + `recordings/` + `video-brief.md` → YouTube |
| Tags | 3 (2 broad + 1 niche) | decide: AI + Dev Tools + Legal |
| Makers | real, warmed-up accounts | Zohar (+ any contributors) |
| First comment | story + how + differentiator + offer + question | draft in §7 |
| PH-exclusive offer | community value (we're free) | draft in §7 |

---

## 6. Launch-day playbook (24h, all times PT)

The maker runs the whole day; the principle is **pace the network across timezone waves** (steady > front-loaded) and **reply to every comment in depth**.

**12:01 AM — Go live**
- Confirm page is live. Post the **maker's first comment immediately** (story + video + offer + open question).
- Notify the **inner circle (10–20)** only — kick off the first wave. Aim to clear ~50–100 upvotes in the first 1–2 hours to enter the top slots, but don't dump the *whole* list.

**1–4 AM — Asia/Europe wave + social**
- Post the **X thread** (pin it) + **LinkedIn** post. DM close supporters in EU/Asia timezones.
- Add the **"Featured on Product Hunt" badge** to the README, the docs site, and the GitHub social preview.
- Reply to every comment as it lands.

**4–9 AM — Europe + US East wave**
- Email the supporter list (batches). Post in **founder/dev communities** where Zohar is a *real member* (Indie Hackers, relevant Slacks/Discords incl. Anthropic, legaltech groups) — quality over quantity (Meetric's lesson: don't spray cold communities).
- **Reddit (careful, free/OSS gives us latitude):** `r/opensource`, `r/Python`, `r/SaaS`, `r/sideproject`; save `r/webdev` "Showoff Saturday" if launching Sat. Lead with the *problem + the open-source tool*, link the **repo/sample report**, mention PH secondarily.

**9 AM–2 PM — US peak**
- This is the highest-traffic block. Stay glued to comments — depth here is what compounds ranking (1 great reply ≈ 40–50 votes of weight). Share a **milestone update** ("just crossed top 5 / 100 upvotes 🎉") on X/LinkedIn to create a social-proof feedback loop.
- Follow up with supporters who haven't engaged yet (personal nudge to "take a look + share thoughts," never "go upvote").

**2–7 PM — US afternoon (post-work) wave**
- Second social push as the US gets off work. Reply under everyone who shared the launch. Post a second milestone if we're climbing.
- If close to a rank threshold, rally the *remaining* supporters now (the back half of the list, held in reserve for steady velocity).

**7 PM–midnight — Finish strong**
- Final DM round (held-back contacts, late-timezone friends). Thank every commenter. Ask happy users to leave a **PH review** (reviews are a distinct, valuable signal). Don't let a competitor pass us in the last hour — PH also re-runs anti-fraud near end-of-day (Meetric *gained* a spot when a competitor's bought votes were stripped).

**Roles** (solo, so sequence not parallelize): if any contributor/friend can co-maker, assign them a **5-hour comment-coverage shift** so Zohar can sleep through the 3–8 AM lull. Otherwise: nap the lull, be sharp for the 9 AM–7 PM peak.

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## 7. Copy drafts (edit, then lock)

**Product name:** `Due Diligence Agents`

**Tagline — LOCKED (from 4 iterative tournaments, ~60 agents, 230+ candidates, research-grounded + audience-segmented):**
- ✅ **`Legal flags a risk. Finance another. We connect and cite.`** (57) — leads with our truest, most defensible moat (**cross-domain cross-referencing** — the founder's own war story: nobody connects the dots across siloed workstreams), closes with the forensic-citation proof. Speaks to **both** audiences: a developer reads an accurate, swagger-free description; an M&A pro feels the pain in their bones.

**Supporting lines (each has a job):**
- **Subtitle / PH first-comment hook:** `Every finding traced to an exact quote. Or we halt.` (51) — the forensic/anti-slop trust line developers reward.
- **Both-audiences A/B (spec flavor):** `Read every doc. Connect every domain. Cite every flag.` (54) — parallel-verb, most legible; all three moats.
- **Bold M&A-feel A/B variant:** `The clause they missed is your leverage. Found and quoted.` (57) — "leverage" hook, narrower buried-clause lane.
- **Shortest fusion:** `The risk no one domain sees. Found and quoted.` (46).

**Strategic verdicts from the tournament:**
- **Advantage:** *cross-domain is the strongest hook; forensic-citation is the proof that closes it.* "Cited/grounded" is approaching table-stakes (every AI tool claims it) → better as the close than the lead. Cross-domain is the one thing no single-domain reviewer or generic contract-AI does.
- **Audience:** *lead both, anchored on M&A pain in dev-legible terms.* PH devs populate the upvote signal; M&A pros convert/share/pay. A pure-dev line wins the upvote and loses the buyer; a pure-M&A line wins the buyer but underperforms launch day. Cross-domain bridges both.

**Avoided (and why):** "zero/no hallucinations" (overreach + misstates the product — the gate *catches* fabrication), agent/domain counts as the hook (internal trivia / "N agents" cosplay), single-clause hooks as the headline (too-narrow "contracts" trap), pure-upside "wins the deal" (soft overclaim a skeptical buyer discounts on reflex).

**Description (~260 char):**
> Open-source forensic due diligence. 13 AI agents read every contract across 9 domains — Legal, Finance, Tax, Cyber, ESG & more — cross-reference findings, and trace each to an exact page & quote. Interactive HTML + Excel reports. Runs locally. `pip install dd-agents`.

**Maker's first comment (template — make it personal):**
> Hi PH 👋 I'm Zohar, the maker.
>
> M&A due diligence means a handful of people reading hundreds of contracts under deadline — and the thing that kills a deal is the clause that gets *missed*: a change-of-control trigger buried on page 40, a revenue number that doesn't reconcile across two files.
>
> So I built **Due Diligence Agents** — an open-source pipeline where **13 specialist AI agents** (Legal, Finance, Commercial, Tech, Cyber, HR, Tax, Regulatory, ESG + synthesis) read every document in the **data room** in parallel, **cross-reference findings across domains**, and trace **every** finding to an exact page, section, and quote. It produces an interactive HTML report with a Go/No-Go view + a 16-sheet Excel export. It runs **locally** — your documents only leave your machine as API calls to your own LLM provider.
>
> What makes it different: it's **forensic and auditable** (every claim is cited; a quality gate halts the run rather than ship unreliable output), **fully open-source** (Apache-2.0, `pip install dd-agents` or Docker), the agent prompts are **editable markdown** you can read and fork, and there's **no vendor lock-in** — run it on the Anthropic API, your own AWS Bedrock or Google Vertex account, or any model (GPT, Gemini, local) via an Anthropic-compatible gateway, all by env config.
>
> 👉 You can see a **real (synthetic-deal) report with zero install** here: [sample report link]
> 👉 Code: github.com/zoharbabin/due-diligence-agents
>
> **For the PH community:** I'm taking feature requests *live in the comments today* — tell me the contract risk that always slips through on your deals and I'll show how (or whether) the agents catch it. First folks who want one get a personal walkthrough.
>
> What would you want 13 tireless analysts to catch in *your* data room?

**X thread opener:** "I open-sourced the M&A tool I wish existed: 13 AI agents that read every contract in a data room, cross-reference the findings, and cite every one to an exact page + quote. Live on Product Hunt today 🧵👇 [link]"

**LinkedIn opener (M&A angle):** lead with the missed-clause pain, the 13-agent/9-domain approach, "accelerates advisors, doesn't replace them," link sample report + PH. Tags: #DueDiligence #LegalTech #MandA #OpenSource.

> ⚠️ Messaging guardrails (from CLAUDE.md): never call reports "board-ready" — they're *analysis used as a basis for deliverables*; never frame the tool as *replacing* advisors — it *accelerates* their work; no real company/PII data anywhere.

---

## 8. Amplify beyond PH (compounding, OSS-native)

PH is one channel — these run in parallel and feed each other (the OSS guides got 1.5k–6k stars largely *off-PH*):

- **DevHunt.org** — PH-for-dev-tools. Consider launching there **a week before** PH as a dress rehearsal (OpenSaaS did exactly this — same assets, same contacts, organized them for the real PH day).
- **Hacker News "Show HN"** — post the **GitHub repo** (HN favors repo links over branded URLs), CTO/maker first comment explaining the build. Separate day from PH so they don't cannibalize.
- **Reddit** — `r/opensource`, `r/Python`, `r/MachineLearning`, `r/SaaS`, `r/legaltech`, `r/sideproject`, `r/webdev` Showoff Saturday. Free/OSS = far more latitude than a paid SaaS.
- **Dev.to / Hashnode** — repurpose the [trust-layer article] + a "how I built 13 agents" / "what I learned launching on PH" post; use the `#showdev` tag.
- **GitHub discoverability** — set the repo **social preview** image (Settings → Social preview) so it looks sharp on `/topics`; confirm 20 topics; PR the repo into relevant **Awesome lists** (awesome-ai-agents [27k★], awesome-legaltech) and ask an early adopter to add it to GitHub **Topics**.
- **Newsletters/aggregators** — Console.dev, GitHub20k (free submits), daily.dev (approve the blog as a source).
- **M&A/legaltech press** (from prior plan): Artificial Lawyer (Richard Tromans), LawNext (Bob Ambrogi) — pitch *after* a strong PH result; "Product of the Day" is the credibility hook for a trend story.
- **F5Bot** — set keyword alerts ("due diligence automation", "contract review AI", "data room") to organically join relevant threads post-launch.

---

## 9. Post-launch (turn the spike into compounding growth)

The launch is the **starting line**, not the finish (every guide hammers this):
- **Don't disappear day 2.** Keep answering PH comments for a week — people discover the page for months.
- **Thank-you wrap-up:** public post on X/LinkedIn with final rank + numbers + favorite comments; personal notes to power-commenters; invite engaged folks to the GitHub Discussions / as advisors.
- **Permanent badge** on README, docs homepage, social preview — durable conversion + the DR-91 backlink (SEO compounds for months/years).
- **Feedback → roadmap:** group every comment/feature request into themes; convert the best into GitHub issues; reply to the requester linking the issue (shows you listen, pulls them back).
- **Content from the launch:** "What I learned launching an open-source AI tool on Product Hunt" (dev.to + LinkedIn) — itself a traffic/star driver.
- **Relaunch rule:** only for a genuine v2.0 / major pivot / platform expansion, ≥6 months apart — *not* minor features.

---

## 10. Decisions

1. **Launch date** — ⏳ **TBD.** Pick a weekend ≥3 weeks out (full founder-DM runway → realistic #1 shot); date the §4–§6 countdown from it. Go live exactly 12:01 AM PT.
2. **Co-maker?** — ✅ **Solo for now.** Nap the 3–8 AM lull; be sharp 9 AM–7 PM PT peak.
3. **PH-exclusive offer** — ✅ **Community value, no business angle** (live feature requests in comments + personal walkthroughs). Purely open-source; monetization not on the table now.
4. **DevHunt dress-rehearsal** — ✅ **Yes, a couple of days before the locked PH date.**
5. **Tagline** — ✅ **LOCKED: "Legal flags a risk. Finance another. We connect and cite."** (57 ch) — cross-domain moat + forensic proof, both audiences. Subtitle: "Every finding traced to an exact quote. Or we halt." A/B + alternates in §7. Supporting enterprise hook: **no vendor lock-in** (run on Anthropic API / your Bedrock / your Vertex / any model via a gateway). Positioning rolled out repo-wide (README, docs, mkdocs, DOCKERHUB, pyproject, GitHub description/topics, OG/JSON-LD meta).

---

### Source notes
Synthesized 2026-06-05 from: GojiberryAI #1 guide (Czerny/LinkedIn), Momen #1 case study (Alex Chen), Unusual Ventures × Social Growth Labs (100+ top-3 launches; the "1 comment ≈ 40–50 upvotes" + karma/credibility data), Meetric Top-5 "what NOT to do" (Boudet), the 4-week SaaS-directory guide (AutoSaaSLaunch), the macOS-app PH guide, Preevy OSS playbook (Livecycle, 1.5k★), OpenSaaS OSS guide (Wasp, 6k★). All are point-in-time external advice — re-verify PH's current submission specs/limits on the PH site before locking assets.

[sample report]: https://zoharbabin.github.io/due-diligence-agents/sample-report/
[presentation]: https://zoharbabin.github.io/due-diligence-agents/marketing/presentation.html
[demo video]: ./LAUNCH-ASSETS.md
[trust-layer article]: ./devto-trust-layer.md
