You launched your product.So why the hell is nobody coming?

Congratulations. You built a thing. It works. It’s live, people can sign up, and you posted about it twice. And the only person who has visited this week is your mum. Twice.

You’re not alone, and here is the good news: it usually doesn’t mean your product is bad. It means not enough of the right people know it exists. Building the product and getting it noticed are two different jobs, and most of us have only ever practised the first one.

In the past weeks I went through close to 100 product websites that makers sent to this directory. Some made me want to sign up immediately. Quite a few made me sigh. Here is what I learned.

Three ways your website chases people away

People decide fast. Back in 2011, the usability firm Nielsen Norman Group found that visitors often leave a web page within 10 to 20 seconds. Ten, maybe twenty seconds. That’s how long you get to explain yourself, so let’s not waste them.

Stop explaining your technology. Nobody asked. “An AI-powered agentic workflow platform.” Who is this for? Not for the tired shop owner who just wants to know when the checkout breaks. Write the sentence that person would say out loud: “Tell me when my shop stops taking orders.” Put it at the top. Your clever engine can wait until paragraph three.

Your browser tab is wearing someone else’s logo. That tiny picture next to the page title is called a favicon. Website builders put in a default one, and on several sites I read, it was still there. Most often it was a black triangle, the logo of the hosting company Vercel. It’s like opening a shop with the “Coming soon” sign still in the window. Not a crime, but it looks unfinished.

Nobody seems to live here. On many sites I couldn’t find out who made the product, or even in which country. I think that makes visitors nervous, especially when you ask for their credit card or access to their email. A name, a short “about us” and a contact address. That’s all. It costs you an evening.

Where your first users actually are

Go to them. They won’t come to you. Paul Graham, who co-founded the startup program Y Combinator, put it bluntly in 2013: “You can’t wait for users to come to you.” His examples are almost comically hands-on. The founders of the payment company Stripe set up their service on new customers’ computers themselves. The founders of Airbnb went door to door in New York. Door to door!

“You can’t wait for users to come to you.”

Paul Graham, “Do Things That Don’t Scale”, 2013

You don’t have to knock on doors. Online, the same idea means finding the places where people complain about the problem you solve: a forum on Reddit (a huge website made of discussion forums), a Facebook group, a forum for one trade. Search for the problem in plain words, like “invoice reminders forum”. Read along first. Then ask how people deal with it today. Offer your product only to the ones who struggle.

How much time should this take? Gabriel Weinberg, who founded the search engine DuckDuckGo, suggests half your time on the product and half on finding users. That’s his rule of thumb, not science. But be honest: how much of last month went into finding users? Yeah, I thought so.

Use launch sites and directories. People visit them on purpose, looking for something new. Here is a starting list, in no particular order:

• Product Hunt shows a new list of products every day, and members vote. It’s free. Asking people directly for votes is against the rules, so don’t.
• Show HN is a section of Hacker News, a big discussion site about technology. You post something readers can try right away. A page that only collects email addresses doesn’t count, and you’re expected to stick around and answer questions.
• AlternativeTo and SaaSHub are where people look for alternatives to software they already know. AlternativeTo is free, but its team checks every product and the free queue can be slow. Paying gets you a faster review. SaaSHub says its submission tool is free.
• Some directories charge for every listing. BetaList says all submissions are paid. There’s An AI For That, a directory of AI tools, sells listing packages. Check what you actually get before you pay.

And yes, SaaSolution is also free. I read your website, write a short description of what your product does and who it’s for, and link to you. You can submit your product here. End of advertising break.

Six steps for this week

1. Test your first sentence. Show your homepage to a friend who doesn’t work in tech. Ask what the product does. If they can’t say it in their own words, rewrite the sentence.
2. Replace the favicon. In most website builders it’s in the site settings, under “favicon” or “site icon”. Put your own logo there.
3. Show who you are. Add your name or company, your country and a contact address, for example on an “About” page.
4. Find two places where your users talk. Search for the problem plus “forum”, “group” or “community”. Read for a few days before you post anything.
5. Ask ten people. Write to ten people who have the problem. One question is enough: “How do you handle this today?” Mention your product later, once you know their answer.
6. Submit to two or three free directories, for example Product Hunt, AlternativeTo, SaaSHub or SaaSolution.

None of this needs an advertising budget, and much of it is quick. Your mum will be relieved.

Sources

• Paul Graham, “Do Things That Don’t Scale”, July 2013: paulgraham.com/ds.html
• Gabriel Weinberg, “The 50% Rule”, Startup Grind, September 2014 (excerpt from the book Traction)
• Nielsen Norman Group, “How Long Do Users Stay on Web Pages?”, September 2011
• Nielsen Norman Group, “Homepage Design: 5 Fundamental Principles”, March 2024
• Product Hunt launch FAQ, Hacker News Show HN guidelines, BetaList FAQ, AlternativeTo FAQ, SaaSHub, There’s An AI For That “Get featured” page (all read on 22 October 2026)