Start with people you can talk to one at a time, then pick one or two communities where your users already are, and read their rules first. Treat a launch site as one day of attention that brings customers for some and nothing for others, not as your plan. In one thread on what flopped, directories and launch lists were the most common story.
What builders say flopped
A thread on Indie Hackers asking what distribution flopped drew 241 comments. Of the first 18 flop stories, 7 were directories and launch lists, 5 were Reddit and communities, 3 were cold email, and none blamed how the product looked. That’s one thread, read by an AI reader with no second check.
The places, and their rules
| Place | The rule as written | What we’ve seen |
|---|---|---|
| Show HN | Must be something people can try. No landing pages, no friends voting | Hard crowd. Of 20 posts we read about schedulers, 18 scored 3 points or fewer |
| Product Hunt | No asking for upvotes, and no contests that reward them | One founder reports 400 sign-ups and 1 paying customer |
| r/SaaS | 1 mention or 3 links per 60 days, disclosed. No selling, no cold DMs, no AI-written text | 26 of 1,949 post titles stated this marketing pain |
| r/indiehackers | One self-promotion post per person, framed as feedback | Most posts we pulled were deleted, so we can’t say much |
| r/startups | Monthly share thread only | Not counted |
| r/microsaas | Not read yet. Read it yourself | 28 of 2,345 post titles stated this pain |
| Indie Hackers site | Not read yet. Read it yourself | About 27 of 200 titles, the highest share we found |
Rules read on 3 Nov 2026. Moderators change them and enforce them their own way, so read them again the day you post. The Reddit counts are post titles an AI reader judged to state this complaint, from a public archive. The Indie Hackers count is about 200 recent titles. There was no second check, and the samples differ, so compare them loosely.
Before you post anywhere
- Make something people can try without talking to you. Show HN requires it, and everyone else rewards it.
- Say you built it, every time. Use your real account, no second accounts.
- Spend a couple of weeks answering other people’s questions there first. One builder reports that new accounts can get shadowbanned.
- Never ask friends to vote. Product Hunt and Hacker News both bar it.
- Write it in your own words. r/SaaS bars AI-written text, and people can usually tell.
- Decide what you’ll count before you post: people who tried it, not views or upvotes.
Should I still do Product Hunt?
Perhaps. The reports we found are weak and self-reported, and they go both ways. One founder got 400 sign-ups and 1 paying customer. Buildpad got 475 new users in a day and its first payers, and PostKing counts 38 of its first 100 customers from Product Hunt and Peerlist, though both sell tools to builders. It’s a big audience for one day, so do it after you’ve talked to people.
Lou by Luven AI isn’t open yet, and we haven’t launched on any of these. We plan to, and we’ll add what happened here, including what flopped.
Rules, read 3 Nov 2026
How we write these: with AI help, from the sources we link, with dates. Counts marked as ours were made by an AI reader with no second check. If something’s wrong, email everest@luven.ai and we’ll fix it and say so.
