In case you were totally off the grid last week, we had our first-ever Product Hunt launch! We debuted our free AI account plan generator to the world and landed the #2 product of the day, gathering hundreds of new users in the process.
I got a ton of outreach post-launch asking how we did it. We went from the initial idea to launch day in about 30 days and we learned a lot. So this week I’m taking you behind the scenes of the entire experience. I’m sharing how we did it, what we learned, and whether it was all worth it.
Let’s dive into how we went from ideas in a Notion doc to #2 product of the day in 30 days…
What we built
Coming from a sales background, I always knew that the best reps were the ones who took sales personally. Pocus’ AEs (shoutout Katie and Miriam!) are a great example of this. They treat prospects like people, not pipeline. That means researching company background, identifying top initiatives, and bringing solutions for prospects’ biggest pain points.
This consultative approach to sales is a better customer experience, builds stronger relationships, and sets both sides up for success. Plus it’s the only way to consistently keep meeting or exceeding quota in a tough market.
We wanted to replicate this strategy at scale to help Pocus’ customers see the same level of success we do. But when Katie and Miriam mapped out their workflows we saw why so many reps skip this essential prep work before outbounding or jumping on disco calls. It’s a lot of effort and takes a lot of time!
Ironically, the reasons reps skip this prep are the same reasons we knew AI could help. This account-level research and planning ticks all 4 of our “good fit for AI assist” boxes:
- Tedious: The research and prework for account planning often consists of browsing the same information sources for each prospect: Google, LinkedIn, 10k reports, etc. over and over.
- Time-consuming: Doing all of this prework takes hours per account if you want to go beyond very basic personalization and understanding.
- Data-heavy: After sourcing all of the information about an account, it needs to be distilled into a summary of top-line information.
- Low creativity: Let’s be clear - strategic selling is an art. But the gathering of information is the repetitive chore reps need to complete before they can start getting creative.
With this insight in mind, we set out to create an AI product that could help. Our goal was to help every rep become a top performer without all the manual effort.
How we built it
We equipped our engineers with the process mapped out by Katie and Miriam as the blueprint for success. With this in hand they set out to build an AI engine that could synthesize sales enablement material, internal data about an account, and any external intel from the internet to generate a robust account plan.
While engineering kicked off the build process, a tiger team set out on customer interviews to figure out what other steps in the research and planning process were holding reps back. The team quickly identified a few common pain points. Reps routinely have to:
- Handle back-to-back calls with minutes beforehand to do research
- Identify the decision makers at each account
- Do basic research first then layer in insights from their 1st & 3rd party data
- Manage moving information from their research sources into their CRM
This additional feedback helped our team iterate the product further. The end result was our AI strategy tab.
We started to roll this out in private beta to customers and design partners. The response was overwhelming almost immediately. We saw validating feedback right away with high adoption rates and excited messages. Our product really had legs and was making an impact on reps’ lives.
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Creating a free-for-anyone version
We knew the capabilities we built could have a huge impact on reps, especially those earlier in their career. So we thought, why not give it away for free!
The full version requires you to have a Pocus account and access to your 1st party data, which would be asking too much for a free tool.
So we decided to build a pared-down version that was fully ungated and free - our free AI Account Plan Generator.
While engineering sprinted to build this free tool versionMarketing sprinted to plan a full launch and rollout plan.
The soft launch
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To test our free tool we needed a wide audience of sales reps and leaders who weren’t Pocus customers yet. LinkedIn was the perfect channel to reach this audience. Between my network and followers of the Pocus brand page, we had access to 25,000+ GTM professionals.
We decided internally that we would only give access to 100 people for the soft launch. Once we posted to LinkedIn, the results were crazy!
In hours we were inundated with requests to try the tool. We expanded access to the first 200 commenters. Once we hit our cap, we replied to the remainder of the comments asking them to add their name to our waitlist.
An added benefit of controlling access to the tool via LinkedIn DMs was that early users had a direct channel to provide me and the team with feedback. I received dozens of messages in the first day with high praise and excellent suggestions.
We also got valuable insight from user data, helping us to make tweaks to the UX based on patterns in site behavior the team noticed.
After seeing the high demand, receiving positive messages from test users, and making updates based on feedback, we knew the free AI account plan generator was a tool the world wanted. It was time to plan our big launch day.
Winning with a B2B product on Product Hunt
What better way to do a big, splashy launch than to go toe-to-toe with other products in a global competition? Enter Product Hunt.
If you’re not familiar with Product Hunt, here’s how it works: Product Hunt is a daily competition among the newest products being released. Creators submit their apps, sites, and tools to be voted on by users. At the end of a 24-hour period, the products with the top votes win 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place.
While a lot of people think of Product Hunt as primarily for consumer products, it’s equally valuable for B2B (if you have the right offering). Here’s why:
- It’s free. Let’s start with the most obvious reason: outside of your team’s time, it costs nothing to run a Product Hunt launch. Whether you’re a newer startup with a limited budget or your team wants to experiment with a low-risk channel, Product Hunt is accessible to everyone.
- It makes you more discoverable. Product Hunt is visited by tens of thousands of users a day, all looking for the next big thing in tech. Having your brand on there gives you exposure beyond your standard channels, and if you place you’ll be featured in at least one Product Hunt newsletter! Some of our friends and customers have launched on PH like Canva, Loom, Linear, and Notion.
- You’ll gain a new perspective on your product. Product Hunt opens you up to feedback and insights from a wide range of users who might have use cases or ideas you hadn’t considered.
- It’s a fun way to rally your team around a launch. The sprint to build, ship, and sell new products can be stressful. Product Hunt’s gamified launch experience adds a fun, competitive layer that can really boost morale and get everyone working towards one goal with clear, measurable outcomes.
But don’t be fooled into thinking Product Hunt is as simple as posting your new tool or feature. There’s some prep work that needs to be done to be sure that you have a successful launch and, ideally, place in the top 3.
Here’s what we did to rank in the top 3, steal this cheat sheet plan:
30 Days Pre-Launch
- Create visuals that clearly explain the product. It’s important to remember that the Product Hunt audience is international and may not be familiar with your industry. Think about how you would explain this product to a parent or friend who knows nothing about what you do for a living.
- Focus on substance over style. Create images and videos that make it super clear what value you’re driving for users. Skip the flashy graphics for something that tells the clearest story.
- Gather social proof. Product Hunt (like a lot of channels) is fueled by social proof. Showing that people were already using (and loving!) our product helped us gain trust with this new audience.
20 Days Pre-Launch
- Ask your network for advice on launching. We shared our Product Hunt page with several people who have launch experience themselves. This has the added benefit of starting to get your network excited about the launch and getting others ready to activate their own network for the launch.
10 Days Pre-Launch
- Build excitement in our network. Starting 2 weeks out we began teasing our launch on social channels and in emails. We built momentum as launch day grew closer so that when we went live, people were eager to try the product and support us. Pro tip: Get your page up early and start asking people to be notified of your launch. This will help a ton later.
- Reach out to our early adopters. We asked the users who had already tried our product and helped shape its development to help support us in our launch. So many of these early users posted about the launch on their own LinkedIn organically as a result. Some even created videos to showcase how it sped up their workflow!
7 Days Pre-Launch
- Start your distribution plan. Product Hunt (or any major launch) is not the time to send to your “standard” list. Map out your network and get creative - who can you engage to support you and amplify your product
- Make it personalized. Don’t just spam your list. Start personally engaging your network and ask folks on your team to do the same.
- Reach out to other makers. Reach out to other makers on Product Hunt who also have launches coming up.
Launch Day
- Assign tasks to the whole team. We like to say pipeline is a team sport, and Product Hunt is no exception. Everyone on the Pocus team was responsible for reaching out to their networks to let them know about our launch and ask for support.
Our launch was a huge success and, after staying awake for 24 hours to monitor our performance and respond to comments, we came in 2nd place, beating out launches from Meta, Spotify, and more. We gained over 700 followers, 750 upvotes, and hundreds of new tool users.
Now, we’ve moved into our post-launch strategy to make the most of these results.
Beyond launch day
Placing in our PH launch was great for our egos and gave us bragging rights, but the real benefits are the increased exposure and the feedback. Hundreds of new users experienced the product. Over 20% of new users were on our target account list. A great list of folks for warm outbound.
With our first launch under our belt, we’re excited to build more AI tools for the market.
So, was a break-neck 30-day sprint, culminating in 24 hours of no sleep, worth it? Yes - and we can’t wait to do it again with our next AI tool. Launch day might feel like the end of a huge sprint, but the work is just beginning.
In the meantime, you can try our AI account plan generator for free. Want to see what else is possible with Pocus’ AI account research and planning? Book a demo.