The Best New Products Are Waiting to Be Found
Building a product is hard.
But getting people to actually discover it can be even harder.
You can spend weeks or months building a SaaS, AI tool, developer product, or startup. You can polish the landing page, fix bugs, improve the onboarding, and prepare everything for launch.
And then comes the difficult part:
Where do you actually find the right people?
I’ve experienced this problem myself while building LaunchNest.
LaunchNest is a product launch and discovery platform for founders, makers, SaaS builders, and AI creators.
The idea is simple:
Build something → launch it → get discovered → find your early users.
But building the platform also taught me something important.
A launch platform isn't useful just because it has a list of products.
It needs the right founders, the right audience, and a reason for people to keep coming back.
That’s what I’m trying to build with LaunchNest.
I’m currently inviting early founders to try it, launch their products, and give honest feedback.
I’m especially interested in hearing from founders who have experienced the “I built it, but nobody knows it exists” problem.
What has worked best for you for getting your first real users?
Organic communities?
Direct outreach?
Content?
Product directories?
Paid advertising?
I’d love to learn what actually worked for other founders.
LaunchNest:
Really nice launch! The idea looks genuinely useful, especially for people who are looking for practical AI/SaaS tools without spending a lot. Definitely worth checking out. 🚀
Yes
Honestly, really impressed with the response this product has received! 🚀 We’ve managed to get a lot of upvotes organically, and it’s amazing to see people supporting it. The fact that you can check it out for free makes it even better. Definitely worth giving it a look! 🔥
Thanks
I tried the platform and the overall experience was quite simple. The free Premium offer for the first 100 users is also a nice way for early founders to explore the platform and provide feedback.
What I like most is that LaunchNest focuses specifically on new products and founders. It feels simple to submit a product without going through a complicated process.
I gave LaunchNest a try and really liked the simple approach to discovering new SaaS and AI products. The launch flow is straightforward, and the early Premium offer makes it easy to try.
Really
I just got signed up! Good Luck to the both of us!
Awesome! 🙌 Thanks for signing up. Wishing you the best with CollectionsCopilot too!
Really excited to have you as an early LaunchNest user.
honestly organic communities have been the biggest unlock for us, not directories or paid stuff. showing up consistently in the actual places our target users already hang out (indie hackers, discord communities, relevant subreddits) and just being useful before ever mentioning the product. it's slower than paid but the trust compounds, people remember who was actually helpful vs who just dropped a link and left. what's your early founder outreach looking like so far, mostly cold or warm intros?
I’m seeing a similar pattern so far. Organic communities have been one of the most interesting channels for LaunchNest because the conversations are much more genuine.
For founder outreach, I’m currently doing a mix, but I’m leaning more toward warm/community-driven conversations rather than mass cold outreach.
I agree that being useful first builds much stronger trust over time.
Yup, warm and community-driven definitely makes more sense, especially early on when you’re still building social proof. A random DM from a founder you’ve never heard of is pretty easy to ignore, but when you’ve already been part of the conversation, it feels way more natural. Have you noticed certain communities respond better than others, or is it really just about showing up consistently where your users already hang out?
I’ve definitely noticed a difference. Indie Hackers has been one of the strongest early communities for LaunchNest because the people there already understand the problem I’m trying to solve.
I’m still testing different communities, though. I think consistency matters, but so does community fit — being in a place where people naturally care about the problem is much more valuable than simply having a large audience.
I’m going to keep tracking where the actual users come from and double down on the communities that show real engagement.
that fit over audience size thing is underrated tbh, way easier to get 10 genuinely interested people from a niche community than 1000 lukewarm ones from a big generic one. smart move tracking actual user origin instead of just vanity metrics like views or upvotes, most people skip that step and just chase whatever platform feels biggest. good luck with launchnest, curious to see which communities end up winning out
Absolutely agree with you. We’re starting to see the same thing with LaunchNest — a smaller group of genuinely interested people can be far more valuable than a huge number of passive views. That’s exactly why we’re tracking where real users come from and which communities actually bring people back. Really appreciate your thoughtful take! 🚀
Yeah, that return-user signal is the real tell, tbh. It’s way more honest than any vanity metric. Good luck tracking it as you scale, those kinds of numbers usually get messier before they get clearer.
The irony of building a launch platform is that you now have the exact same problem you're solving. 😄 But seriously — the fact that you experienced this pain firsthand gives you an edge. Most 'launch' tools are built by people who've never launched anything. That authenticity matters.
Exactly 😄 That’s actually one of the reasons I started LaunchNest. I experienced the discovery problem myself, so I’m building around a problem I genuinely understand.
Still early, but I think that firsthand experience can make a big difference. Really appreciate this perspective!
Really interesting product! LaunchNest looks like a useful place for discovering and exploring new startup ideas. The concept is simple but genuinely valuable. 🚀
Discovery is definitely becoming a problem now that so many things launch every day. How are you planning to surface genuinely interesting products instead of just the ones that already have an audience?
That’s exactly the problem we’re trying to solve. We don’t want discovery to simply become a popularity contest.
We’re working toward giving newer products a fair chance based on things like freshness, genuine engagement, and real user interest — not just existing audience size. The goal is to help great products get discovered before they already have an audience.
What can I say, I posted my product there.
A feature I really liked from your product is asking 'Where did you find us?', that could help finding out what works and what doesn't.
So I ask, what are the results? Where are most users from?
Honestly, the early results are pretty clear: most of our new users are coming from Indie Hackers. A smaller number have reported finding us through ChatGPT and Google search. We’re still collecting more data, but Indie Hackers is definitely the strongest source for us so far.
For my $9 Mac app, the honest ranking after a month of trying everything:
1. One blog review. A German blogger gave it 5/5 and that single article is still my #1 referrer weeks later. Germany became my third biggest country from one post.
2. Niche directories. Small traffic, but those visitors convert, because they were already searching for this exact kind of tool when they found me.
3. Direct email to reviewers who cover my niche. Mostly silence, but the few who answered became the reviews from point 1. Slow and worth it.
What did not work: posting on TikTok every day for a week. Zero referrals in my analytics. Not low — absent. Someone scrolling a phone is not sitting at the computer where they would use my product.
So my answer to your question: for a desktop tool, other people's blogs and search beat everything else, and launch day matters much less than being findable the other 51 weeks of the year.
This is incredibly useful data, especially the distinction between traffic and qualified traffic.
The point about niche directories really stands out to me — fewer visitors but stronger intent can be much more valuable than large amounts of random traffic.
And I completely agree that launch day is only one moment. For LaunchNest, I want discovery to compound over time rather than depend on a single launch spike.
Thanks for sharing the actual numbers and experience!
Direct outreach won us our first 100 users at SocialPost.ai, and content only took over once we knew which message converted. Directory launches drove signups that never activated, which taught me discovery and adoption are different problems. For LaunchNest the harder question is what brings a founder back the week after they launch.
That’s a really good point, Gregory. I’m actually thinking about LaunchNest beyond the initial launch moment — discovery, new products being added, and giving founders a reason to keep coming back.
I’m still early, so I’m watching retention closely rather than assuming that a signup means adoption. Your SocialPost.ai experience is a great reminder of that distinction.
One honest thing on LaunchNest: the crowd on any launch platform is mostly other founders trying to get their own thing seen, not people looking to try stuff. What's your thinking on that side?
Honestly, I think this is one of the biggest challenges for LaunchNest.
Founders are important for creating the supply of products, but discovery only becomes truly valuable when people outside the founder bubble start using the platform to find products.
That’s something I’m actively working on — building LaunchNest for both sides, not just founders.
Building my own site too, still pretty small. I've been trying Quora and Reddit lately — someone recommended answering real questions where the tool naturally fits, with a disclosure it's mine, instead of just dropping links.
Have you tried anything like that for LaunchNest, or is it too early to tell what's working?
Yes, I’m experimenting with community-driven discovery as well.
I really like the approach you mentioned — helping with the actual problem first and only mentioning your product when it genuinely fits, with clear disclosure.
I think that’s much more sustainable than simply dropping links everywhere. Thanks for sharing your experience!
The interesting part seems to be that a launch platform isn't really a discovery problem — it's a two-sided distribution problem. You need enough founders to create something worth discovering, and enough relevant people discovering it to make founders keep coming back. Curious which side has been harder to get moving so far.
I think you’ve nailed the challenge.
Right now, getting products onto LaunchNest is easier because founders naturally want more places to showcase what they’re building.
The harder and more important side is bringing in people who are genuinely looking to discover and use new products.
That’s the side I’m focusing more on now, because without real discovery, the founder side doesn’t have enough long-term value.
That makes sense. The discovery side seems like the more interesting part to watch as you build it out. If you’re open to staying in touch, what’s the best email to reach you at?
Absolutely, happy to stay in touch!
You can reach me at launchnestln@gmail.com.
I’m still experimenting with different marketing channels and learning what works best for LaunchNest. Would be great to stay connected and exchange ideas.
Thanks! I’ve just sent it over.
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts whenever you have a chance.
Thanks! I’ve received it. I’ll take a look and share my thoughts with you as soon as I can. Really appreciate you sending it over!
I really like the idea behind LaunchNest. It makes discovering new products and startup ideas feel much easier. Definitely worth checking out! 🔥
I just started marketing and I’m not sure what I’m doing, just trying one thing at a time
I’ve found early users often come from where the problem is already being talked about, not from the channel that seems best on paper. ~
To me, the relevant question is not so much “which channel works?Where do you see people already voicing their concerns regarding this problem?”.
This also puts less commercial pressure on outreach. You’re beginning with an ongoing conversation as opposed to trying to create attention from the ground up.
I'm interested to know whether the same path that got someone to try a product is also the one that keeps bringing them back.
Those don't always mean the same.
I completely agree. I’m actually learning this right now with LaunchNest.
Getting someone to try the product and giving them a reason to return are two very different problems. I’m currently paying more attention to what happens after the first visit — what they discover, whether they return, and what makes them engage again.
Still early, but this is definitely something I want to understand through real user behavior rather than assumptions.
Have you seen any people using LaunchNest mainly to discover products yet, not founders submitting or promoting their own products?
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