TBBL #16: How Evoke ranked top #3 on Product Hunt by leveraging PH discussions

Secrets and Strategies from the mouth of its Co-Founder, Richard.

Feb 16, 2023

This is Nithin and Karthik from LaunchPedia.

Welcome to The Big Bang Launch Newsletter Issue #16. Every week we interview creators whose products ranked on Top 3 of Product Hunt and share their launch strategies.

This week we interviewed Richard, Co-Founder of Evoke on their successful Product Hunt launch and got a ton of Product launch strategies for you.

Before going into the newsletter, we have some updates for you.

💡 Resources Spotlight

LaunchList: LaunchList is the easiest way to build a pre-launch waiting list for your startup and collect 10X more signups using a gamified referral program.
Saas Garden: A platform dedicated to helping people find the best and most relevant SaaS products to support their businesses.

⚡ A quick intro about Evoke and their launch

Evoke hosts open-source AI models on the cloud for devs and businesses developing AI apps. You can run open-source models like stable diffusion with Evoke’s API.

Evoke launched on Product Hunt on Feb 4th, 2023 & here is their Launch Performance:

Day Rank: 2
Upvotes: 345

Let’s jump into the interview

🎤 Interview

Hi Richard, Could you tell us a bit about yourself and how you started working on Evoke?

We started working on Evoke after my co-founder suggested the idea to me. He found the process of actually running AI on his computer extremely tedious process, so he thought of the idea of creating an AI-as-a-service and just hosting these models on the cloud for people to use.

That’s how Evoke began. Initially, we started working on getting stable diffusion (open-source image generation AI model) on the cloud for our users. This eventually culminated into what you see today, with plans to expand further in the future with more AI models.

The Big Bang Goal 🎯

What was your goal behind launching Evoke on Product Hunt?

The main goal was to get the #1 product of the day for social proof and get some feedback for our MVP-ish product.

At what phase did you decide to launch on Product Hunt?

We launched 3 weeks after our MVP was ready. We just decided to knock out a few crucial bugs before we launched on Product Hunt.

The Big Bang Plan 🧠

When did you start planning for the launch - Can you share your step-by-step action plan?

We started planning the launch 3 months in advance.

Our plan was to be very active in Product Hunt discussions. Every day, I’d comment on 3 products, 5 comments on other discussions, and post one discussion.

Also, when someone followed me on Product Hunt, I’d follow up with them on LinkedIn and connect with them.

This helped us to build relationships with others. And, once I built up a good amount of points and followers on Product Hunt, people started connecting automatically with me on LinkedIn asking to upvote their products.

Why did you choose to launch on a Saturday? Any reason behind it?

Saturdays usually have less competition. Considering our goals of getting top 3 for the social proof, it was the perfect day to launch.

The Big Bang Day 📆

What was your action plan on launch day?

I prepared a list of sites and DMs to post on launch day. On the launch day, as the first hour is important, I messaged all my connections first.
Also, I scheduled the posts on Twitter and Linkedin beforehand
Later I started posting on Facebook groups, Subreddits, and LinkedIn groups.

Did you offer a special discount or offer for users who signed up on the day of the launch?

No, we did not offer a special discount. Though we have plans to do that on our second launch.

The Big Bang Traffic Source ⛽

What were your top traffic sources for the launch?

My connections I DM’ed
Product Hunt visitors and
Social Media groups & platforms

Could you share some numbers from your Product Hunt launch?

We got around 50 signups from the launch, however since our goal was mainly getting a high ranking for social proof, this was not an issue for us.

What are the tools you used to prepare for the launch?

Canva - Graphics
Loom - Video

The Big Bang Advice 🗣️

What are 3 advice you would give to creators who’re launching on a product hunt?

Make lots of connections and be active on Product Hunt before you launch.
Launch on a day that’s not busy. Saturday and Sunday are usually the best.
Plan a schedule for launch day. The first hour is the most important, so you want to have all your content planned out as thoroughly as possible for quick release.

The Big Bang Launch