👋 Hey, I’m Ben! I write monthly deep dives on how to grow products and companies. I go deep on growth strategies, how to build products users love, and what actionable lessons can be learned from what best-in-class companies are doing.

Hey there! Today, we're diving into how one startup, Klu, leveraged their community to succeed on Product Hunt and earn Product of the Week. Sandra and her team at Klu discovered the power of community engagement, and their story is a testament to how valuable it can be.

To set the stage, you can think of Klu as your internal Google. You know when you’re looking for a file and you can’t remember if it was emailed to you, slacked to you, linked in google slides somewhere, or something else entirely? Klu solves that problem by integrating with all of the tools you use on a daily basis and allowing you to search through all of them from one interface to find what you’re looking for.

Like many startups, Klu's journey began with a lean MVP that eventually evolved into a public beta. When they started, nobody on the team had an audience of any kind and they had a hard time finding people to give them feedback on Klu. In an effort to find users they could work with for feedback, Sandra began engaging with the #buildinpublic community on Twitter, which ended up changing everything for her.

In the months prior to their Product Hunt launch, Sandra engaged with people on Twitter and Product Hunt. She consistently answered others’ questions, gave feedback on their products, and was an asset to the community in general. She was also completely transparent on Klu’s journey; she talked publicly about the good, the bad, the ugly. The authenticity in the way she engaged with the community led to her building genuine relationships and having a large number of fans and supporters that wanted to see her succeed.

Those fans and supporters made a huge impact for Klu on launch day. Sandra described it as feeling like a “collective effort” with the entire Twitter community to launch Klu on Product Hunt. I can say from my experience that, after following Sandra for a while and chatting with her on various threads, I had their launch date marked in my calendar. I clearly wasn’t the only one; when Klu launched, #buildinpublic Twitter was flooded with conversation about it.

There are a few other tactical bullets on Product Hunt launches that Sandra wanted to share with you all:

• Take the time to make your launch page feel authentic and personal.

• Build and utilize the “notify me” page before launch and push people to sign up for notifications.

• Build a community of users and supporters proactively (as highlighted above). Build genuine relationships with people and they’ll support you and want you to win.

• Don’t be afraid to share your journey openly. It breeds trust, starts conversations, and lets others celebrate wins with you, pick you up after losses, and offer advice, resources, and more.

Klu's Product Hunt launch was an indisputably huge success. They ranked third on Product Hunt’s product of the day, held momentum, and ended up winning product of the week! On launch day alone, they drove over 10,000 website views, which drove 1,000 new users. Overall, a great launch and a remarkable validation of the Klu team’s efforts.

The Klu story highlights how powerful a community can be. Remember, it's not about spamming; it's about having the right approach and messaging to support your product passionately. Build your community, and they'll support you on your journey.

Special thanks to Sandra for taking the time to discuss Klu’s launch with me. You can find Sandra here (she’s a wealth of knowledge and you should definitely follow her) and you can (and should) sign up for Klu here.

You’re going to want to check these out…

1. Klu - Find the information you need fast. Connect all the apps you use on a daily basis into Klu and it becomes Google for your personal-life.

2. How To Hack Hacker News - Great article on how to consistently rank on the front page of Hacker News.

3. Google Ads Benchmarks Across Industries - Ever wonder how your search ads are performing relative to industry standard? This article has a bunch of great benchmarks to compare to.

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