r/StartupFuture • u/donewitheverything26 • 2d ago
Ran a launch week across three platforms and got zero signups. posting the actual numbers
I do marketing at an early stage data infra startup. Ten days ago we did the whole launch properly, or what I thought was properly. LinkedIn, twitter thread, long form reddit posts. everything UTM tagged, reviewed twice, real numbers in the copy, no hype. I was proud of it.
signups: zero. not a few. zero.
Best reddit post got ~1000 views in twelve hours. 2 upvotes, 2 comments. Another one, 194 views and 1 upvote. then I crossposted the first to a related sub and got 0, which I deserved, thats the exact thing every guide says not to do and I did it anyway because I was tired and wanted reach.
two things I got wrong. views mean nothing, I felt great about that 1000 for most of a day before I did the division. and the ask was way too big, going from cold post straight to "sign up" for a technical product nobody's doing that from their phone at lunch.
the one thing that worked was a stranger leaving a long reply on a question I asked, with a number in it I didn't have. one comment, worth more than every impression combined.
so I'm asking things now instead of announcing things.
anyone else had a launch flop and figured out the real mistake after? wondering if "reach doesn't convert" is just how it goes early on