fmerian

launch weeks ftw

Mintlify | Backend Engineer | Full-Time | San Francisco, CA | $120K - $170K / 0.30% - 0.70%

Mintlify (YC W22) powers the documentation of 3,500+ companies including Anthropic, Pinecone, and Zapier, to over 20% of the last YC batch.

You're a great fit if you master TypeScript, Node.js, and Express. Bonus point if you enjoy RESTful API design, implementation, and best practices.

Apply here:

https://ycombinator.com/companies/mintlify/jobs/wsWf63K-back...

ten years ago, when Product Hunt launched, people said the same about TechCrunch.

history will tell.

100%. keep it simple and enjoy your launch day :)

spot on

hey Jacob, Flo here -- i'm the author of this story. thanks for your comment.

you're spot on. most people overthink Product Hunt too much. now, think SEO. from my perspective, when you launch on Product Hunt, your objective shouldn't be the # of upvotes you get or the spot you rank.

keep it simple. launch to get discoverable. repeat to stay accountable and top of mind.

that's the point of the story: keep it simple, keep launching.

Mintlify | Founding Support Engineer | Full-Time | San Francisco, CA | $130K - $160K + 0.10% - 0.40%

Mintlify (YC W22) powers the documentation of 2,500+ companies including Anthropic, Pinecone, and Zapier, to over 20% of the last YC batch.

You're a great fit if you:

- Love helping developers - Are comfortable with HTML, CSS & JS - Have experience writing & maintaining docs

Apply here:

https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/mintlify/jobs/G2I1gtW-...

FWIW I really enjoy using _Modern for Hacker News,_ [1] a free extension that enables dark mode. available for Chrome, Firefox, Edge... and soon, Safari (according to its maker).

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32768590

from a technical (marketing) point of view, it works. I'd even say it's an example of what developer tools should strive to emulate: plain English, clear CTAs, and social proof.

on the other hand, well, yes, it's all about Copilot X. business is business?

I've heard great things about PostHog (YC 20), [1][2] an open-source alternative to Segment. you may find more suggestions in this related thread, too. [3]

hope it helps!

[1]: Direct link - https://posthog.com/

[2]: Launch HN: PostHog (YC W20) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22376732

[3]: Related thread - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34232908

A non-exhaustive list of details that make a good web interface, by Rauno Freiberg (Vercel).

among my favorite apps/websites that support dark mode:

- https://around.co/

- https://fig.io/

- https://linear.app/

- https://liveblocks.io/

- https://raycast.com/

- https://supabase.com/

- https://volta.net/

hope it inspires :)

hi Paul, based on your latest stories, I'd recommend Fosstodon (1) or Hachyderm. (2)

1 - https://fosstodon.org/ - open to anyone who is interested in technology; particularly free & open source software.

2 - https://hachyderm.io/ - safe space primarily comprised of tech industry professionals worldwide.

love Plausible, too. clean, delightful UI. digestible and actionable. recommend 10/10

By the way, I was wondering if you have any recommended tools or extensions that you use on HN?

absolutely love the simplicity of Modern: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32768590

first, congrats :)

I've been working in early-stage startups for 10 years, and here are my principles to fully enjoy the experience:

1: focus // keep the focus on your objectives and results. in a fast-growing environment, you can work on multiple projects. your priority is to reach your goals, get the job done, and make the company grow.

2: ship it // you may have to go beyond your primary missions as described in your job description. learn to learn, learn to dare, and stay curious.

3: your point of view matters // share your thoughts in full transparency. constructive feedback helps the team grow. no matter what the topic is, your work matters.

hope it helps! enjoy!

if you're into cold emailing, I highly recommend reading this blog post by Harry Dry (Marketing Examples) [1]

in short: write "advice emails," not sales emails. ask for advice for better engagement.

[1] https://marketingexamples.com/sales/advice-email

interesting, thanks! do you have any example of great documentation?

+1

turns out most of these repositories have contribution guidelines. you can create a PR on your own.

FWIW I recently started listing these awesome lists to post your OSS project on GitHub. [1]

hope it helps!

[1] https://github.com/fmerian/awesome-developer-first-directori...

first, that’s great :)

second, when I started contributing to OSS projects, I found these places helpful:

- https://github.com/sereneblue/awesome-oss

- https://hot.opensauced.pizza/

hope it helps

I recently had the opportunity to talk marketing OSS with GraphQL Editor's CTO (5.8k GitHub stars).

his key takeaways:

- have a blog;

- promote on subreddits related to your technologies and languages;

- promote on Hacker News;

more recently, I started listing great places to promote OSS projects in this public repo → https://dub.sh/devtools

hope it helps!

+1 on Plausible

Clean, delightful UI. Digestible and actionable.

i do share the feeling.

you should be specific, especially when marketing to developers. So, I’d rather write the product is "used by X developers or Y companies."

in a past experience at an early-stage company that was starting its sales motion, we highlighted a testimonial from a customer in the headline as a workaround. Another option could be adding a short description of the use case, too.

show, don’t tell.

Ghost > WordPress > Medium. QED :)

oops, you're right: Ghost > Medium

Gitpod > Codespaces | Plausible > Google Analytics | Cal > Calendly | Ghost > WordPress | Dub > Bitly

Neat product!

Love it — Bookmarked.

Clear and concise, thanks!

Speaking of conciseness, is it important for you that a README file remains simple, short, and straight to the point?