Where to launch your product as a solo founder

You spent months on it. Nights, weekends, the hours nobody saw. Then launch day comes, you post it, and by the next morning it is on page three and nobody is looking any more.

I have been there with my own products, more than once. It is why I built ShipDesk.dev. This post is about what I think is wrong with the usual way of launching, what a launch should give you, and how to do yours here.

The problem with a one-day launch

The big launch sites work on a daily clock. Everything that launches today competes for the same front page, and at midnight the page is wiped for tomorrow's batch.

That works if you arrive with an audience. A team with a marketing budget, a mailing list and a few thousand followers can win a day. If you are one person, you are not really competing with them for attention. You are just standing next to them while they get it.

And one day is a very short time. Your launch has to land in the right timezone, on the right weekday, while the right people happen to be scrolling. Miss it and the work of months gets a few hours of daylight.

What a launch should give you

When I thought about what I actually wanted from a launch, it came down to four things:

• Time. More than a day for people to find it.
• A fair field. A page short enough that every product on it gets looked at.
• Something that lasts. A page that is still there next month, with a link to my site.
• No hoops. No hunting for a hunter, no upvote groups, no waking up at midnight in another timezone.

So that is what I built.

How ShipDesk.dev works

ShipDesk.dev is a launch board that runs in weeks, Monday to Sunday. You pick a launch day, your product goes on that week's board, and it stays there for the whole week. Visitors upvote what they like, and the top three of each week keep a medal on their page for good.

The board is small on purpose. A handful of launches in a week means a visitor can read every one of them. You are a row on a short list, not a name scrolling past.

Why the launch page matters, even with zero upvotes

Every launch gets its own page: your logo, screenshots, a video if you have one, your description, and the people who made it. That page does not disappear when the week ends.

It also carries a real link to your website. A new product usually has no links pointing at it at all, and search engines have little reason to notice it. Add our small badge to your site, or pick a paid launch, and that link becomes one search engines follow. Going from zero links to one is the hardest step, and this one costs you a minute.

Your launch also shows up on the page of each tag you pick and on your own founder profile, so there is more than one way for someone to land on it. And you get the numbers: how many people opened your page, how many clicked through to your site, and where they came from.

How to launch, step by step

1. Paste your website. We read the name, logo and description from it. Change anything you like.
2. Add tags and screenshots. Up to three tags, at least one screenshot. A video link is optional.
3. Pick your launch day. Free launches start ten days out.
4. Upvote three other launches. It takes two clicks each, and it is how everyone on the board gets seen.
5. Submit. I look at every launch myself before it goes up.

The whole thing takes about a minute if your website already says what your product does.

What it costs

Launching is free. Right now the first 50 launches do not even need the badge on their site.

If you do not want to wait ten days, there are two paid options, each a single payment with no subscription. Fast is $5.99: launch from the next day, skip the upvotes, reviewed within 24 hours. Featured is $19.99: everything in fast, approved the moment you submit, and pinned at the top of the board for your week.

Do not wait for the perfect moment

The most common reason people give for not launching is that the product is not ready. It is rarely true. A launch is not a verdict on your product. It is the first time strangers get to see it, and you learn more from that week than from another month of polishing alone.

If you have something that works, put it on the board. If something here is broken or confusing, write to me on X. I answer.

launch yours for free