Launch Now, Think Later
Hi Friends,
This short issue will cover:
How my first, unexpected Product Hunt launch went
Current technical difficulties
My tech stack
Future
Last week, around Thursday, when I usually write my newsletter, I had a terrible migraine that lasted the entire weekend. I couldn’t look at the screen, so I couldn’t write or code, which held back my progress but didn’t stop it! So, let’s see what I accomplished in the remaining time.
Product Hunt launch
You can buy courses, books, or watch hours of videos on preparing for your first Product Hunt (PH) launch.
I did none of that.
I woke up with a slight headache on Tuesday.
I wrapped up a couple of things in the app faster than I thought and realized I have an extra hour to work on something before the family wakes up.
So I went on PH and submitted One Task X. I followed every PH recommendation to the last letter and ended up as the #4th product of the day:
As I heard from other makers, for the first launch, this was an incredible success.
I think what helped to achieve this was:
The app being free, requiring no signup
Screenshots and a demo video
Sharing the launch on 𝕏
Of course, there were other factors, such as products launched that day and traffic on PH itself, but those are out of my control.
Results
4th product worldwide
~2k visitors in 2 weeks to onetaskx.com
new product ideas in the comments
experience with launching
Technical Difficulties
People generally liked the product’s login-less nature, and I intended to keep it that way—at least for the current functionality.
Because I use One Task X on multiple devices, I wanted to add some device sync that doesn’t require a login. To make this happen, I went on a week-long side-quest of setting up WebRTC and a QR-code-based login and failed massively.
Despite my initial success with the QR Code generation and pairing of the devices, it didn’t work out and I don’t have the time to figure out why (already spent 5 mornings on it).
Solution
I moved on.
I didn’t drop the idea altogether. I’m open to adding a simple email+password login to make sync available, but there were so many good comments about what features people want, so I just started working on those.
Tech Stack
I tried a couple of things in a short period:
v0
blot.new
Copilot (both in VSCode and vim)
Windsurf
Cursor
Ultimately I decided to cancel all subscriptions and stick with Windsurf for the month. However, I’ve spent all my credits, so I canceled that subscription as well and I’m now on Cursor. I still don’t get the fight between Cursor and Windsurf on the internet. Despite both being a VSCode fork, they work very differently.
So far I like Windsurf more, but I used Cursor on the paid tier for a day, so I can’t make a fair comparison yet.
Future
I’m already working on the next product which I announced on 𝕏 a couple of weeks ago – I’m also on Bluesky and will post updates there too. 🦋
I didn’t make One Task X to monetise it, but because I needed it. It’ll be different for this next tool where I’ll have a paid plan from the beginning.
Stick around since I’m posting everything I learn during the process. If I don’t write about something, just ask in the comments or reply to this email.
As a reminder, this is part of my challenge:
What have you built?
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Awesome stuff Akos! Knowing about these things is so interesting.
Congrats on the launch. Would definitely try out One Task.
And thanks for the mention!