What 61 Points On Hacker News Did For My Startup

Hacker News is not just a sinkhole for your morning’s productivity. I’ve been frequenting HN for years and it is my primary source of information. Recently, I also discovered it is a great platform to launch your startup.

I submitted a link to Routific’s developers page on Friday March 28, around 6 p.m. PST. Thirty minutes later, we were on the front page. One hour later, we were cruising at #6. It never reached the Top 5, but a roller coaster of excitement ensued nonetheless:

• 6,899 visits
• 9,300 pageviews
• 125 early-access signups
• 99 API accounts created
• 8 pricing requests, including one titled: “shut up and take my money”
• 2 investor inquiries
• 1 enterprise deal
  

wow. very trafic. such excite! yum pie.

These numbers may not be all that much, but for a startup’s first launch — before which everything was zero — it is quite exciting!

Some tweets followed — amazing how the whole world is on HN:

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Comments posted by HN readers have gained a reputation for being harsh and pedantic, so I was surprised by the quality of the discussion and encouraging comments on the HN thread. Perhaps they tone it down when you submit a Show HN?

I also submitted it to proggit, but got down-voted immediately. Thank you Hacker News for being so supportive. What would we do without you?