On a daily board, a launch is a 24-hour sprint that starts at a fixed hour in one time zone. On a weekly board it is seven days, and everyone in the cohort starts together. Peerlist's launch window "opens on Monday every week" and "continues for a week". On DevHunt "each week a new batch launches on the home page". Every Debut's launch weeks run from Monday 00:00 UTC to the next Monday 00:00 UTC.
Seven days changes the job. You don't need to stay up all night. You do need a plan for a whole week, or the energy of Monday fades by Wednesday.
This plan follows Every Debut's week, and most of it fits any weekly board. It is part of our launch playbook. Do the pre-launch checklist first.
When Monday 00:00 UTC is where you are
In mid-November, after the clocks changed in Europe and North America, the start of the week falls at:
| City | Local time |
|---|---|
| San Francisco | Sunday 4:00 pm |
| New York | Sunday 7:00 pm |
| London | Monday midnight |
| Berlin | Monday 1:00 am |
| Mumbai | Monday 5:30 am |
| Tokyo | Monday 9:00 am |
Our how it works page shows the next start in several zones automatically.
The weekend before
- Run the sign-up test once more, on a phone.
- Re-read your listing and launch note. Fix typos now; editing during the week is fine, but first impressions are made early.
- Prepare your tagged links, one per place you will share. Google Analytics recommends always setting
utm_source,utm_mediumandutm_campaign. - Draft the message to the people who asked to hear about the product. Keep it to three sentences and one link.
- Set up a simple log: a sheet with columns for date, source, visits, sign-ups, activated, and a second tab for feedback.
Monday: go live
The launch goes live at the start of the week. Your first day is about being present.
- Check the listing is live and the links work, including the tagged ones.
- Send your message to the people who expect it. Ask them to try the product and say what is unclear. Don't ask for votes; on most platforms that breaks the rules, and it gets you clicks from people who won't use the product.
- Reply to every comment and feedback item. Thank people for criticism and answer it with facts.
- Fix one small thing someone reported, ship it, and say so in your reply.
On Every Debut, the first 48 hours are the "fresh" phase. No ranks or point counts appear anywhere public, and lists are shuffled for each reader, with a new order every day. You can see your own views and votes on your dashboard. Peerlist does something similar: "For first 2 days (Monday and Tuesday), the projects are in random order to give equal exposure to all the projects launched".
So don't refresh a leaderboard. There isn't one to refresh. Spend the time on replies.
Tuesday: listen and fix
The second day is often the most useful. The first wave of visitors has tried the product, and the feedback is more specific.
- Group the feedback. Sort it into bugs, confusing parts, missing features and pricing questions. The confusing parts are usually the cheapest wins.
- Fix the top confusing thing. A label, an empty state, a missing example.
- Ask follow-up questions. "You said the reminder screen was unclear. What did you expect to see?" People who gave feedback once often give more.
- Check the numbers once. Visits and sign-ups by source. Not every hour.
On Every Debut, feedback has its own form: "Who is it for?", "What is unclear?", "Would you pay?" and "Anything else". Substantive feedback also adds to a launch's points: the first useful feedback from an account adds half that account's vote weight. That rewards answers, not applause.
Wednesday: ranks appear
On Every Debut, hour 48 is when lists switch to ranking by points, and points become public. Your launch's ledger becomes public too: the points written out, the share from accounts younger than seven days, the share of votes through your own share link, any removed votes with reasons, and points by day.
- Read your ledger before anyone asks about it. If many votes came through your own link, that is normal when you share your launch; it counts the same and is only shown.
- Post an update on your product page: what you changed since Monday because of feedback. It shows visitors arriving mid-week that the product is alive.
- Thank people publicly who found bugs, by name if they are happy with that.
On other weekly boards, look at the rank once and decide if you need a second wave. Don't let it decide your mood.
Thursday: the second wave
By Thursday, the people who would come from your first message have come. Reach a different group:
- A newsletter or community where your users already are, if its rules allow sharing your own work. Read the rules first. Hacker News, for example, says "Please don't use HN primarily for promotion" and "Don't solicit upvotes, comments, or submissions".
- A short post about what you learned in three days: the top question, the change you shipped, a number you didn't expect.
- People who gave useful feedback on Monday: tell them it's fixed.
Use a new tagged link for each place, so next week you know which one brought people who stayed.
Friday: follow-ups
- Write to every person who left feedback. One or two lines: what you changed, or why you didn't.
- Ask three people for a 15-minute call. Pick one who loved it, one who was confused and one who said it's too expensive.
- Ship a small release with the fixes from the week, and post it as an update.
The weekend: quieter, not off
Traffic usually drops at the weekend. Use it.
- Reply to late comments. People who find the launch on day six deserve the same attention as day one.
- Fill in your log: visits, sign-ups and activation by source.
- Draft the wrap-up post you will publish next week.
Next Monday: results and wrap-up
On Every Debut, the week ends at Monday 00:00 UTC. A job freezes the results shortly after, and the results page for each week stays online. Every approved launch can show a badge reading "Launched on Every Debut · 2026-W47" once its week has started (before that it reads "Launching on Every Debut · 2026-W48"). A launch in the top three of its league (Indie, Funded or Company) shows its frozen result, such as "#2 Indie debut on Every Debut · 2026-W47". The badge is optional, asks nothing in return and has no tracking.
If your launch reached fewer than 300 real views during the week, it stays in line for the Discover lane in the following weeks until it does. You don't need to do anything for that.
Then move on to the work that turns a launch into users: after the launch.
Every day, in five minutes
| Task | Why |
|---|---|
| Reply to new comments and feedback | Late visitors read the replies before trying |
| Log visits, sign-ups and activation by source | So you can compare channels next week |
| Note one quote of feedback | You will reuse it on your site, with permission |
| Ship or schedule one fix | Shows the product is alive |
| Look at the rank at most once | It changes little and costs focus |
Dealing with offers to buy votes
If you launch anywhere public, expect offers. OpenStatus described its LinkedIn inbox filling "with outreach messages trying to sell me upvotes" during its Product Hunt launch in October 2025. The answer is no. Bought votes break every platform's rules, get removed or discounted, and bring no customers.
Every Debut has no private messages, by design, so launch-day offers cannot reach you through the site. Votes are weighted by account age and verification, and patterns such as many votes from one network within an hour are flagged for a person to review. Every removed vote is counted in public.
If the week is quiet
Most launches on most platforms are quiet. That's not a verdict on the product. Use the week to get ten real conversations instead of a hundred votes:
- Reply to everyone who did try it and ask one question.
- Look at where visitors dropped off between landing and activation.
- Fix the biggest drop and try a different channel next week.
You can read more about what launches realistically deliver in is Product Hunt worth it in 2026, and compare weekly and daily formats in Product Hunt alternatives.