How Product Hunt drastically changed our day off

Hi, I finally get some free time to talk about this amazing product hunt experience. Indeed last Friday we got hunted and featured on ProductHunt!

First, let me introduce Flat

Flat is the first collaborative tool that lets you write music online. We aim to change the way musicians write music based on a collaborative and straightforward user experience.
You can use either your keyboard or your mouse or even any of your electronic instrument, we will take care of the sheet music writing.

Everything started when we decided to build up a new identity for Flat.
We posted an article on dribbble Thursday afternoon. Then everything went crazy.

We made it to the first popular page in only a few hours, views and likes kept increasing. We also received a great deal of emails to support us and talk about our design choices.
That was completely awesome!!

As a French startup things always get serious late in the night. At 2AM, because most of the team was supposed to be off, we had a little break on Friday and we stopped answering messages to have a little rest.

When things get serious

Friday morning was supposed to be the most peacefully day of the week.

• Vincent was on his way to Japan.
• Cyril was spending his weekend at a sports competition
• I had meetings scheduled all day long.
• Corentin and Mathias were to take it easy regarding the incoming next week.

I was in the subway on my way to my first meeting when - I don't know how I magically got some cell data network - I received this tweet:

My very first reaction was just

WTF ??!!

Immediately my phone started ringing. Vincent was about to get in his flight and said:

Fuck, we got published on product hunt. I gave your tweeter ID. I will get in touch with you as soon as I land in Moscow

Then I called Mathias to know who posted us. He answered in the most quiet and peaceful voice.

Chris... This guys completely rocks. I love his design work. Man you have to cancel all your meetings! There are just two of us and the day will be a hell one!

I ran straight to The Family house, got the first available table I could see, and started opening all my emails and tweeter notifications.
We were already the top daily project!

Get the shit done

I have to be honest, I had never spent so much time on Product hunt. I use to go and watch new products everyday however I never took time to understand how rating algorithms work or the requirements you have to fulfill when you get posted.
First a big thanks goes to @bramk for being so patient and taking time to explain - step by step - what I was supposed to do.

Then we spent the whole day answering questions, receiving interviews inquiries and even some investors sent us an email to schedule a meeting.
It was an intensive and non-stop incoming flow. We almost didn't have time to eat...
Moreover keep in mind that in France we were enduring a {Canicule} (40 degrees). It just made the day even harder ;)

Vincent managed to get a Wifi connection at his stopover in Moscow airport. Our Skype conversation was such a mess:

• Russian announcements
• Unstoppable notifications from both our smartphones

Here's the number of authenticated sessions on Flat

One thing we didn't expect is the kind of users that signed up on Flat. They were entirely our target users. Indeed all of them used Flat, tested it - although sometimes in weird way - and most of them actually composed music. Coming from such an increased trafic that was a big surprise.

Let the data speak for us

It will be really hard to give you an accurate data evaluation. Indeed the very same day we got blocked by Google on their Chrome and Drive stores. Some call it Karma...
Since that was our first source of acquisition, it makes it hard to evaluate.
Anyway putting aside Google we had an increase of our average daily signup from 450 to 600.
Which is really great from my point of view!
We also got many interview inquiries like this one well written on startup daily:

Of course we got a significative visibility improvement on our social media.
It's really hard to find out a negative aspect about this Product Hunt effet.

The after Product hunt

After almost one week things are getting back to normal. However, as you may have understood we are definitely not at the same regular stage.
Until today every time I used to read an article about how "product hunt changed my life" I always wondered

Are those guys not just overreacting?

And now it's my turn to join the club! However even if the metrics and the opportunities have completely changed and the fact that we're now one step over, I wouldn't say it is the main point that makes me happy to have been featured on Product Hunt. The memories I keep are even more awesome, this is what drives me and makes me love what I do day after day. Nothing is predictable!
This story is the perfect example, we cannot be more unready :)
As I said to the PH guys:

Guys we had hell of a day! You completely ruined our day off! Thanks so much for these great memories!

I always say that a great product requires a great team that has shared - and will share - plenty of events together. Product hunt and Chris have just added one to our list, making all of us even closer and even more confident to succeeding with Flat. We are so grateful for that!
I can't wait for the next surprise to come up!

If you have any question or if I have been unclear feel free to drop a comment. I would love to exchange with you.
Also if you liked to read me and our stories share this article, it will mean the world to the team :)

Have a great day,

Pierre & The Flat Team!