So TalentSearch.cc bombed on ProductHunt.
It didn’t get nearly as many votes or as much attention as ColdEmailTemplate.cc or Markd.co, both were featured on the front page. I was overly confident in how useful TalentSearch.cc is for people (who wouldn’t want a search bar to find talents on multiple social platforms?!) and how popular it will be for the PH community, which also meant I spent way more time on it than ColdEmailTemplate.cc.
But it completely bombed on ProductHunt. Just over 10 votes, one comment. Despite the gif logo I was proud of, and the strategic scheduling I planned…
However, TalentSearch did well on Reddit - a platform that I was always hesitant to get on. People on recruiting subreddits loved it. It got lots of votes, attention, comments, and a follow up phone call with a potential partner. I also got Reddit Gold for the first time from the posts (I had no idea what it was).
I am not sure what the take-away is. Perhaps it’s that we should come out of our bubbles and explore other communities. I admit I spend too much time in the “startup” community and that can lead to huge bias and also lost opportunities.
Perhaps it’s about the importance of learning about the different pockets of communities online. ProductHunt is great for productivity apps for hackers, developers, founders, but a tool that’s more suitable for HR and recruiters, perhaps people there just aren’t that interested. On the other hand, I’ve not had great success on Reddit from their startup communities, and that had put me off for a long time. Fortunately I decided to give different subreddits a try and found that within a platform as big as Reddit, each subreddit has its own culture and it’s important to understand that.
Perhaps it’s also about confidence and intuition. My intuition and confidence isn’t always the best indicator for a product’s success (I should know this by now), particularly one that I don’t have a constant need for. Sure I look for people to hire from time to time, but not being a recruiter who needs to find people on a daily basis, I do not understand how they use tools, where they hang out (apparently not on ProductHunt), and how best to approach them.
There’s also good learning for me on the actual development of the tool, which I should write about in another post - how I over-engineered a simple product ;)
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