The Unfiltered Truth About Launching Your First Product Without a Mentor
Launching Your First Product Without a Mentor
Hey there,
It's 8 pm and I'm scrolling through Product Hunt, watching my launch settle at #43 for the day.
Not terrible. Not amazing. Just... there.
Three months ago, I opened Cursor for the first time, pumped about building with AI. "I'll ship this in 3 weeks," I thought. Fast forward to today: QuickBrander is live, I learned a ridiculous amount, and I wish someone had grabbed me by the shoulders and stopped me from making at least half of these mistakes.
Here's what I desperately wish someone had told me.
Before I Vibe-Coded My Entire Product
What I did: Subscribed to AI coding tools (Cursor, Windsurf) and went absolutely wild. In the span of 3 months, I vibe-coded five different web apps.
QuickBrander? 90% done - just waiting on some API integrations. The other four? Early-stage prototypes, but they exist. And that alone is insane.
Hero section of QuickBrander homepage
Three months ago, I couldn't have imagined building ONE functional product this quickly, let alone five. AI coding tools are legitimately a superpower for indie hackers.
But here's the catch: Vibe coding is incredible for speed, but can be terrible for strategy.
Don't get me wrong, I love the speed. But I also built SO MANY features I didn't need because it felt easy. "Oh, I can add this in 20 minutes? Sure, why not!"
By the time I was ready to launch QuickBrander, I had 12 different tools crammed into the product.
The brutal truth: Just because you CAN build something in 20 minutes doesn't mean you SHOULD. AI makes building fast, but it also makes building the wrong thing faster. You still need to know what problem you're solving before you open that code editor.
Speed is amazing. Direction is better. Having both? That's the real cheat code.
Before I Launched on Product Hunt (#43 Club)
What I did: Thought "I'll just launch and see what happens." No audience building, no teaser page, no network to ping on launch day. Just hit submit and hoped for the best.
What I wish I knew: Product Hunt isn't a "build it and they will come" platform. It's a "bring your crowd or get buried" game.
I launched QuickBrander with:
Zero followers on Product Hunt
No email list to rally
No founder friends to support in the first hour
A landing page I'd only shown to like 3 people
I ended the day at #43. Got 6 upvotes, 12 comments (mostly polite "looks interesting" messages), and a whole lot of silence.
Meanwhile, the #1 product that day? They had 200+ upvotes in the first hour. Their founder had been building relationships and teasing the launch for weeks.
The brutal truth: Product Hunt rewards preparation, not just good products. You need an audience BEFORE launch day, not after. Launching without one is like throwing a party and texting invites after it's already over.
Before I Launched Too Early
Mid section QuickBrander’s homepage
What I did: Told myself "just ship it" and launched the moment the core features worked. Bugs? Whatever. Polish? We'll get to it. User testing? Nah, let's just see what happens.
What I wish I knew: "Ship fast" doesn't mean "ship half-baked."
I launched with:
A demo video I recorded in one take
Onboarding flow that confused even ME when I tested it
No social proof, no testimonials, no "why should I trust this?"
Pricing I picked literally the night before launch
The Product Hunt crowd is brutal. They sniff out rushed launches immediately. Half my comments were "interesting idea, but seems unfinished."
The brutal truth: You get ONE Product Hunt launch. You can't re-launch the same product when it's "better." I wasted mine because I was impatient. If I could go back, I'd wait 2 more weeks, get 10 beta users, fix the obvious issues, and THEN launch with actual proof it works.
Before I Built Without Guidance
What I did: Tried to figure everything out alone. Watched YouTube tutorials, read blog posts etc. No mentor, no founder community, just me and Google.
What I wish I knew: Going solo costs you months of time and thousands in mistakes.
I spent weeks making decisions that someone with experience could have helped me avoid in a 15-minute call:
"Should I build this feature?" (No, focus on core value first)
"When should I launch?" (After you have 20+ beta testers, not when YOU think it's ready)
"How do I price this?" (Talk to users, don't guess based on competitors)
I genuinely thought asking for help was a sign of weakness. Turns out, it's the opposite. Every successful founder I admire now has told me the same thing: "I wish I'd found a mentor earlier."
The brutal truth: You don't need to reinvent the wheel. Someone has already made the mistakes you're about to make. Find them, buy them coffee (or send them a DM), and learn from their scars instead of earning your own.
Before I Built Without Guidance
What I did: Obsessed over building the perfect AI-powered product and completely ignored unsexy fundamentals like landing page copy, clear positioning, and talking to actual users.
What I wish I knew: Great products with bad positioning lose to okay products with clear messaging.
12 tools of QuickBrander
I could describe QuickBrander 10 different ways:
"AI-powered brand identity tool"
"Launch your startup brand in 2 minutes"
"12 tools for founders, makers & startups"
Guess what? Users were confused too. My landing page bounce rate was 78%. People didn't understand what I built or why they needed it.
Meanwhile, I spent HOURS perfecting features nobody would discover because they left before clicking anything.
The brutal truth: If you can't explain what you built in one clear sentence, your product isn't ready to launch. Fix the messaging before you write another line of code.
What I'd Tell My Past Self
If I could go back 3 months and shake myself awake, here's what I'd scream:
Build WITH users, not FOR them in isolation — Show your half-finished product to 20 people before launch
Product Hunt is not a launch strategy — Build your audience FIRST, launch SECOND
Vibe coding is powerful but directionless — Know what you're building before AI helps you build it faster
Launching too early kills momentum — You only get one first impression, make it count
Find someone 2 steps ahead of you — A single conversation could save you 2 months
Getting #43 on Product Hunt stung. But honestly? It was the wake-up call I needed. It forced me to stop "building cool stuff" and start "solving real problems for real people."
What about you?
Have you launched something too early? Hit reply and tell me your story- I promise I'll read it and probably relate way too hard.
And hey, if you have 2 minutes: I'm still actively improving QuickBrander based on feedback. If you want to check it out and tell me what's confusing, what's missing, or what actually works - I'd genuinely appreciate your honest thoughts: QuickBrander
No sugar-coating needed. I'm collecting brutal feedback to make it actually useful, not just "cool." Your perspective would help a ton.
See you next time,
Better Every Day
P.S. If you're vibe-coding something right now, I see you. Just make sure you know WHERE you're vibing toward before you build yourself into a corner.
