Dev tool product launch examples

Hacker News developer audience doesn't love promotion to put it mildly.

But some dev tool companies manage to make this audience their biggest ally.

Fly.io is one of those companies.

And they had a super successful product launch a few years back.  

So how did they do it?

• "Who"
• "Problem"
• "What" and "How"
• *Speak "dev to dev". Spec no fluff.

Let's go through these in detail.

Who are you? Why should I listen?

• show your face
• Say who are you and
• hint at why should I trust you

What is the problem really?

• Describe how you discovered the problem
• Agitate that pain, explain technicalities deeply
• Share your stories dealing with that problem (ideally obvious solutions that didn't work)

What does your product do and how does it work?

• Say what it is, like a technical spec.
• Say what it does, like really, low-level job to be done
• Explain how you solve it, be deeply technical

Speak "dev to dev"

• use technical jargon and relevant terms: "docker image", "global router", "VMs", "root filesystem"
• don't explain like I am 5, explain like I am 5 years in my dev journey "we convert docker images into a root filesystem, boot tiny VMs..."
• Don't use words that don't really mean anything and just take space. Speak MECE (mutually exclusive, collectively exhaustive)

By doing it this way you have a chance of gaining love from the prolific HN crowd.

Fly.io definitely did, and is still reaping rewards with constant HN exposure.

I like the simplicity of this announcement.

What: "Vercel Edge Middleware"

Why: "Start delivering dynamic, personalized content without sacrificing end-user performance."

Visual supports this but is super minimal.