[dang]

Early-stage startups often have websites that are little more than landing pages. That's because a full commercial website isn't in their critical path yet—first they need to build their product and attract early users, who don't typically come in through general web traffic.

That's one reason why Launch HNs usually include a demo video. That's the link you should be clicking on if you want to see these guys' product. If you do that, you'll see that it isn't vaporware.

We also advise startups doing Launch HNs to provide a link for users to try the product (preferably without a signup gate, but that's not always doable). There's such a link in the text above as well.

I suppose one way to avoid complaints about stub websites would be not to link to them at all—but then other comments would say "why would I trust you, you don't even have a website"!

Edit: I've replaced https://runsift.com/ with https://app.trysift.dev/docs in the text above. Perhaps that will help.

[Velorivox]

I want to jump in here and post this Launch HN form [0]. Obviously do not submit it if you are not a YC startup, but the questions on there are very helpful in terms of thinking about how to post about your startup on HN and elsewhere.

[0] https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1pRMkNiD-FKjYL-La5JWMwwrcWsp...

[dang]

There's also https://news.ycombinator.com/yli.html, which is the guide for YC startups who want to launch on Hacker News. The formal mechanism is YC-only but the principles apply more broadly.

[jascination]

I'm not in YC, but I want to launch my startup here as it's relevant to the audience. Can I go through a process like this to coordinate with you for a launch, or should we just follow the guidelines, make a submission and hope for the best?

[Velorivox]

You would have to do a “Show HN”, the YC launch (post to the front page) is only for YC startups. You can certainly try and go through the process to do a “Launch HN” - but it would start with applying to YC.

Apart from show vs launch I think following the guidelines and hoping for the best is the norm. Launch HN is nice to get a one-time boost but it doesn’t confer any long-term special treatment on your post afaict.