On July 9, 2025, our team launched fileAI AI OCR on Product Hunt, and thanks to incredible support from the community, we landed at #5 Product of the Day, earned 329 upvotes overall, and secured a perfect 5.0 rating from 25 user reviews. To everyone who clicked, commented, and tested our demo—thank you! Your enthusiasm moves us closer to our goal of bringing enterprise-grade AI OCR to builders everywhere, making files instantly understandable and actionable.

Quick launch recap

• Upvotes: 329 total by the end of voting
• Comments: 36 meaningful conversations
• Reviews: 25 enthusiastic 5-star reviews
• Traffic: Over 400% spike in landing page visits on launch day
• Conversions: 11 new paid workspaces within 24 hours

While we loved the outcome, we learned a lot along the way. Here are five key takeaways I'll carry forward into our next launch:

1. Start your pre-launch earlier—ideally two weeks out

We created our "coming soon" page only four days before the launch, which didn't leave enough runway to build sustained excitement. Next time, we'll open that page two weeks early, actively engaging on Product Hunt forums, Discord communities, and Reddit. Instead of just promoting fileAI, we'll start meaningful conversations around data extraction challenges, helping build genuine interest ahead of time.

Quick tip: Genuine conversation beats pure promotion every time.

2. Getting into the top five is a team effort

Our internal "launch bingo" was a fun way to encourage teammates to share our Product Hunt page widely. They reached out personally to their networks, created individual Product Hunt threads, and posted about the launch on LinkedIn. One teammate even created a LinkedIn video about the launch, drawing fantastic engagement. Next launch, we'll kick off these internal activities earlier to maximize reach and enthusiasm.

Quick tip: Make it fun and easy for your team to support your launch.

3. Choose your promotional partners carefully

When our Product Hunt launch went live, we immediately received numerous LinkedIn messages offering to boost our ranking through promotional services. While tempting for a first-time launch, we knew from our research that these tactics can lead to superficial engagement. We decided to stick with authentic community interactions instead, which ultimately served us better.

Quick tip: Quality engagement always wins over vanity metrics.

4. Have fun with your launch

File parsing can actually be pretty exciting—think quirky documents like handwritten notes, passports, or creative receipts. While we had our Hugging Face page up, we wish we'd spent more time sourcing funky files from our community to demo live. Next time, we'll lean into the fun, showing more of the magic behind fileAI.

Quick tip: Edge case demos capture attention and spark memorable conversations.

5. It's not over until it's over

As any team that's launched on Product Hunt knows, maintaining momentum throughout the entire 24-hour voting period isn't easy. We kicked off strong just after midnight PT, but saw engagement dip as our APAC colleagues logged off and the US was still waking up. Our US HQ stepped up to sustain momentum once office hours began, and when APAC came back online, they made one last push early the next morning to secure our #5 spot. Next time, we'd strategically stagger our outreach throughout the entire day, rather than having entire teams blast their networks all at once.

Quick tip: Plan coverage across key launch hours—every vote counts.

What worked well

• Engaged Hunter: As first-time launchers, working with our hunter KP was invaluable. His insights and audience helped amplify our reach.
• Live demos: Short Loom videos showing real-time extraction convinced skeptics and tripled upvote likelihood.
• Investing in compelling launch assets: We made sure to create interactive demos and launch videos to index on show, not tell. These assets attracted 40% more engagement compared to static images.

What we'll improve next time

• Broader timezone coverage: We'll schedule social media posts and have dedicated response teams on shifts round the clock.
• Warm accounts earlier: Teammates will build their Product Hunt karma in advance, ensuring their engagement has maximum visibility.
• Longer teaser period: We'll launch our teaser page at least a week ahead to build early subscriber momentum.

What's next for fileAI

• Long-form file support: Enhanced AI parsing for detailed, lengthy documents like contracts and reports.
• Certifications: We're pursuing ISO 42001 certification and renewing our existing SOC2 Type 2 and ISO 27001.
• Community engagement: Our Discord community is active—join us to discuss features, share workflows, and collaborate directly with the team.
• Launching soon on PH: We’ll be back soon with our official MCP server launch! To stay in the loop, be sure to follow us on Product Hunt if you haven’t already.

Finally, a huge shoutout to my incredible teammates who pulled this launch together quickly and passionately, our hunter KP for his guidance, and early customers who trusted us to deliver value with their files. And of course, thank you to the Product Hunt community for your ongoing support and enthusiasm.

Still dealing with messy files? Give fileAI AI OCR a spin. Sign up now for $5 in free credits, jump into our Discord, and let us know what files you want us to tackle next. We're here for you, and we're just getting started.

Let's transform every file into fuel for innovation, together.

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