How I Prepared My Show HN Launch — A Solo Dev Checklist

I'm launching on Hacker News tomorrow. Here's everything I did to prepare. After building DonFlow , a browser-only budget tool, I spent two weeks preparing for Show HN. Not building features — preparing for people . Here's my checklist. Steal it. 1. Make the Demo Instant HN users won't sign up. They won't download. They click, look for 10 seconds, and leave. // ?demo parameter loads sample data instantly if ( url . searchParams . has ( ' demo ' )) { await loadDemoData (); } Result: One URL, zero friction. Try it → 2. Write the Docs Nobody Reads (But Everyone Checks) HN commenters will ask about: Privacy policy — "what data do you collect?" Data portability — "can I export my data?" Architecture — "why not just use a spreadsheet?" I wrote pages for all of them. Not because people read docs. Because one commenter will check, and their response shapes the entire thread. Docs I wrote: Privacy — zero network requests, verified with DevTools Data Portability — JSON, CSV, XLSX export FAQ — co