And just like that, our second launch week is in the books. Trying to emulate the success of companies like Supabase and SigNoz is a tall order, especially for a team that's still new to the launch week game. But one thing's for sure: successful launch weeks are a skill acquired through experience, and finding what works specifically for your project. We learned a ton from this one, and we're confident that future launches will be even more impactful.

The best part? This launch was already a resounding success, delivering immense value. Before we dive into the key actions and outcomes, here's a quick TL;DR for those in a hurry.

TL;DR

• 🚀 We shared a new feature everyday on X and LinkedIn, check them out here.
• 💖 We got so much valuable support and feedback on Hacker News
• 🥉 We came in 3rd on Dev Hunt
• 🎉 We organised our first San Fransisco Kubernetes meetup
• 📈 We gathered some unexpected and exciting metrics and feedback

Let’s take each item and explore them a little bit more in detail

A feature a day 📅

The theme for this launch week was loud and clear: Glasskube is GitOps ready! Most of the features we showcased support our new GitOps functionalities in one way or another. If you remember just one thing, let it be this: thanks to our latest features, Kubernetes package management can now be handled the GitOps way.

Eager to get started? Check out the Glasskube GitOps template for a working example of what's possible.

Here's a quick recap of the features we shared:

1. Glasskube is "GitOps ready"
2. The Glasskube GitOps template
3. The Renovate integration
4. The Glasskube Hub
5. Glasskube package scopes

Let's dive deeper into each one!

Successful Show Hacker news launch 📰

On Tuesday, we launched the GitOps template on Show HN. We were blown away by the insightful engineers who gave it a go and came back with thought-provoking, challenging questions, the kind of feedback that's pure gold for us.

Finding smart, generous people who dedicate time to giving valuable constructive feedback is rare, and we're incredibly lucky to have found it again in the Hacker News community.

Some of this feedback even sparked GitHub issues and Discord conversations that have been incredibly fruitful and will undoubtedly leave a lasting mark on the project.

Not on the Glasskube Discord server? Join us here!

Top 3 dev hunt 🚀

Launch weeks are the perfect time to test assumptions and explore new platforms and tools. This time, we decided to give DevHunt a shot, a platform similar to Product Hunt, but tailored towards developer tools. While the audience is smaller than on sites like Product Hunt, we figured it was worth a try. After all, it's not just about quantity, but the quality of the members on the site. And I have to admit, if you're building a developer tool, you might get fewer upvotes on DevHunt, but the potential to find users who are closer to a perfect fit for your target persona is much higher. We're thrilled to have landed in 3rd place!

Our first every San Francisco meetup 🌉

Why not mix it up any throw in an IRL event into the mix too. On Thursday we celebrated our first ever Kubernetes, DevOps and Security related meetup in San Francisco with more than 100+ sign-ups.

We had three great speakers who took the stage to bring technically rich yet super egnaging talks on the following topics:

​- Lukas Gentele (Loft Labs): Tenant Autonomy & Isolation In Multi-Tenant Kubernetes Clusters - A Comprehensive Guide
​- Philip Miglinci (Glasskube): The State of Package Management on Kubernetes
​- Ramiro Berrelleza (Okteto): Your AI team doesn't need a platform, but a paved ramp sure can help!

The turnout and the vibe were amazing. To cap the evening off we had a great networking session fueled by a generous amount of Pizza. We might have overdone it, but can you really ever have enough pizza?

If you weren’t able to miss it, don’t worry. We will be organizing more and will make sure to explore other locations also.

Thanks to everyone who joined!

Community feedback 🗣️

While there are amazing companies that pull off launch weeks with seemingly endless reach and impact, this section highlights why any project, at any stage, should embrace them. The truth is, no level of social media reach or post impressions can replace real, tangible community feedback and action.

A perfect example from this launch week is a community member who challenged the very conception of one of our newest features by spurring a conversation via GitHub discussions. This type of feedback is invaluable to us, and we genuinely welcome it. It's one of the main reasons we feel this launch week was so worthwhile.

Reaching key metrics 📊

Even though this launch week was primarily about sparking conversations with real Glasskube users and gathering feedback, we're happy to report some interesting key metrics:

• Over 100% website view growth
• Over 10% increase in real user installations
• 2 days featured on the Show Hacker News page
• 20+ Glasskube cloud signups
• +2 new Glasskube contributors
• Over 2400 impressions on Dev Hunt

Launch weeks are like a finely tuned orchestra playing in sync. Each day requires well-planned, prepared, and executed actions. As the week progresses, you build momentum, using it to amplify your message. We're excited to apply everything we've learned to our next launch. Nobody said launch weeks are easy, but with careful planning, scheduling, and execution, you can create a beautiful symphony.

Thanks for joining us on this ride, and we'll see you at the next one!