I run StartFa.st, a curated directory of AI, developer, and SaaS tools.
I’ve been building it in public and adding new tools daily, and some indie founders suggested I create a Black Friday deal so their products could get more visibility.
Before I do anything, I’d love to make sure I’m respecting the norms here.
My question:
Is it considered appropriate (or useful) to offer a Black Friday discount for something like featured placement on a directory, or would that come across as too promotional for the HN community?
Not selling anything here, just trying to understand what’s acceptable and what isn’t, since I know HN is very careful about these boundaries.
Would appreciate thoughts from founders who’ve done directory listings, ads, or Black Friday promotions before.
Disclosure: this is my own guide. The process started manually, and later I built a tool that automates some of the tracking. The post itself is focused on the manual system and the patterns I found. I’m happy to talk about the research or answer questions about the strategy.
I spent the last few months studying how people ask for recommendations, compare tools, and describe their problems on Reddit. I began manually tracking high-intent threads across a few subreddits and responding when someone was looking for exactly the type of solution I offer.
This turned into a repeatable process that generated more than 500 warm leads without ads, cold outreach, or posting content every day. The surprising part is how predictable the buying-intent patterns were once I started mapping them.
I wrote a full breakdown of:
• how I found high-signal subreddits
• the four types of posts that consistently contain buying intent
• what to look for in recommendation threads
• how to engage without being salesy
• how to scale the system from manual tracking to automation
I run StartFa.st, a curated directory of AI, developer, and SaaS tools.
I’ve been building it in public and adding new tools daily, and some indie founders suggested I create a Black Friday deal so their products could get more visibility.
Before I do anything, I’d love to make sure I’m respecting the norms here.
My question: Is it considered appropriate (or useful) to offer a Black Friday discount for something like featured placement on a directory, or would that come across as too promotional for the HN community?
Not selling anything here, just trying to understand what’s acceptable and what isn’t, since I know HN is very careful about these boundaries.
Would appreciate thoughts from founders who’ve done directory listings, ads, or Black Friday promotions before.
Thanks!