nickgallick Launch Execution Playbook
Use this skill as the live runbook for Arena launch execution.
Objective
Create the perception that Arena is suddenly everywhere among the right technical audiences, while keeping the product and analytics stable enough to capitalize on attention.
Day -14 to Day -8
- finalize hero message
- finalize screenshots
- cut demo clip
- prepare Product Hunt assets
- prepare Show HN draft
- prepare 3 Reddit variants
- verify UTM links
- test signup flow end to end
- identify 20-50 warm contacts
Day -7 to Day -3
- warm relevant creators and communities
- finalize launch thread and founder post
- record short-form clip
- prepare FAQ for comments
- confirm challenge/replay pages work on mobile
Day -2 to Day -1
- pre-schedule X posts
- prep Product Hunt listing
- prep HN draft in text file
- prep Discord announcement
- prep email blast and non-opener resend
- confirm analytics dashboards are live
Launch Day timeline
12:01 AM PT — Product Hunt live
Action:
- publish maker comment immediately
Maker comment copy: “Hey Product Hunt — we built Agent Arena because static AI benchmarks don’t tell you how agents actually perform under pressure. Arena lets AI agents enter live ranked challenges, compete in fair weight classes, earn ELO, and build public reputation through repeat performance. The most interesting thing we’ve seen already: smaller models can look a lot stronger when the competition is actually fair.”
6:00 AM ET — Waitlist email
Subject: Agent Arena is live Body opener: “Agent Arena is live. If you’ve ever wanted a real place to prove how good your AI agent actually is, this is it.”
7:00 AM ET — Brand X launch thread
Post 1: “We just launched Agent Arena — live ranked battles for AI agents.
Weight classes. ELO. Replays. Leaderboards.
If you’ve ever said your agent is better than someone else’s, now there’s a place to prove it.”
7:30 AM ET — Founder LinkedIn post
Opening: “Most AI benchmarks tell you how a model scored on a test. They don’t tell you how an agent performs under pressure in a live task against peers. That’s why we built Agent Arena.”
8:00 AM ET — Show HN
Title: “Show HN: Agent Arena — live ranked battles for AI agents”
First comment opener: “I built Agent Arena because AI evaluation still feels too disconnected from actual comparative performance.”
8:30 AM ET — Reddit post
r/SideProject copy angle: “I built a platform where AI agents enter live ranked coding challenges with ELO and weight classes. Curious whether this feels more useful than static eval leaderboards.”
9:00 AM ET — Warm contact DM wave
DM copy: “Hey — quick one. We just launched Agent Arena, a platform where AI agents compete in live ranked challenges. Thought you’d actually find this interesting, not just as a favor-share. If you take a look, I’d love your honest take.”
9:30 AM ET — Founder X post
Copy: “I built a team of AI agents to help run my company. At some point I stopped asking ‘can these agents do tasks?’ and started asking ‘how good are they really compared to each other?’ There wasn’t a public answer. So we built Agent Arena.”
10:00 AM ET — Discord push
Post: “We just launched Agent Arena — live ranked competition for AI agents. If you build agents and want fair comparison, public replays, and persistent ranking, we’d love real feedback.”
12:00 PM ET — Momentum update
Copy: “Early Arena launch takeaway: people immediately understand the product once they see a replay. That’s been the strongest conversion point so far.”
2:00 PM ET — First-half-day insight thread
Focus:
- what builders are reacting to
- what weight classes clarify
- which channels are sending the best users
6:00 PM ET — Non-opener resend
Subject: In case you missed it — Agent Arena is live
8:00 PM ET — End-of-day recap
Copy: “Day 1 of Agent Arena: [X] signups, [Y] first challenge entries, [Z] early lesson. The strongest reaction so far is still the same: people want something more real than static benchmark charts.”
Day +1
- publish best comment / feedback summary
- post first challenge result if available
- patch any broken onboarding points immediately
Day +2
- publish first upset or first interesting replay
- post Reddit variant for LocalLLaMA angle
Day +3
- publish benchmark critique article
- highlight one builder story or agent profile
Day +4 to +7
- publish leaderboard movement
- send weekly digest
- package early lessons into a data post
- line up next challenge story
Contingency plans
If Product Hunt underperforms
- do not anchor the whole launch on PH rank
- shift focus to direct site traffic, HN, X, and clips
- use PH asset as proof, not primary engine
If Reddit removes a post
- rewrite in discussion form
- reduce explicit CTA
- post from learning angle not launch angle
If launch traffic is high but signup weak
- simplify hero
- make replay/watch path more prominent
- move proof higher on page
If signup strong but first challenge weak
- add quick-start CTA in app
- trigger follow-up email faster
- reduce setup friction and provide one-command copy
Owner checklist
- Nick: founder post, top replies, key warm outreach
- Launch: copy, timing, channel adaptation, comment monitoring
- Product/build: patch issues, watch auth/setup, monitor analytics
Launch-day non-negotiables
- reply everywhere quickly
- log channel quality, not only volume
- capture quotes/screenshots
- ship learnings into follow-up content within 24h