Here’s what that meant for us.
We thought about submitting on Product Hunt for a while, but never got around to it because we weren’t entirely happy with our tool. But, by the time of the submission, that had changed entirely.
At the time we were testing our Simple Booking Tool for booking charter buses anywhere in North America. Right before the Hunt, we completed the first version of our learning algorithm that provided instant quotes for buses.
Instant pricing anywhere in North America was a first of its kind in the charter bus industry.
We weren’t expecting anything crazy from our Product Hunt launch, to be honest. There’s a lot of great products hunted every day, and we knew that it would be tough to stand out. We were confident that we’d get a bit of use and traffic, but didn’t think it would be much more than that.
We were wrong.
The launch drove a lot of traffic, specifically 913 sessions in one day. We continue to see remnants of Product Hunt traffic to this day, proving itself as a legitimate, though unsustainable, lead source for our team.
What’s very interesting is out of all our referral traffic, Product Hunt drove the second most significant push of traffic in a single day than any other source in Sharethebus history. While this may not seem that surprising to some of you, it was to us.
Often, when a festival partners with us, we see a growth in traffic in the first year. The second year, if they work with us again (as of now we have a 0% churn rate from festivals), we see a large spike during their lineup announcement. For instance, when WayHome announced their epic lineup we saw a huge push, same goes for Osheaga, Amnesia Rockfest, and others.
Traffic is good and great, but the key here isn’t that just anyone was checking out our product. It’s that relevant people who have a keen eye on great product design, usability, and concept were messing around with what we’ve built. This demographic is one that we’re building for.
From this traffic 112 people completed our funnel and received quotes for their trips.
We were surprised to see approximately 5% of individuals converting to paying customers. This was least expected.
Introducing TJ from Miami
“Your tool relieved all the paint points of group travel organization. The bus companies I previously worked with really don’t understand the tech space or the modern day customer. You guys provided us with a real modern day experience.”
TJ, a Product Hunter, saw what we were offering and immediately realized that our tool would solve a need for him right away: transportation for a friend’s bachelor party that he was organizing.
Initially, their group booked with a different company for the first leg of their trip. They were forced to use fax machines to send invoices, lots of calling, and overall had a very difficult experience. It took hours and caused a lot of frustration.
For the remainder of their weekend getaway, they went with Sharethebus. TJ was surprised how quickly he was able to book a whole bus for him and his crew.
What’s more, is the overall experience on the bus was an improvement. Since Sharethebus selects their bus partners carefully, and work hard to ensure our drivers are not just safe, but also friendly and provide riders with the service they deserve.
Conclusion
What’s important here is Product Hunt allowed us to test something that was new to us, and validate it.
For the last year we had worked with many large scale events offering top knotch logistical support. Of our riders, many had began asking us, “Can we use this for smaller trips?”
Yes. Now you can.
Today, we’re able to support any event moving tens of thousands of people with the same reliability, attention to detail, and experience as was required for a 10-person getaway for a bachelor party. For a team that’s just a year old, that’s one hell of an accomplishment.
