The distribution problem With the rise of AI, distribution has become one of the biggest bottlenecks. We no longer have to spend nearly as much time coding, and you can now get a product live fairly quickly. But that creates a few new problems: There’s more AI slop than ever, which makes it harder to differentiate yourself and actually get noticed. The need for (good) directories This growing need for distribution has also led to way more directory platforms and more founders launching their tools on them. Directory platforms are sites like Product Hunt where founders can launch their tool to get seen. Product Hunt is probably the most popular one. From my own experience launching there, visibility disappears quickly unless your product finishes in the top three. I also found plenty of smaller directories promising significant traffic without delivering it. Founders launch their tools, but aren’t active on the platform afterward. That removes a lot of the potential value: upvotes, comments, feedback, engagement, and actual discovery. The solution: LaunchStreak As an answer to the ‘dead directory’ problem, I built LaunchStreak. LaunchStreak gives founders continuous distribution benefits for being active on the directory platform. I needed to give people a reason to keep coming back, and a streak felt like a logical fit: nobody wants to lose the progress they have built. Daily rewards then turn that continued participation into more distribution opportunities—the reason founders are there in the first place. It creates a win-win: being active makes the platform more valuable for everyone through upvotes, comments, and engagement. In return, founders earn rewards over time that they can use to promote their own tools in different ways. What I have learned so far I have only shadow-launched LaunchStreak, so it is still early. Even so, one user has already maintained a 15-day streak while commenting, upvoting, and reviewing startups listed on the platform. That was encouraging because it is exactly the repeat participation the model is meant to create. LaunchStreak leaderboard showing an early contributor with a 15-day streak An early LaunchStreak leaderboard during the shadow launch. This is an early signal, not proof that the model has solved distribution. But it suggests that rewarding ongoing contribution can create the activity directories need instead of relying only on one-day launch traffic. The more value you add to the platform, the more distribution you get back. View LaunchStreak on VibeCodingList.
