How HEY got its users
A public fight with Apple over App Store rules, orchestrated by founders who already had a massive audience.
Confirmed. The team said it publicly, or the signals leave no room for doubt.
It worked because of something they already had, or a window that has closed. Copying it will not reproduce it.
The edge you do not have: Two bestselling authors with an audience built over twenty years
- A launch that does not start from zero
- A direct relationship that survives algorithm changes
- 12 to 36 months of publishing before launch
- Accepting that you are the face of the product
- A topic where you have standing
Founder-led in 2026
Works extremely well, but it is an asset you build before the product, not during.
Everything on this channel →The play
Generic version of this channel. The detailed card is not written yet.
- 1
Pick one topic where you have a real edge and stay on it for a year
done whenYou can say your topic in one sentence and it has not changed in three months.
- 2
Publish the process, not the result. The process is what people follow
done whenPeople reply about the process, not to congratulate you.
- 3
Show numbers. They are the only thing nobody can fake
done whenYou have posted a number that made you uncomfortable.
- 4
Launch in front of an audience that is already warm, never one you still have to convince
done whenOn launch day, more than 100 people already knew it was coming.
The product itself
read from hey.com, live“We finally fixed your email + calendar!”
Run this against your own product
Carries the play above, and is written to tell you no when this channel is out of reach for you.
The same twelve channels as an agent skill. It reads your repository and eliminates what you cannot run. Open source, MIT.
curl -o ~/.claude/skills/howtodistribute/SKILL.md https://howtodistribute.com/skill.md
How big it got
Heavily covered launch in 2020
What else they ran
They ran the same play
Want this verdict on your product?
Describe it. You get back the channel I would run in your place, the 30-day plan, and the number at which you stop.