Launch kit — Product Hunt and beyond

Everything needed to open BuddyBots to the world in one place. Fill the blanks, then follow the day plan.

The pitch (use everywhere)

Tagline (60 chars): AI teammates with their own computer — they do the work.

One-liner: BuddyBots gives every AI teammate a real computer — a browser, files, a terminal and ~1,000 apps — so it can research, build, follow up and report back with evidence, asking you before anything risky.

Why now: Chat assistants answer; teammates deliver. Grok Bot showed the shape; BuddyBots is the open, self-hostable version with honest plans (steps only tick when they ran), a Chief of Staff that builds the crew it needs, and bring-your-own-keys on every plan.

Who it is for: small teams in e-commerce, marketing and sales who already juggle Shopify, Salesforce, GA4, MoEngage and a dozen tabs — and founders who want an always-on research desk.

Product Hunt listing

• Name: BuddyBots
• Tagline: AI teammates with their own computer
• Topics: Artificial Intelligence, Productivity, SaaS, Developer Tools, Open Source
• First comment (maker): why we built it, what a bot's computer is, the honesty rules, the free plan (300 credits, no card), self-hosting in one command. Ask for the three hardest jobs people would hand a bot.
• Gallery (6 images, 1270×760): 1 hero — crew home with three bots working; 2 the computer panel mirrored while a bot fills a form; 3 approval card ("Send 10 connection requests?" — Allow once / Always / Deny); 4 the task card with honest steps ("3 planned steps not run"); 5 connectors catalogue with MoEngage/Branch/SFCC built-in; 6 the Usage screen with credits and plans.
• Video (45–60 s): sign up → pick "E-commerce ops" crew → connect Shopify → watch Ada pull yesterday's numbers → the morning brief lands in files → share link.

Launch day plan (Tuesday, 00:01 PT)

1. T-7 days: docs, pricing, status page, terms/privacy live; Stripe live mode; Resend domain verified; 20 friendly users through onboarding; fix the top 5 friction points.
2. T-2 days: post teaser on LinkedIn and X ("something ships Tuesday"); line up 15 people to leave real comments (questions, not "congrats").
3. T-0: publish at 00:01 PT; maker comment at once; reply to every comment within 30 minutes for 12 hours; post the PH link on LinkedIn (personal story: 14 years shipping commerce, what bots changed), X thread (6 tweets with GIFs), Hacker News "Show HN" (title: "Show HN: BuddyBots – open-source AI teammates with their own computer"), the r/SideProject and r/artificial subreddits, Indie Hackers.
4. T+1: thank-you post with numbers; email every sign-up with the three most-asked questions answered.
5. T+7: retro — sign-ups, activation (bot created → task done), paying, top requests. Ship the top request within 14 days and announce it.

Messages ready to paste

LinkedIn (personal): "For 14 years I shipped apps and stores for Nike, Under Armour and Sun & Sand Sports. The bottleneck was never ideas — it was the hundred small jobs nobody had time for. So I built BuddyBots: AI teammates that get a real computer, do the job, and ask before anything risky. It is live today on Product Hunt, free to start, and you can self-host it in one command. Link in the comments — tell me the job you would hand over first."

X thread opener: "We gave AI teammates a computer. Not a chat box — a browser, files, a terminal, your apps. Here is what happened when a bot ran our store's morning report for a week 🧵"

Show HN body: what it is, architecture in five lines (Fastify + SQLite, Playwright browsers, MCP connectors, bubblewrap sandbox per org, text-JSON tool loop with an honesty audit), what is rough, what we want feedback on.

Success bar for the launch week

• 300 sign-ups, 40% create a bot, 25% run a task to done, 15 paying organisations, top-5 on the day.
• Zero incidents that lose data; every "needs you" email delivered within a minute.

Support during launch

• support@buddybots.app forwarded to a shared inbox; a "Help" link in the app footer opens a mailto with the request id.
• Status page at /status; if the machine is down, Fly's status and a pinned tweet.
• Refund policy: no questions asked in the first 14 days.