Starting Build in Public — Track Record's next six months

The ProductHunt launch did not spread

On May 26, 2026 at 00:01 PT, we launched Track Record (the personal SNS) on ProductHunt.

The result: 1 comment. Upvotes did not climb, and we never made it into the visible slots near the top.

I'm writing this without hiding anything. Track Record's philosophy is that the past should not be rewritten and that only facts build trust. So our own failures stay on the record under the same rule.

Why it didn't spread — structurally

This was less a Track Record problem and more a structural mismatch with ProductHunt.

Fact	Consequence
200-300 products are submitted per day	Only the top 5-10 get visibility
The algorithm weighs the first 6 hours of day one	Later upvotes don't move the rank
Rank is decided by mobilization from a pre-built network	Makers who built audiences via Build in Public dominate
PH's core audience is tinkerers and early adopters	They prefer "tools you can use immediately"

And Track Record's specific mismatch with PH culture:

• "Generating trust by structure" doesn't land in a 30-second scroll
• "No self-rating" and "no negative evaluation" are values, not tool features
• "An SNS that only makes sense if you use it over time" clashes with PH's "tap and leave" culture

So Track Record was never going to land on ProductHunt alone. That's not a weakness — it's a mismatch.

The lesson: "It's free, so submitting will get attention" is a fantasy

You can submit to PH for free, but getting visibility requires a pre-built audience. Submitting is not enough.

This is a strong learning for me as a maker. Next time, I'll start by collecting "fuel" before the launch — not by submitting empty-handed.

What we're changing for the next six months

Track Record's philosophy only lands where people read long-form. In 30-second scroll culture (PH, TikTok), it cannot be conveyed structurally.

So I'm dedicating the next six months to Build in Public.

Three primary channels

Platform	Language	Role
X (Twitter)	English	Build in Public's home / coupled with PH
LinkedIn	English	B2B audience / founders, HR
note	Japanese	Long-form culture / philosophy diffusion

And as the canonical archive for all of it, this journal (trackreco.com/journal).

Three content pillars

1. Philosophy and thinking — Why Track Record, Bushidō roots, the case against evaluation society
2. Design decision logs — Why we chose append-only, why we don't allow self-rating, why only peers can tag contributions
3. Progress reports — Feature releases, beta user voices, honest disclosure of numbers (good and bad)

"Design decision logs" is the unique edge. The Stripe Press-style "expose the thinking behind the design" sits well with Track Record's philosophy.

Launch criteria

The next launch will be judged by time limit OR achievement, whichever:

• Time: ~December 2026
• Achievement (any 2 of): 3,000+ engaged English X followers, 1,500+ English LinkedIn followers, 5+ "actively using" Teams beta companies, 5,000+ cumulative journal reads

If neither is satisfied, we re-evaluate. We won't ship just because the deadline arrived.

In parallel, we're building Track Record for Teams

Alongside this Build in Public stretch, we've been building Track Record's enterprise version.

• URL: team.trackreco.com
• Concept: "Record the reality of your business — together"
• Features: Organizational profile, achievement tags (peer-applied), Decision Log, append-only position history

How the personal philosophy maps onto the enterprise — I'll write that in a separate post. "Don't rewrite the past" remained intact in the enterprise version.

A place to record failure

One last thing.

The core of Track Record is this belief: value lies in keeping failures, retractions, and turning points on record without rewriting them.

I'm writing about the PH launch not spreading right here in this journal. That's Track Record dogfooding itself.

Keeping what didn't work, plainly, without erasing it. Recording, over time, what we learned from it and what we changed.

That, I believe, is what it means for trust to accumulate.

I'll be recording here for the next six months.

— Issey Watanabe