The founders launching when you are.Matched on fit, not on who paid.
A reciprocity network is worth exactly as much as the people in it and how reliably they show up. This one is built around matching on real overlap, and making follow-through the thing that carries.
Early days. The network is small right now, which means the founders who join this week get matched with everyone rather than competing for attention. List your launch and you will be near the front of it.
Matching
How founders are matched
Four signals, none of them 'who paid'. Matching is on genuine fit, because a pact with someone whose audience does not care is a wasted commitment for both of you.
Matched on date proximity
Someone launching eleven weeks from now is not a partner, they are a promise. The network prioritises founders whose days are close enough that both sides deliver while it still matters.
Matched on category overlap
A developer tool and a wedding planner can upvote each other, but neither audience follows through. Overlap is what turns an upvote into a comment, a signup, and a second look.
Matched on record
Kept and missed commitments are public, with the raw counts beside the score. You are never asked to commit to somebody blind.
Exposure shown before you commit
Back a launch three weeks before yours and you deliver first with nothing yet in hand. That gap is calculated and displayed, and the worst trades are blocked outright.
Cohorts
Circles
Pairs work, but they carry the sequential-defection problem in its purest form. A cohort is the structural answer to it.
Five to eight founders, one window
A circle is a cohort launching around the same time who all commit to each other. Joining generates obligations in both directions with every existing member.
Ghosting costs more than it gains
In a pair, walking away burns one relationship. In a circle it burns every one at once, in public, on a record other founders read.
Leaving is clean
If you leave, both directions are waived — what you owed, and what everyone owed you. No trust events either way. Somebody else walking away must never cost you.
Circles are public
A pact is a private arrangement between two founders. A circle is a cohort you are meant to find and join, so it is listed and open.
Money never touches a vote
Activation and sponsored placement change how many founders you can reach and where your launch appears. Support on LaunchClan is always a founder choosing to back another founder, and every commitment is verified against Product Hunt either way. Nothing here buys an upvote, a pact, or a trust score.
Get in front of the right founders
List your launch with a date and a category, and the network does the matching.