5 ms·

The importance of launching early and staying alive

92 points by drusenko 19y ago

samwise 19y ago
It's important to note that eventhough you should launch early, your product should work well and have a real benefit. too often i see startups launchs with a half-baked idea.
- drusenko 19y ago
  "Don't launch with a crappy product -- launch as soon as what you have is better than what is out there." If I remember correctly, that is advice given by Paul Buchheit.
  - eusman 19y ago
    it doesn't matter who gave the advice, if you can't realise it on your own. And you usually do, without needing someone to tell you.
    - drusenko 19y ago
      hang out with PB for 10 minutes and you'll hear 10 things that make you say "aha". you've got to be humble enough to realize that you don't know everything, and you won't necessarily stumble upon every realization on your own.
      - eusman 19y ago
        you missed my point e.g. Hearing someone talking about fear is entirelly different from living it on your own. The same goes for many stages in a startup. If you don't experience it, any advice in the world will not matter. I wouldn't be here if I thought I knew everything, but If you/I expect someone else to tell you how to understand if your product is ready then you lost already. For example if you want me to be more precise. In the certain advice everything is obselete and relative. What is the competition? Have they already launched? How easy will be for them to just replicate you and crush you? When do you know you are better from the competition? What would make sure you will avoid crushing you? All these questions relative to that advice are so crucial that makes the advice broad enough unless you are already experiencing that pressure and already have the realization of the market you are trying to enter etc. Thats why advices are meaningless until you experience them. You need to value the essence of the advice, not always upon who gives it. You will get many good advices from many people if you don't undervalue them.
        drusenko 19y ago
        i'm still a bit confused by your point, but advice has been very helpful for us. generally, the person giving advice tries to formulate their advice in such a way that it applies to more than just one situation. advice seems to be most useful when it applies directly to a situation you're currently dealing with. but maybe i'm missing your point entirely.
        eusman 19y ago
        that was exactly my point, the advice was valuable because it was applicable relative to what you are experiencing. the advice is not as important by who is said, as much if the person giving it is identifying what to tell you relative to your current experience. Otherwise any other advice will not matter.
        drusenko 19y ago
        very true, but it does matter who gives the advice: some people give bad advice that sounds good on the surface, but isn't. you always need to follow your gut, and listen to all advice no matter who gives it, but we always listen especially carefully to people who have dealt with our situation and been successful.
  - kajecounterhack 19y ago
    Or Donald Trump - "My building isn't worth millions of dollars because I built it, its worth millions of dollars because its a great building."
brlewis 19y ago
Any arguments for/against the following? Quote: the "build it and they will come" mentality is a fallacy. You need to build something great and have distribution in order to succeed. And distribution is hard to get.
- nickb 19y ago
  I'd love to see someone try to dispute that! If there's one thing that makes or breaks a startup, it's the distribution.
  - mixmax 19y ago
    Google - but they are clearly an exception. I remember reading a study (can't find it right now) that actually tried to investigate how good your product had to be to attract users without marketing. Their finding was that if your product is 200 - 300% better than what is already there you will win. Google fits that description pretty well.
    - skmurphy 19y ago
      Most startups have to be 10X (1000%) along a dimension of interest to be able to break through. Because you will be weaker in other areas, you normally can't compete across the board with existing players as a startup, you don't have the resources. You have to pick your battles. See Kathy Sierra's post "How to come up with breakthrough ideas" http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2005/11/how_to_come_up_.html http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2005/1...
- mixmax 19y ago
  I've tried and it's true. I built a great social networking website, but there were problems with just about everything (including a programmer that had a nervous breakdown and quit, one that had a heart attack and quit, one that got pregnant and quit, a change in the law that made our business model obsolete, etc. etc) We launched just for the hell of it, but didn't follow through on it. I think there are around 50 users now...
wastedbrains 19y ago
Good and timely advice. We have been launched for 6 weeks or so, and seeing our growth grow slower than we would have liked. It is good to know other start ups that are doing well, had a pretty slow intial growth for awhile. I guess that means it is time to put a bit more effort into PR and engineering some viral features.
tim2 19y ago
This article is about the importance of getting a rediculous number of major publicity hits, not so much launching early. Those graphs don't even measure if the product was good -- people often don't find out how good something is until after they sign up for it.
- drusenko 19y ago
  exactly right. good publicity and a bad product wouldn't help anything. and if you notice the "new users per day" graph, it settles higher after every publicity hit -- which is a good indication that your product is of value, since the more people that know about you, the more that tell other people about you, the more sign-up for your product every day. and on a side note, it's also much harder to get good publicity for a bad product.

92 points by drusenko 19y ago

It's important to note that eventhough you should launch early, your product should work well and have a real benefit. too often i see startups launchs with a half-baked idea.

drusenko 19y ago
"Don't launch with a crappy product -- launch as soon as what you have is better than what is out there." If I remember correctly, that is advice given by Paul Buchheit.
- eusman 19y ago
  it doesn't matter who gave the advice, if you can't realise it on your own. And you usually do, without needing someone to tell you.
  - drusenko 19y ago
    hang out with PB for 10 minutes and you'll hear 10 things that make you say "aha". you've got to be humble enough to realize that you don't know everything, and you won't necessarily stumble upon every realization on your own.
    - eusman 19y ago
      you missed my point e.g. Hearing someone talking about fear is entirelly different from living it on your own. The same goes for many stages in a startup. If you don't experience it, any advice in the world will not matter. I wouldn't be here if I thought I knew everything, but If you/I expect someone else to tell you how to understand if your product is ready then you lost already. For example if you want me to be more precise. In the certain advice everything is obselete and relative. What is the competition? Have they already launched? How easy will be for them to just replicate you and crush you? When do you know you are better from the competition? What would make sure you will avoid crushing you? All these questions relative to that advice are so crucial that makes the advice broad enough unless you are already experiencing that pressure and already have the realization of the market you are trying to enter etc. Thats why advices are meaningless until you experience them. You need to value the essence of the advice, not always upon who gives it. You will get many good advices from many people if you don't undervalue them.
      - drusenko 19y ago
        i'm still a bit confused by your point, but advice has been very helpful for us. generally, the person giving advice tries to formulate their advice in such a way that it applies to more than just one situation. advice seems to be most useful when it applies directly to a situation you're currently dealing with. but maybe i'm missing your point entirely.
        eusman 19y ago
        that was exactly my point, the advice was valuable because it was applicable relative to what you are experiencing. the advice is not as important by who is said, as much if the person giving it is identifying what to tell you relative to your current experience. Otherwise any other advice will not matter.
        drusenko 19y ago
        very true, but it does matter who gives the advice: some people give bad advice that sounds good on the surface, but isn't. you always need to follow your gut, and listen to all advice no matter who gives it, but we always listen especially carefully to people who have dealt with our situation and been successful.
- kajecounterhack 19y ago
  Or Donald Trump - "My building isn't worth millions of dollars because I built it, its worth millions of dollars because its a great building."

brlewis 19y ago

Any arguments for/against the following? Quote: the "build it and they will come" mentality is a fallacy. You need to build something great and have distribution in order to succeed. And distribution is hard to get.

nickb 19y ago
I'd love to see someone try to dispute that! If there's one thing that makes or breaks a startup, it's the distribution.
- mixmax 19y ago
  Google - but they are clearly an exception. I remember reading a study (can't find it right now) that actually tried to investigate how good your product had to be to attract users without marketing. Their finding was that if your product is 200 - 300% better than what is already there you will win. Google fits that description pretty well.
  - skmurphy 19y ago
    Most startups have to be 10X (1000%) along a dimension of interest to be able to break through. Because you will be weaker in other areas, you normally can't compete across the board with existing players as a startup, you don't have the resources. You have to pick your battles. See Kathy Sierra's post "How to come up with breakthrough ideas" http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2005/11/how_to_come_up_.html http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2005/1...
mixmax 19y ago
I've tried and it's true. I built a great social networking website, but there were problems with just about everything (including a programmer that had a nervous breakdown and quit, one that had a heart attack and quit, one that got pregnant and quit, a change in the law that made our business model obsolete, etc. etc) We launched just for the hell of it, but didn't follow through on it. I think there are around 50 users now...

wastedbrains 19y ago

Good and timely advice. We have been launched for 6 weeks or so, and seeing our growth grow slower than we would have liked. It is good to know other start ups that are doing well, had a pretty slow intial growth for awhile. I guess that means it is time to put a bit more effort into PR and engineering some viral features.

tim2 19y ago

This article is about the importance of getting a rediculous number of major publicity hits, not so much launching early. Those graphs don't even measure if the product was good -- people often don't find out how good something is until after they sign up for it.

drusenko 19y ago
exactly right. good publicity and a bad product wouldn't help anything. and if you notice the "new users per day" graph, it settles higher after every publicity hit -- which is a good indication that your product is of value, since the more people that know about you, the more that tell other people about you, the more sign-up for your product every day. and on a side note, it's also much harder to get good publicity for a bad product.