> Take the word launch out of your vocabulary – it’s a sign that you are gambling on your app and not building a long-term, sustainable company. From Steve Bla

> Take the word launch out of your vocabulary – it’s a sign that you are gambling on your app and not building a long-term, sustainable company. From Steve Blank > Your startup is essentially an organization built to search for a repeatable and scalable business model. [1] I don't think taking the word launch out of your dictionary is necessary. I prefer to use the word ship anyway. Also, who cares if it's a sign you're gambling? Everyone know's you're gambling by doing a startup. What you're talking about is running a marketing/pr campaign. And yes I whole heartedly agree - do not spend money/time on marketing/pr until you have a product/market fit. What they've effectively done is increase their churn and customer acquisition costs. Marketing does not work unless there is actually a market to be served. > Instead, put your sign-up page up or your app out because you need more feedback on your idea. Find an audience of passionate users, even if small, and reach out to their community through appropriate means. This is the only thing web startups need to know. I launched Compete Hub about 6 weeks ago. I knew it the site isn't perfect, and even though I only have about 20-30 users I do have something possibly very little startups have - passionate users. For example: 1. I belong to a triathlon club full of people who are testing everything out and giving me feedback. 2. I have a follow up meeting with this person: https://twitter.com/competehub/status/313658484245803009 https://twitter.com/competehub/status/313658484245803009 3. After writing a blog post about my plans, I had someone provide feedback.[3] I have a call with this guy in a few days to speak with him in person. 4. I had a sign-up page before we launched that basically said "Are you interested in a website that helps you triathlons? Put you're email here:" I got 60 email addresses from that. I have a comprehensive marketing plan (that can hit a massive reach for fairly cheap), but I will not unleash it unless I've proven with my early evangelists that there is a market for this type of thing. TL;DR - The purpose of the MVP is to engage discussions. The purpose of engaging discussions is finding a product-market fit. The purpose of product-market fit is to build a repeatable and scalable business model. [1]http://steveblank.com/2010/01/25/whats-a-startup-first-principles/ http://steveblank.com/2010/01/25/whats-a-startup-first-princ... [2]https://www.competehub.com/ https://www.competehub.com/ [3]http://blog.competehub.com/2013/04/10/endurance-race-discovery-is-broken-heres-how-were-fixing-it/ http://blog.competehub.com/2013/04/10/endurance-race-discove...