5 ms·
I'm of the opinion that the "launch" is a highly overrated concept. Unless you have lots of existing traffic or a press embargo, your launch will consist of tu
by timr 13y ago
I'm of the opinion that the "launch" is a highly overrated concept. Unless you have lots of existing traffic or a press embargo, your launch will consist of turning on the product, then watching as nothing happens. Later on, if you're lucky enough to get press somewhere, you'll get a spike of traffic that will be gone the next day.
As an experiment to this end we developed Omniref [1] entirely in public, just to see what would happen. We never hid the thing, even when it was horribly broken (we even had organic search traffic before we were ready!) It made no difference. What works is getting users, one at a time.
The bottom line is that product/market fit trumps everything. Better to just put the product out there and try to get one daily user as soon as possible than to worry about "launching". It's not as gratifying to the ego, but you learn more, and that's the whole game.
[1] http://www.omniref.com http://www.omniref.com
- mgl 13y agoAbsolutely, and I know this feeling. Getting your product ready enough to launch it publicly is just the beginning. You need to become a hustler and push forward relentlessly. Built the marketing and sales plan - and execute, execute, execute. This is where the real business adventure starts.
- notastartup 13y agowhat surprises me most is that we are almost taught to believe some magical market, the internet puts on a suit for you and becomes a generous publisher who puts our software besides console games in video game stores. what I realize now is that there's no such magic, it's hustling, constant hustling.
- bdunn 13y agoThis is spot on, and I've seen many a startup fold early on because they bet the farm on launch day. Each time someone new stumbles upon your marketing site - you've "launched". And if they don't convert, figure out why and you'll get to launch again with the next visitor.
- sourc3 13y agoI love this analogy. This makes me want to bring back to life the product that we killed after our 12 person private launch didn't get traction!
- notastartup 13y agoYou've shattered the hearts of thousands of new startups. This is what I've feared all along, the slow and "long ramp of death". It's as if there is actual hard grunt work involved in user aquisition without burning through all the capital some wrinkly old guy gives you. http://businessofsoftware.org/2013/02/gail-goodman-constant-contact-how-to-negotiate-the-long-slow-saas-ramp-of-death/ http://businessofsoftware.org/2013/02/gail-goodman-constant-...