Over the past 6 years, I've spoken to hundreds of founders who admitted giving their launch days too much importance.
They believed it would be the day that changed everything.
The pressure was often so high that they’d postpone it out of fear that the product wasn’t ready and miss the momentum.
Or in case of a failure, it crashed them so much that they weren’t able to start over.
In this article, I want to share 3 main myths that prevent you from launching fast enough and how you should go about your product’s launch so that even if it fails, you’re able to bounce back. 💪
Myth #1: Your product isn’t ready
The only indicator that your product is ready is that it has just enough features to solve the customer's problem.
Here’s a reminder of how the biggest companies started 👇
X (Twitter) was founded as a basic service where users could send short status updates via SMS.
Stripe launched with a basic API that helped developers integrate payment processing into their websites. It only had a handful of features.
The first version of Airbnb allowed users to rent air mattresses in the founders' apartments during a conference.
Myth #2 You need a big launch
Founders who come from a corporate background often think they need to prepare for months for their launch. That’s because at Google, Apple, Meta, etc., they were a part of big launches with infinite budgets.
But the Apple I was first introduced to a small audience at the Homebrew Computer Club in Silicon Valley.
Dropbox started with a simple demo video and a closed beta that invited users to sign up for early access.
GitHub had a very niche launch targeting only the developers that had been already familiar with Git.
Your launch day is simply a moment when you push your product in public for people to try it and give you feedback.
The faster it happens, the better it is for your company.
Don’t overcomplicate it.
Myth #3 You have only one shot
Even if your users don’t like your product, it doesn’t mean that they will never use it again.
You can (and must) launch a few times based on the lessons you learned from previous attempts.
Airbnb had had 3 launches before anyone even paid attention to it.
YouTube initially started as a dating site, failed, and then pivoted to what we know it now.
What you also need to remember is that the majority of users aren’t early adopters.
Focus on your core users, the 100 fans who will stay with you through all iterations because they believe in your product.
lemlist’s early days weren’t smooth either. Once we decided to completely rebuild the platform because we believed it would help us boost the conversion rate.
Our core users told us it wasn’t the right decision. We analyzed their feedback and, with quick iterations, created the platform that tripled the conversion rate and 4x’ed our activation rate.
Being an entrepreneur is a very humbling path, and the only approach that can ease it is to take everything as a learning.
If I told you that to get to the version of your product that will be used by millions of people, you need to fail 1,000 times, you would gladly do it.
Go live as soon as you can, and let the users help you improve it.
Every week I’ll publish new articles on how to build and grow a B2B business that generates millions of dollars.
Peace, love, and profit 💰
G. ✌️
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