Is there an ideal time to launch?
Tim Cherkasov
9 replies
Think back to the days of Facebook and AirBnB do you remember their launch dates? Or is it all in our heads?
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Vlad Golub@realvladgolub
Timing is key but don't stress. Just launch and hope for the best! Unless it's a vampire-themed app - then definitely avoid launching during the day
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Not sure about the time of day, but I have heard it's best to launch Tues, Wed, or Thurs. The other days of the weeks have less traffic. But that was like a year ago. Idk if it's still relevant lol
@solomon_bush yeah I heard that too, but I was talking more generically, like 5 weeks, 5 months or 5 years into an idea lol
@timcha Oh! lmao, my bad - well in that case, i'd launch as soon as you can. Get some feedback and use that to build the product. I don't know what the current rules are, but you can re launch on PH after a significant change or a certain period of time (I think this is 6 months). But from my experience, I wish I had launched immediately, it took me 1 year to build a beta, and 2 years to build v1. I could have launched several times during that period lol.
As soon as it’s providing value! If someone can use it and it makes their life easier it’s time to launch. A quote I think about a lot when launching is this one:
“If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you've launched too late.” - Reid Hoffman
When AirBnB first launched they didn’t even have payment processing! We think of launching as one big event but most companies have launched multiple times.
@eden_ghirmai how do you know you’re making someone’s life easier if you haven’t launched properly… demo?
@timcha That’s a great question, and there’s a couple ways I’d think.
1. Have a landing page with signups, if people are signing up before you even start the feature it probably shows this is something they want
2. Talking to people in the problem space, does your MVP actually solve the problem? For example when DoorDash first launched it was just the co-founders doing the deliveries themselves, it wasn’t sustainable but they were already providing some sort of value by letting restaurants make more money on deliveries when they couldn’t afford to before.
Imagine if their MVP allowed drivers to sign up but not deliver yet, there’s no value being added yet!
Those are just a couple ideas, but really learn about your potential customers and the problem space and it’ll help you learn what value they’ll be looking for.
I think the ideal time to launch a product is when it's ready and people are ready for it. You can't force a launch, but you can make sure you're ready when the time is right.