How do you prepare to launch your app?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=227879

by jfornear • 18 years ago

19 25 18 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I searched for this topic on searchYC and could not find anything super in depth, so I apologize if this is uninteresting to you. I am having difficulty preparing my brain to take the leap from “stealth mode” to “launch mode”, and I think the lack of feedback/teamwork is to blame since I have been working on this project for about 6 months off and on by myself while going to school. I am about to launch this project, but I am not sure how to approach it.

Here is my problem:

I currently have a group of friends on my app in a “private beta” phase, but I would like to tap in to the great feedback the HN community has to offer so that I could make real improvements on my app before it launches.

Like everyone else, I also hope to get covered on TechCrunch, Mashable, VentureBeat, etc. in order for the tech world to take me seriously, but I’ve gathered they will only cover you if you break silence through them.

I would feel better about promoting my app AFTER you guys looked at it, but is there a way to get the best of both worlds? Is it really that important to be taken seriously by the blogosphere at first?

In addition, I’m wondering if I should do the whole closed launch thing where you have to have a special invite key to sign up. I personally hate these, but am starting to understand how invites make blogs feel special and attract potential users to jump at the opportunity. What do you think?

I know some of you have been in similar situations, and I hope to learn what you did and how it turned out for you.

holdenk• 18 years ago

TechCrunch will cover people who don't break the silence through them, but they try to be a news site so they seem much more likely to cover a recent launch than an old launch.

You could always just have your sign up page check for news.ycombinator.com as the referrer if you wanted to expand your beta just to the HNN audience.

jfornear6• 18 years ago

Thanks, I think part of my problem is that I don't fully understand how TechCrunch works.

Do you think having invite codes are a good idea?

tortilla• 18 years ago

Personally, I'm sick of the invite codes. I don't feel special and it has become so common.

Just do a soft launch here. If your app is good, it will spread. If you're hoping to get some special benefit from Techcrunch, beyond the initial burst of traffic, I think you'll be disappointed.

edit: Did a quick search on Google, this article might help you: http://onstartups.com/home/tabid/3339/bid/169/Startups-Why-T...

wheels• 18 years ago

We're in a similar situation and we've put together a checklist of stuff that has to be ready for the launch. Since we started putting it in concrete terms the amount of stuff was more than we suspected. :-)

Things included were:

- Essential bugs that must be fixed

- Essential info that must be on the web site, including, as we're B2B an outline of our customer integration process

- List of press contacts and places we want to announce

- Press release text in English and German (we're based in Germany)

Since the launch does give you a chance at making some noise, while it's important not to delay, I think it's also important not to do it when you're not ready for a bit of a spotlight if you get lucky enough to generate some attention.

fendale• 18 years ago

I have never been in the situation having never launched something, but if I was launching, I would be inclined to just post the link here.

Best case, people here love it. Worst case people will point out its failings and be critical. This is actually a good thing, as it gives you the information you need to vastly improve it.

Most likely outcome is that some people like it and some hate it, but either way you will get good, honest and helpful feedback on here ...

ucdaz2• 18 years ago

1. Identify Your Audience. See where your audience/community hangs out whether it be blogs/forums/social networking sites or parties.

2. Build Trust. Engage the that community and build their TRUST by helping them out. No one likes a weasel or troll.

3. Ask and you shall receive. Community feedback is paramount. You'll be surprised how much help they'll give you.

4. Organic Growth. The community will launch the site for you since you have already established an authentic relationship and it's a product that they like.

5. Press on and learn. Don't get discouraged and follow your passion. Life is full of lessons for you to learn.

Good Luck!!

Nick

jfornear6• 18 years ago

My audience is probably both the easiest and most difficult audience to reach because of all the products waved in their face, gamers.

I am one myself so I fully understand, but I am having trouble building trust.

ucdaz2• 18 years ago

There are plenty of gamer forums out there. I would start there. Building rapport:

1. Share your experiences or ask questions about gaming.

2. Answer any gamers questions with insightful replies.

3. See if your product addresses their need.

It takes a lot of time to build a community. If you're in the bay area, we have startup meetups every now and then. It might help if you reach out to the community in person as well. http://entrepreneur.meetup.com/1737/ Hope that helps!

Nick

sachinag• 18 years ago

This is really tough - we have a product that I was sure would be covered all over the place, on both the gaming and the tech blogs. (Online marketplace just for gaming, as I think most people here know.)

But we launched without inventory, so even though we talked to a lot of people, the best press we got was Mashable. No TC, VB, Kotaku, or Joystiq. They just said "there's nothing there, I'm not going to risk my credibility on a cool idea".

My belief is that if your project requires users to be "cool", then wait. Just release it, get some users through SEO and WOM, then pitch it to TC and the crew. If you never pitch it to them, they'll never know you exist. Hell, even now, we're not in CrunchBase. And I can definitively say we're the largest gaming pure-play marketplace out there. We'll approach the lot again when we're good and ready.

My thesis is that they'll cover you anyway if you're important enough.

alaskamiller• 18 years ago

set up a private beta email invitewall for your site with a basic paragraph explaining what your site does, spam this everywhere you can and collect as many emails as you can.

set up a subdomain to redirect to your site and post it here. kill said subdomain after 3-5 days and tweak based on feedback.

in the mean time pitch to techcrunch (mashable is worthless in terms of coverage) through their email system, twitter links, and their forum. if it's interesting they will pick it up, though michael arrington probably won't be the one writing it up.

just go ahead and launch. email everyone on your mailing list. send the links to everyone you know. browse through blogs and whenever something related to your product is mentioned make a mention of it in the comments. techcrunch doesn't make or break you.

webwright• 18 years ago

"Like everyone else, I also hope to get covered on TechCrunch, Mashable, VentureBeat, etc. in order for the tech world to take me seriously, but I’ve gathered they will only cover you if you break silence through them."

They will cover you if you're newsworthy. You have an edge if you offer them an exclusive. Launching is rarely newsworthy (unless you're noteworthy as a founder or you're doing something really revolutionary), but growth is-- so start growing and you have a story.

I've been covered on TC 5 times spanning two businesses. My impressions are that A) being worth writing is the important thing and B) It's not all that. 10-15k uniques from TechCrunch isn't going to build your business, it isn't going to get you funded, and it isn't going to get you more than 500-100 actual users. For fundraising (if that's a nearterm goal), it's a good thing. But growth/traction/market are WAY more important.

Real good read on the topic: http://sethgodin.typepad.com

IF you want to ease into it, post a hardcoded signup key here... If it leaks outside of this community, turn it off.

cmm324• 18 years ago

I agree. I also think that if you do not make yourself visible, you will not be found. Arrington and the rest of the crew at TC get requests all day long to be covered. You will be lucky if you can be noticed amidst the sea of requests. Your best bet is to just launch. Create a corporate blog, have a twitter account, post comments on other related blogs. Do the social thing and you will drive traffic and get noticed.

Ours is a different story, we launched privately with a beta key... we had to for what our product is. We have to test the code and grow gradually because our product is very involved. We do not want to be covered today in TC, maybe in 8-12 weeks (although we did apply for the TC50. :D).

Take it slow and grow.

Chris

augustus4• 18 years ago

what's the address of your app?

jfornear6• 18 years ago

http://tinyurl.com/6hg8ol

wmeredith• 18 years ago

I'm LOVING the aesthetic you're putting off with the web design. It's pretty overwhelming at first, though. I'd put a tag line or something right on the home page that's basically your 10 second pitch. Something like, "A better way to communicate and with other gamers." It'll give people an entry point. I looked at the site for about 45 seconds before finding and clicking on the "about" tab. Had I not come from this Hacker news thread, I may likely have just moved on after 44... or 10.

I'd also tone down the apologetic tone in the about section. There's nothing worse than starting a story by telling people you're a bad story teller.

I like it, good luck.

augustus4• 18 years ago

Maybe the only thing I can tell you on quick review is to allow gamers to somehow display their games, their score etc.

Maybe they should be allowed to display their games on their profile including videos.

Possibly it could develop into something where strong players can find other strong players and challenge each other over the Internet.

I think it has some potential.

keefe• 18 years ago

Imho, there is an important technical side to this discussion. How scalable is your application? A bunch of friends scalable is a far cry from TechCrunch scalable. Are you confident that if you break on TechCrunch, your app won't fail? There's nothing worse than breaking big and then... breaking big. People will lose all faith in you. If your site is ready technically, why not just put it out there? There are probably way more potential compteitors here, so in some sense you are launching to an unusual pool.

On the other hand side, if your application is not yet scalable - private or invite only beta is probably your only option.

How do you prepare to launch your app?

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