I tried to summarize how startups that I know of or worked with launch. This can be understood as a startup launch checklist.
1. Step: Set an extremely tight launch deadline.
I made the observation that the more “senior” a founder / team is the faster they launch. Launching is a trainable skill and the more you train it the better you become in it. Setting up an extremely tight deadline “by 23:59 of today” increases the chance of getting feedback of your potential users fast.
2. Step: what to get out of the launch
What do I want to understand / validate with this launch? For every launch you should be able to gain something. Ideally an insight if something works in the market or not. By writing down based on what hypothesis your idea may work or break, you should focus on the core hypothesis to validate.
3. Step: Set an audience
Have in mind who you want to launch to. For the first launch that could be a single person. Someone you know or think has the problem that you created a solution for.
4. Step: Check if you have access to the audience
Defining an ideal customer and not being able to get in front of them makes it hard to launch. If you do not find any way to get access to 1 single person who could be your customer, you might build something which is likely not beeing bought by anyone.
5. Step: do NOT build the product
for the first launch you do not want to present the product. You want to be able to create a communicative version of your Product. Which means: Create a deliverable that communicates your product idea. This could be a YouTube video, a tweet, a medium blogpost, a pitch deck, …
6. Step: Launch now!
If you already read through step 1-5 you should not wait any longer but launch now. I would argue that 95% of all startup ideas can be launched in 48 hours or less. Which means step 1-6 should take 48 hours or less.
7. Step: repeat the launch
Twitch launched repeatedly. They learned how to launch, by launching on a weekly schedule. Every week is a launch. See launching as a routine vs a one time event.
8. Step: measure your launch
In step 2 you defined what learning / question you want to get an answer on through the launch. Now you should be able to get an answer on this question.
9. Step: use tools that saves time to launch
Once you get into the routine of launching, you might look for tools that help you to reduce time of the launch. For technical products that might be a no-code tool. For services / physical products that might be a landingpage builder.
And that’s a 9 step description on how to launch a startup idea.
Some difficulties with launching tools
Launching tools might be helpful, but one could also fall into the rabbit hole of playing around with the tool for to long. So the best tool is no tool.
To summ it up launching is not a one time event you need to fulfill but a trainable skill you should constantly work on. Once you see launching as a routine rather than a one time event, it becomes easier.
