HACKER Q&A
📣 nvln

Launch before Christmas or wait till next year?


I have an early beta product that's almost ready for consumption. Should I do a soft launch before the holidays and gather feedback or polish some more and wait until people are back to work?

For context: The product is for a niche audience, mostly free and is an opener for more products along similar lines.

  👤 laurieg Accepted Answer ✓
Launch today.

A lot of founders think "When I launch, all my potential customers will see it that moment". This leads to delaying until it is "perfect" or waiting for the "perfect" moment.

In reality, when you release a few people see your product. And then a week later a few more. And then maybe someone who likes it shares it. You lose nothing by releasing now. The person who sees your product today and thinks "Unfinished and buggy" is not the person that buys your product in a month.

By delaying you lose valuable feedback. Maybe a key feature that takes 30 minutes to implement is missing. Maybe there's a bug that affects real users much more than you thought. You don't know until you have real users.

👤 deafpolygon
> The product is for a niche audience, mostly free and is an opener for more products along similar lines.

Launch early, and launch often.

If it were a physical product release, I would look at buying trends and correlate that with a shopping season that favors those trends. (for example; large household appliances are trending down during holiday season, but general electronics and toys are way up this time of the year).

👤 quickthrower2
Every time a new potential customer sees something it is a nano launch. So don’t worry about launching. Just do it as much as possible, and as soon as you have something valuable and won’t screw them because of bugs/security.
👤 gnicholas
Think of what upcoming events relate to your product. Try to launch around a date/event that is relevant so you can get press coverage. Does your product help people with holiday stress, air travel, or snow? Don’t hesitate. Is there a narrative related to Valentine’s Day? Hold off for a bit.

You will likely not get press coverage of your launch. But if there’s an upcoming event you can tie into, it’s worth waiting a month or two to make it official. But you can still launch to beta testers in the meantime!

👤 applejacks
Always "launch" as early as possible. Do your marketing push whenever you think it will be most impactful, but get into production immediately.
👤 trifit
Soft launch now and see how much organic traffic you receive. Then incorporate those keywords and tailor your marketing further.

Life short, ship early and often!

👤 nvln
Thanks HN. Much appreciated!
👤 saluki
Go For Launch!