Lecture, Webinar
Kat Mañalac - How to Launch (Again and Again)
- Launching early is critical to survival, as spending six months perfecting a product before release may lead to failure.
- Founders are advised to launch while in Startup School or by building a landing page within the coming weekend.
- Launching should be treated as a continuous process occurring over the next few months and throughout the company's life cycle, rather than a single event.
- Product launches involving new features will never cease, with companies like Glossier releasing items on a six-to-eight-week cadence.
- Users launching products may initially face a lack of interest, but launching to strangers and online communities is necessary to validate willingness to download and pay.
- Feedback from real users and strangers is preferred over input from friends and family, who may provide less useful data.
- Distribution strategies include leveraging the 40,000-person Startup School community, the 4,000-founder internal YC platform, or sharing with peer groups as was done by Reddit.
- Community launches can result in extreme growth, such as 40,000 sign-ups overnight, though such outcomes are rare; TechCrunch, Product Hunt, and Hacker News now offer equal conversion impact.
- Successful community engagement requires understanding specific rules, asking for advice before posting, and writing in a human tone rather than a marketing style.
- Founders should aim to build email lists containing hundreds to thousands of contacts during Startup School.
- Hardware companies are encouraged to utilize pre-order campaigns, whereas early-stage startups should avoid paying for blogger or influencer opportunities.
- Ketman Yalik's response times to inquiries may be slightly delayed due to upcoming demo days.