Founders often obsess over a single launch day event. Livestorm's CEO argues that a launch is a 6-to-12-month timeline focused on building a sales or PLG engine and acquiring the first 10-15 key customers to trigger word-of-mouth. The initial event is just one point on that longer journey, not the ultimate make-or-break moment.
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A product launch isn't merely a release date; it's a strategic, coordinated campaign. Its primary goal is to change the market's perception, generate demand, and create momentum across the entire funnel, moving beyond a simple product announcement.
The weeks following a launch are for intense learning, not just promotion. The goal is to quickly identify high-adopting customer segments and then execute mini 'relaunches' with tailored messaging specifically for them, maximizing impact and conversion.
Even after scaling past $10M ARR, Canary's founder gets back on the phone to cold call customers for every new product launch. This ensures the leadership team directly tests messaging, understands customer objections, and validates the new offering's value proposition before scaling the sales motion.
The tension between growth and profitability is best resolved by understanding your product's "runway" (be it 6 months or 6 years). This single piece of information, often misaligned between teams and leadership, should dictate your strategic focus. The key task is to uncover this true runway.
Runway's founder justified a multi-year, pre-launch build by studying companies like Figma, which took six years to reach $1M ARR. This reframes building deep, foundational products as a test of stamina and team perseverance, not just a sprint based on raw intelligence or speed.
The "build it and they will come" mindset is a trap. Founders should treat marketing and brand-building not as a later-stage activity to be "turned on," but as a core muscle to be developed in parallel with the product from day one.
Don't build a perfect, feature-complete product for the mass market from day one. It's too expensive and risky. Instead, deliver a beta to innovator customers who are willing to go on the journey with you. Their feedback provides crucial signals for a more strategic, measured rollout.
Go-to-Market (GTM) and launches are not interchangeable. GTM is the broader commercial strategy covering pricing, packaging, and segmentation. A launch is a specific, event-based moment within that GTM plan designed to create urgency and capture buyer attention.
Founders often try to build scalable "tollbooth" pipelines (e.g., content, targeted ads) too early. This is a mistake because the specific customer demand is still unknown. A tollbooth strategy is only effective after achieving 5-10 nearly identical customer wins, which provides the necessary conviction and data to target the right moment of need.
When launching new products, large companies should avoid a big-bang rollout. Instead, use a phased approach: start with 5 reps to find product-market fit, expand to 50 to build a scalable go-to-market playbook, and only then deploy to the full 500-person sales force for mass scaling.
