This Week at YC

December 1st, 2023

When to launch

When is the right time to launch that thing you’ve been building? The answer is, generally, sooner than later. Probably uncomfortably soon.

It’s something I saw a lot of in my decade as a reporter, and something I’ve heard on repeat from YC partners: people tend to overthink “the launch.” They spend weeks or months sweating every last detail and pixel instead of just getting something into the world and seeing if people want it.

Here’s Kat Mañalac, who as YC’s Head of Outreach has helped countless companies debut, on how she thinks about launching:

“[Most founders] think they just have one shot at launching their product publicly, and that the messaging has to be perfect or no one will ever buy, or use, or invest in their product.

I talk to founders constantly who lovingly prepare their launch for months — but if you’re like most startups, you’ll launch something… and no one will care. If it took you six months to get that first version of your product in front of anyone, your startup may be dead before you get another chance to launch.”

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And YC Group Partners Brad Flora and Michael Seibel talking about the idea of *the* launch:

Brad: “That it’s a singular thing… that there’s ‘the launch’ of a product.. that’s just not the case. You launch over, and over, and over again. It’s not a precious thing.”

Michael: “The goal here is to get people excited about what you’re working on, and show it to the world. And you might have to show that thing to the world more than once before they get it… and that’s okay!”

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Here's something a lot of people don’t know: YC alums have access to an internal 'YC User Manual’. It’s a big compendium of Y Combinator’s insights; its universal startup truths. There’s a section on launching. I probably shouldn’t quote it directly because I’m not trying to leak internal docs… but it boils down to the exact same message: launch early, launch often.

Find a problem, build a solution, then show it to people. If zero people want the thing you've built, it’s probably not because your logo isn’t pretty enough, or your copywriting isn’t clever enough, or because there’s a bug or two. But now you know days/weeks/months sooner.

- Greg

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