Video · ~25 min

How to Launch (Again and Again)

Kat Manalac (Y Combinator) · YC Startup Library Free Beginner

The definitive talk that reframes launching from a one-shot event into a repeatable tactic, exactly this category's thesis. YC partner Kat Manalac gives concrete relaunch strategies.

  • Launching is a continuous process, not a single moment you get one shot at.
  • Most first launches get ignored, that's normal, so relaunch repeatedly.
  • Relaunch around new features, audiences, milestones, and channels.
  • Use tactics like pre-orders and outreach to bloggers without big sponsorships.
Open on ycombinator.com ↗

It answers 18 questions

  1. When is my product 'ready' to launch?
  2. How often should an early-stage startup ship?
  3. My launch flopped and nobody cared, did I mess it up?
  4. What's the best channel to launch on, Product Hunt, Reddit, Hacker News, or LinkedIn?
  5. How do I build up an audience before I launch so it's not just crickets?
  6. How often should I be launching, is once a quarter too much?
  7. What does a 'soft launch' actually look like, and is it just a cop-out for being scared to ship?
  8. I keep tweaking the landing page instead of launching. How do I tell polishing from procrastinating?
  9. My first launch went okay but the second felt embarrassing, like 'why are they back again already?' Is relaunch fatigue real?
  10. Should we ship an ugly, half-working version now or wait until it feels good enough to be proud of?
  11. How do I launch in India where there's no single 'Product Hunt moment' that reaches Indian founders and buyers?
  12. Should I gate my launch behind a waitlist, or does a waitlist just kill the momentum I worked to build?

And 6 more across the hub.

Read with it

  1. The permission slip to recruit users by hand, do things manually, and deliver 'insanely great' experiences to your first few... paulgraham.com Essay · ~15 min read Do Things That Don't Scale Paul Graham
  2. This is the canonical source of the ship-ugly-first idea, the LinkedIn co-founder's own essay behind the line about being... LinkedIn Essay · About a 6 minute read If There Aren't Any Typos In This Essay, We Launched Too Late Reid Hoffman
  3. The canonical fake-door test, told by the founder who ran it. Buffer started as a two-page site: one page pitched the tool, a... Buffer Article · ~10 min read Idea to Paying Customers in 7 Weeks: How We Did It Joel Gascoigne
  4. Free to read online, with chapters like "Build Less" and "Half, Not Half-Assed" that name your exact trap. It argues that... Basecamp / 37signals Book · Free online, ~4 hr Getting Real (free to read online) Jason Fried, David Heinemeier Hansson (37signals)
  5. This is the canonical argument that you do not need a mass market to build something real, you need a small number of people... The Technium (kk.org) Essay · ~15 min read 1,000 True Fans Kevin Kelly
  6. Basecamp's battle-tested, opinionated system for shipping meaningful work in fixed cycles without endless backlogs, a primary... Basecamp / 37signals Book · free online book Shape Up: Stop Running in Circles and Ship Work that Matters Ryan Singer
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