Video · 12 min

Superhuman's waitlist wasn't about FOMO

Rahul Vohra · YouTube Free Intermediate

Superhuman's waitlist wasn't about FOMO

Rahul Vohra explains on camera why Superhuman kept a waitlist for years, and it was not to manufacture scarcity. It was because they could only manually onboard a fixed number of people a week and refused to let that experience degrade. Hearing the operator draw that line in his own words is more convincing than any summary, and it is the clearest real example of when a waitlist is the right call.

  • Superhuman's waitlist size was set by onboarding capacity, not by a desire to look exclusive.
  • They measured and defended the quality of each cohort's onboarding rather than maximizing signups.
  • A waitlist tied to a real operational limit reads very differently to users than one that is not.
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The question it answers

  1. Should I gate my launch behind a waitlist, or does a waitlist just kill the momentum I worked to build?

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