Lessons in launching a SaaS product.
It’s all about the Attack.
Float went live on February 28th, 2012; it was my birthday. As I stood alongside our co-founder Lars in front of 600 people at New York’s Tech Meetup, I thought about all the work we’d put in to get on that stage. I was nervous and flubbed my opening line, but (somewhat) miraculously we got through it.
Later that day, we were on page one of TechCrunch. We had officially “launched.”
Since that day, we’ve grown Float from a nights-and-weekends project, to become a global, self-sustainable, 100% bootstrapped company. Our app now helps thousands of teams in more than one hundred countries keep track of their time.
While we’ve seen tremendous growth in the four years since, Feb. 28th, 2012 is still our highest day of traffic on record. Barring a round of funding or an exit, your launch is the best opportunity you have to generate awareness. You’ve got to nail it, and it all comes down to the Attack!
Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release.
In music production, synthesizers shape sound using envelope generators. The four stages of an envelope are Attack, Decay, Sustain, and Release (ADSR). The note peaks after the attack, before decaying to a level where it sustains for a period of time, and then releases to silence.
Mastering peak launch is all in the Attack stage. To nail it, you need to focus on three key areas:
- Launch validation
- Launch message
- Launch platforms
Launch Validation: Is your product ready for the World Wild Web?
Before launch, your goal is to gather relevant feedback from wherever (and whoever) you can. You need to generate as much interest in your concept as possible — which is easier said than done without a finished product. In short, it’s hustle time. Think giveaways, free early access incentives, referral hooks, etc.
Since everyone has email, creating a landing page and collecting email addresses from people willing to test your product can be extremely helpful. Yes, you want to make sure that they’re in your target audience, but now is not the time to get too fussy. The larger challenge might be finding anyone willing to be your guinea pig. Remember, they’re doing you a favor.
“No one is going to be as passionate about your product as you are.”
When you have a functional product that needs more eyeballs than just your own, it’s time to share it with your testers. You’ll probably be a little embarrassed by its lack of polish, but that’s okay. At this stage, you’re just looking for validation that the core features are achieving their goals. It’s important to remember that out of 100 testers:
- 60 won’t test at all — they’ll be too busy
- 35 will test and provide valuable feedback
- 5 will be your cheerleaders
Cheerleaders are your superstars. These are people who get your concept and love it. They’ve discovered something before anyone else, and they’ll promote your product without asking. As a rule of thumb, if your product doesn’t have any cheerleaders it probably needs more work.
Launch Message: What is the story, not your story.
By now, you should have a good idea of your brand and social channels. It’s time to start testing and refining your marketing strategy. The 140 character Twitter limit is a beautiful constraint for nailing down your message.
We knew early on that most of our audience was using spreadsheets for team scheduling and they were frustrated and desperate for a more robust solution. Our launch message was ‘Scheduling done right.’ A little vague, sure, but at least it was short and sharp. Your goal should be to avoid grandiose product statements, and instead, sell the story. Why does your product exist, and why should your audience care?
Once we figured out our “why” it was time to develop our launch assets. Video is a powerful weapon to have in your story arsenal, but it’s one that many companies seem to neglect at launch. Our first video was filmed on the cheap, using four friends and with my wife providing the voice-over. Nonetheless, it educated our audience and helped us sharpen our message and tone.
Launch Platforms: Amplifying the story.
Once you’ve nailed your story and launch assets, it’s time to pick your launch platforms. While there’s no magic formula for getting launch press, here are three rules that we followed:
1. Craft the story (not your story).
2. Approach appropriate writers with a relevant pitch.
3. Be nice.
For us, the focus was on the two platforms we felt would give us the biggest lift: TechCrunch (publication) and the NY Tech Meetup (event). At TechCrunch, I reached out to Sarah, a writer who had a history of covering SaaS-based news. Here is the original email I sent her:
I opened by giving the nod to a previous comment she’d made about clichéd emails, gave context to Float’s role in the industry (why we existed and why we mattered), and offered up the exclusive. Sarah replied within 24 hours and continued to be very supportive and responsive throughout the launch process.
If you’ve done a great job of building your early cheerleaders, Product Hunt is a fantastic tool to utilize. While it relies heavily on your community promoting your product up the list, the site generates significant reach and a long tail of ongoing traffic.
If you can’t land a mass reach launch platform, it’s best to focus on gaining more relevance. A good digital partner not only delivers a huge lift in launch traffic but can also have a meaningful impact on your social followers and search engine ranking.
Start attacking today!
Have an idea for a product? Great — now share it with anyone who will listen. You have a long road ahead, and there’s a good chance that what you’ve come up with isn’t going to be the next Facebook. Veiling your product in secrecy will only set you back from learning, gaining feedback, and gathering a following. Also, don’t be afraid to launch with less. Believe it or not, we launched without a payment platform. We had no way for customers to pay us, but we knew that we had a 30-day trial window to figure things out!
I talk to folks all the time who have good ideas and grand ambitions. When I run into them again a few months (or years) later, most are no closer to achieving anything real. Some never even got started. If you have an idea, start working on it today.
Launch your attack!
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