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Ask HN: What do you do when you hit your MVP and are ready to show the public?

11 points by xs ↗ HN
I've just completed a project that is ready for public consumption, but not yet ready for mass market consumption. I have just completed the minimum viable product portion of the service. I'm aware of some bugs and the site simply isn't built to scale or work in all localizations. So I don't feel ready for a big announcement with a rush of visitors. What are some methods for doing a small scale launch?

15 comments

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tabeth
Friends, family and colleagues. Any other method runs the method of going viral. Good luck!
ezekg
Honestly, the average launch doesn't get a rush of visitors whenever you 'make the big announcement' -- that kind of thinking isn't really grounded in reality. You may hear about it on HN, PH and the Twitters, but they're the exception, not the norm.

Reality is that nobody will visit your site after you launch and you'll have to work really, really hard at getting those first few customers.

I've put my hopes into the 'launch rush' before and was crushed when it didn't happen. (Twice, actually.)

You built the MVP, and that's an awesome milestone, but that doesn't mean the hard work is over -- it's only a start of a different kind of work.

Just pull the trigger and deal with issues as they come in.

jordancampbell
I second this - the two golden startup fallacies: 1) someone will steal my idea, and 2) I'm going to be overburdened with users.
shanecleveland
>> it's only a start of a different kind of work.

Exactly. I'm in the same boat, but I was prepared for it. I've been guilty of thinking the building of the product was the hard part. Convincing others of using your product is the real work.

An announcement on HN or PH is not going to do it. And it would probably only be a temporary spike if it did illicit interest.

My goal? Hang out where those who may be interested in my product are. Scan and search HN for relevant posts. Find relevant subreddits. Contribute to these communities, and don't only promote your product. At some point, there will be excellent opportunities to bring up how your product is an answer to a particular questions or problem. And it will be appreciated and you will hopefully get feedback and criticism.

There's all kinds of value from this – not just getting users.

jordancampbell
Perhaps use a signup service that allows you to select which users can try your service.
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Mz
So, let me ask you this (and this is NOT snark, honest):

What "big announcement" do you think you are capable of making that would result in some rush of visitors?

Gosh, most people have no idea how to make that happen. Do you? If you do, can I have some tips, pretty please?

Most likely, you don't even know how to engineer that. So, start putting it out there via whatever channels you are aware of that might work, such as Show HN or Twitter or whatever. It probably won't get the big rush you are expecting.

I say this as someone who sometimes posts things of mine to HN and they sometimes get a few dozen hits and eventually go up to like 100 or 200 page views. Yes, I also have one piece that has had around 40k page views over some period of weeks. In the grand scheme of things, this is not really a lot of traffic.

Even if you hit the front page of HN, it may not be the rush of visitors of your dreams of avarice. Going viral is the exception, not the norm.

siquick
Paid ads are good to start off with because they instantly drive traffic and will allow you to iterate quickly if users just aren't picking up what you're putting down. The downside is cost. Once you've established that you have a product that people want, then you can scale your marketing efforts to channels that require more effort (PR, relationship building, outbound sales).

read this http://tractionbook.com/

[dead] siquick
Paid ads are good to start off with because they instantly drive traffic and will allow you to iterate quickly if users just aren't picking up what you're putting down. The downside is cost. Once you've established that you have a product that people want, then you can scale your marketing efforts to channels that require more effort (PR, relationship building, outbound sales).

read this http://tractionbook.com/

paulmatthijs
We did what was in hindsight a small launch. We put our app on Betalist first, got good response, redid a bunch of things, got it out on Product Hunt, got some more attention.

Then we targeted reviewers of competing/related products. That's what the kicker was in the end. A small launch easily eats up all your time, so keep it simple. A continuous drip beats a big bang.

Is your product niche enough so that there's a handful of sites covering it? Reach out to them. That's all you'll need in the start, and honestly all that is possible for you to reach. Don't go the way of paid ads and such, put in sweat first.

PS: IMHO you don't get to decide if you reach MVP, it's the users that do so by telling you it's a useful product and they're happy to be using it. Then they'll start asking to add more features ;)

bsvalley
Use the group of people you talked to when you validated your idea before jumping on your MVP. At this stage you should have built something they want. Protect passord your website or app and send them an invite.

Unless you spent time building something without knowing if people want it...