Ask HN: When to make the startup public?

Hello,

I have a startup idea (a web service), which I consider profitable in general. I got basic concepts of "how to finance", "what to sell in detail" and "how to implement". So, I would consider it between the start and the middle of the seed stage.

But my greatest fears, beside the normal "this will fail"-fear, are to rush too early or too late to the market.

So my question is: When should I consider making the startup public?

I thought about just making the website and saying "coming soon", but in this case the "wow a new service hype" maybe gone before everything is ready.

Thanks for your advice.

1 comment

[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 15.0 ms ] thread

michael_dorfman 15y ago ↗

You say you have "a startup idea (a web service), which I consider profitable in general", but what does that really mean? Have you done market research, or is this based on your gut feeling?

If the latter, then you should do some market analysis, and one way to do this is a Dry Test. (It's not the only way, of course.) Except for dry testing, I don't see any reason to make a "coming soon" website, if you haven't got an MVP in place.

Once you have an MVP, by all means, launch. The sooner you get real customers using the service, the quicker you can get feedback, and iterate.