What goes in a launch plan, and in what order?
A launch plan is the ordered list of what you do before, on and after the day you first show your product to strangers. Before: the page says what the product is, who it is for and what it costs, and signups and payments can be counted by source. On the day: one post in one place, with you there to answer. After: count, fix, and launch again somewhere else. As an example only, say a community post brings 300 visits, 15 signups and 1 payment. Y Combinator's essential startup advice says to launch right away. A launch is a day, not a strategy.
Where the advice comes from
No official body defines a launch plan, so the definition above is this page's own. The advice under it is Y Combinator's, and it makes two points: launch early, and launch more than once.
The first thing we always tell founders is to launch their product right away; for the simple reason that this is the only way to fully understand customers’ problems and whether the product meets their needs.
Kat Mañalac's talk on launching again and again, kept in Y Combinator's library, makes the second point.
I want to destroy the idea that launching is just one moment in time, because assuming you do well, and assuming you ship new products and new features, you are never going to be not launching.
What must be true before launch day
- The page says what the product is, who it is for and what it costs. Asked about landing pages after her talk, Kat Mañalac said to keep the copy short and make it clear what you are building and who for. Showing the price is this site's own addition.
- People can use it. Each launch site has its own rule on what counts as ready, quoted on the pages for Hacker News and Product Hunt.
- Signups and payments can be counted by source. Record where each one came from: the site that sent the visitor, or a tag you add to the link you post. Without that you cannot tell which launch worked.
- The rules are read and the account is open. The same talk says to understand a community's rules before you launch there, above all on Reddit. Some sites make a new account wait and stores review a product before listing it, so read Product Hunt and App Store and Google Play before you fix a date.
The order, step by step
A launch plan has no formula, only an order and one sum at the end.
- Pick the one place. It is the first channel in your go to market strategy.
- Get ready. Everything in the list above, before you name a date.
- Write the post yourself. The talk says to write like you talk and not like a marketing robot: who you are, what you are building and why.
- Post in one place, on a day you can stay and answer every comment.
- Count after a few days. Visits, signups and payments from that source. Signups divided by visits is your conversion rate.
- Fix the first thing the numbers show, then launch again somewhere else.
An example in round numbers, made up to show the sum and not a benchmark: a post in a community and, a week later, a listing on a launch site.
| Source | Visits | Signups | Payments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Community post | 300 | 15 | 1 |
| Launch site | 100 | 5 | 0 |
Each source turned 5% of its visits into signups, but the one payment came from the community. You could not know that without counting by source.
A launch is a day, not a strategy
Paul Graham's essay Do Things that Don't Scale names the big launch as a tactic that usually does not work.
It's easy to see how little launches matter. Think of some successful startups. How many of their launches do you remember? All you need from a launch is some initial core of users. How well you're doing a few months later will depend more on how happy you made those users than how many there were of them.
A launch gives you a first handful of users and something to count. Who you sell to and how you keep reaching them is your go to market strategy, and it is still there the day after.
The mistakes a new founder makes
- Waiting for the perfect day. The talk opens with a team that spent six months preparing one launch, and says that if you are like most startups, you will launch and no one will care.
- Every site on the same day. You cannot stay and answer in five places at once.
- Counting upvotes. Views, upvotes and comments are not signups, and signups are not payments.
- Asking for votes. The pages for Product Hunt and Hacker News quote the rules against it.
Where it matters
Every launch happens in a place with rules of its own, quoted on its channel page: Reddit, Hacker News, Product Hunt and App Store and Google Play.
One real case. Prep66, an exam preparation site built by AskSami's founder, launched with one free post in the community where its buyers gather. Its first full price payment came nine days later. How do I get customers for my app? tells it.
How Sami uses it
The plan AskSami writes ranks up to ten ways to get customers, free methods before paid ones. A launch is weighed there like any other channel, and Sami says why it is in or out for your product.
Signups come from a small snippet your own coding tool adds to your product, and payments from your own payment webhook, each tied to its source where the snippet recorded one. Sami works from those records and the numbers you bring back, says so when it has no data, and never invents a figure. AskSami never posts anywhere for you, never spends your money and never writes to your code. You do those things yourself.
Questions people ask
What do I need before I launch my app?
A page that says what the product is, who it is for and what it costs. A product people can use. A way to count signups and payments by source. And the rules of the place you will post in, read first.
Should I launch before my product is finished?
Y Combinator's essential startup advice says yes. It calls launching a mediocre product as soon as possible, then talking to customers, much better than waiting to build a perfect one, as long as it already holds what the essay calls a quantum of utility.
Can I launch more than once?
Yes. Kat Mañalac's talk calls launching a continuous process, from friends and family to strangers, online communities and each new feature. Each site has its own rule on posting the same product twice.
How many signups should a launch bring?
There is no honest general number. The same talk calls one company's 40,000 signups over a weekend an extreme case, and says almost no one who launches on Reddit and Hacker News will get that. Count your own, by source.
Read next
- What is a go to market strategy, and how do I work out mine?
- How do I launch on Product Hunt, and what are the rules?
- How do I post my product on Hacker News?
- What are Reddit's rules on promoting your own product?
- How do I get my app approved and found on the App Store and Google Play?
- I just built my first app. How do I get signups?
AskSami keeps a dated record of every number, channel and decision you give it, and nothing in it is edited or deleted while the account exists. Before you sign up, Sami in the chat can search the web, open a few pages of your site and read a screenshot or a table you send, for that one answer. Once you sign up, your honest read and your ranked plan are free.
Sources
- Y Combinator, YC's Essential Startup Advice, by Geoff Ralston, 25 September 2017. Read on 8 October 2026.
- Y Combinator Startup Library, How to launch (again and again), a talk by Kat Mañalac. Read on 8 October 2026.
- Y Combinator, Startup School Week 4 Recap: Kat Mañalac and Gustaf Alströmer, 25 September 2019. Read on 8 October 2026.
- Paul Graham, Do Things that Don't Scale, July 2013. Read on 8 October 2026.
Checked on 17 October 2026. Every rule, price and figure on this page was read on the page it links to, on the day shown beside it above. They change, so open the source before you rely on one.