Startups Stack Exchange Archive

How soon to do a public release?

• posted by: Ed Cottrell on 2014-10-01
• tagged: tech-company, business-plan, product
• score: 4

How soon should a software startup do its first public release in the following scenario?

• Only one person is doing development at the moment.
• That person has a day job, so has to develop nights and weekends.
• Budget for hiring or contracting more developers is currently zero.
• The product is somewhat complicated (think a B2B SaaS platform, rather than a one-night wonder like Flappy Bird).
• A very rough-around-the-edges version is already deployed and supporting one beta customer, and will be supporting another within days.
• There is a known market of hundreds if not thousands of businesses, mostly in the 5-15 employee range, that need the product.

A premature launch could obviously be disastrous. On the other hand, delaying too long means missed opportunities. So, the question is: what are the key systems or elements of the offering and/or marketing that must be in place before a public launch occurs?

EDIT: Based on the answers, there seems to be some confusion.

One beta customer is already using the product, several customers have already indicated an intent to on-board in the next days to weeks, and the product is the result of many years of experience working with customers with very similar needs. Market research is currently much less of an issue than developer bandwidth.

Raising capital is not a good option, for a variety of reasons that I would rather not get into here.

Answer 862

• posted by: blunders on 2014-10-01
• score: 2

Based on the problem as stated, it’s impossible to tell what the best solution might be. For example:

If the addition of the next customer would net enough cash to hire staff that in turn would cover three customers, pretty obvious what the solution is.

If customers are still a loss to onboard, then getting more customers likely isn’t where the focus should be.

If the issue is that there’s a healthy business opportunity, but it lacks the capital to expand & the track record raise capital, or the willingness, then reviewing if it’s possible to fragment the fulfillment process and outsource ondemand might make sense.

Again, as is, at least to me, it’s not obvious what to advise with knowing more; which might not be possible for whatever reason.

Answer 960

• posted by: jerger on 2014-10-12
• score: 0

Customer Feedback is the most important part of business. So maybe it’s worth to answer some questions by your own?

• So how confident are you, that first customer contact would not change your product?
• Why should you be the one, who achieves the one shoot victory? Do you have so much experience in your new market?
• How can you get more energy into your product - by developing by night or by selling first peaces?

So selling is sometimes a hard job (as I know by myself) but maybe there are some smaller peaces, you can sell immediately? Take every chance to learn from the selling process - that’s the real advance to your competitors!

Answer 903

• posted by: user989 on 2014-10-04

• score: -1

  • If it is a good idea, you have to be faster in getting many customers than the competition needs to copy your idea, so a late release would be better.

  • If it is a bad idea, you need to realize this quickly to cut your loses early, so early release would be better.

It’s hard to tell when best to release, it depends a lot on your product, the customers and your willingness to throw in a lot of money when it shows potential. Maybe talking to investors can be a way.

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