• Drum beat not big bang. A steady drumbeat of screenshots, videos, demos, comments, and discussion about what you’re building • Wins and more wins. Publicizing small wins, and big case studies, with interviews from customers and partners
Educate and help, don’t just sell. Lessons learned, unexpected events, and counterintuitive insights gleaned from running your business
In this new world of feeds, Always Be Launching is the right strategy. The reason is that your 15 minutes of fame has now been shortened to 5, and realistically, your users won’t care (at first) what you have to say. Announce your new startup, and just a few friends will congratulate you. Show screenshots of your demo, and you’ll get a few more pings. It’s only the long, gradual accumulation of these launches, with occasional random spikes — alongside collecting emails for your mailing list, gathering followers via social — that over time people come to know who you are. The biggest psychological barrier is to ask founders to talk more. To write down what they’re excited about, about their milestones, and to join the dialog. It’s difficult because — in the fog of war that is startup life — it’s hard to know how to be right. But it’s part of the fun to lower the bar. Say one thing one day, and then do a writeup about why you’re wrong the next. Launch a product, then share the metrics, but then talk about all the bugs and problems. It’s the unvarnished view that gathers supporters.
The media landscape is post-scarcity, and we need to retire the Big Bang Launch as the strategy. Always Be Launching, and launch a little each week. Go directly to your customers, your investors, and your supporters. Build over time, not in one go. And learn to tell the truth.
