

Ask HN: How do you get over the fear of launching? - keeptrying

I seem to have a fear of launching to the public. I have been doing customer development and I am about to do a private beta. But the thought of going public really scares me. I've analysed this fear and it seems to me that its a combination of the following:<p>1. Fear of not having thought of ever legal angle.<p>2. Fear of no one using my website. And then someone else coming along and beating me in this area and making me look stupid and like Friendster.<p>3. Fear of the product not being polished enough.<p>4. Fear of rejection from lots of people at first look which leads to people never coming back to the site.<p>5. Fear of knowing that there are unknown unknowns which will come at time of launch and bite me in the behind.<p>6. A hacker or spammer will take down my site.<p>7. Fear of the fact that I havent thought of every possible outcome.<p>How do I get over my fears?
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caw
Realize how you can reduce your fears to nothing.

>1\. Fear of not having thought of ever legal angle.

You pay your lawyer to figure that out. If you get a C&D figure out then what
your solution is, don't pre-optimize.

>2\. Fear of no one using my website. And then someone else coming along and
beating me in this area and making me look stupid and like Friendster.

Then you just have to advertise. Or, you'll realize you designed this in a
bubble and you never had any users to begin with. At that point you've learned
something.

> 3\. Fear of the product not being polished enough.

Or it's so shiny right now that the glare is pretty bad. That's why it's
called a _minimum_ viable product. If you put another 100 hours into polish,
why does that even matter if you end up iterating and tossing the existing UI.
Or you could have used those 100 hours to make the awesome new feature that
all your users are clamoring for.

> 4\. Fear of rejection from lots of people at first look which leads to
> people never coming back to the site.

A/B testing. You didn't design this in a bubble, right? There's obviously some
value that you're looking for. And if those people bounce, don't spend too
much effort because they're not your target customer. There's an argument for
pushing higher conversions on a limited market segment rather than trying to
convert a lower percentage of all visitors.

> 5\. Fear of knowing that there are unknown unknowns which will come at time
> of launch and bite me in the behind.

Learning opportunity! If they're unknown what are you afraid of? You don't
know it, so how can you think of it to be afraid of it?

> 6\. A hacker or spammer will take down my site.

Backups solve that one. Or you can get something like CodeGuard, which
monitors your site for code modifications.

> 7\. Fear of the fact that I havent thought of every possible outcome.

Why do you need an exhaustive list? Have you at least thought of the most
likely scenarios? If something comes out of the blue it's because of your #5,
and you can't ever predict for something that you don't know is coming. But if
you have the most likely scenarios covered you can plan for how to work with
those results.

~~~
keeptrying
Great points. Thanks.

------
chris_dcosta
I know exactly what you mean. I'm going to assume you are a single founder -
like me.

There's a lot of pressure to succeed, that you feel before launch, but what I
found useful is to look at what exactly do you mean by "launch". I discovered
(more like _realised_ ) that launch _can_ mean "opening up your site to the
public", which I did. But then it struck me that even though it is available,
you are never really launched until you start to market the thing. Why?
because - and here's the crucial bit - nobody knows it's there!

So I just opened up the project, and guess what, all the fears went away. I'm
not really sure why, but I think it's because if someone does stumble upon it
it no longer matterswhat they think because I haven't formally started the
promotion effort. Sure if they give me feedback that's all good, but that's
something else.

Now I think I understand the sentiment about iteration to make improvements
and failing fast that were not clear to me before I opened it to the public.

~~~
keeptrying
Yup single founder.

------
lrvick
I have a product I have been working on off and on for 2 years, and have been
working full time on for the last few months. I have asked myself many of
these same questions. beta launch day has been delayed 3 times. Why? Mainly
because I know that as many things as there are right with it, the clever
people of HN will no doubt point out a dozen important things I should of done
before launching but after reading all this you know what? Screw it, I am
launching. I'll figure out all the stuff I missed when people point fingers.
Expect to see a HN post sometime in the next week or so linking to a new type
of search platform. ^_^

------
andrewhillman
1\. Fear of not having thought of ever legal angle. > unless you're doing
something that _could_ cause legal issues worry about this when and if site
gets some traction. Obviously, I don't know what your site does so take this
answer w/ a grain of salt.

2\. Fear of no one using my website. And then someone else coming along and
beating me in this area and making me look stupid and like Friendster. > if
nobody uses your service and someone comes along and does it better than no
one will ever know you tried it first.

3\. Fear of the product not being polished enough. > If you are passionate it
will never be polished enough. Just make sure it doesn't break if 10 users hit
it up at the same time.

4\. Fear of rejection from lots of people at first look which leads to people
never coming back to the site. > You can't please everyone. Find and target
your core audience.

5\. Fear of knowing that there are unknown unknowns which will come at time of
launch and bite me in the behind. > This fear is just a part of launching
something new.

6\. A hacker or spammer will take down my site. >if you're site isn't known
this probably won't happen.

7\. Fear of the fact that I havent thought of every possible outcome. > its
impossible to know every outcome. You will learn as you go.

NO MATTER WHAT, ITS ALL ABOUT LEARNING. YOU HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE. GOOD LUCK.

------
iamandrus
Just launch. Go along with what happens and if you fail, well, you've learned
something, right? Also, keep in mind that it took many, many startups weeks,
months, or even years to gain traction. AirBnb had been active for years and
was just about to shut its doors when it suddenly exploded with activity and
popularity. Facebook wasn't the social networking giant it was years ago when
it was just a school social network (only had students on it). Stay positive
and don't overstress yourself like I did.

~~~
keeptrying
Thanks. What were you working on?

~~~
iamandrus
Last.fm for gaming. It was a failure but I learned a lot from it.

------
dangrossman
Why is #2 a fear? Nobody can use the site if you don't launch; if nobody uses
it after you launch you're in the same position.

I launched a new site last week (<http://www.dialshield.com>). Nobody's using
it yet; oh well. Nothing scary about that.

~~~
keeptrying
I might actually have use of it if anyone uses my site! :)

------
damoncali
Just push the damn button. It's that simple. You're making something out of
nothing. Those are first world problems. Pretty much every one of them
presumes someone finds your site in the first place. Worry about that when it
happens. Better yet, just fix things when they break. Because they will.

------
chadp
You are thinking too much.

Paralysis by analysis. Stop thinking about it and just do it. Launch, then
find out what users say about your product.

~~~
keeptrying
I am doing customer development and getting feedback from my customers but
only using a PDF to show them features. It's like I want everything perfect
... At least useful...

------
Mz
Maybe you should go do some volunteer work. I recommend a homeless shelter or
some place catering to people dying of some gruesome illness. The point: Get
some perspective on your problems. Falling on your face with your business is
not the end of the world.

I don't currently have a business but I am a lot less of a perfection-obsessed
neurotic since spending a year at death's door. It was very freeing and
empowering.

Best of luck.

~~~
keeptrying
Thank you for the advice. Care to share your story?

~~~
Mz
Oh, be very careful what you wish for. I'm quite the blabbermouth and have
spent many years working on learning to restrain myself. <smile>

To try to put it in a nutshell:

I have a genetic disorder -- "atypical cystic fibrosis" -- which is a
relatively mild, relatively recently identified form of a very deadly
condition (life expectancy around 36 or 37 currently in the US for the
traditional form of it). I had to nearly die to finally get a diagnosis. This
empowered me to finally leave an oppressive marriage at a time when I was
still too sick work. I'm currently facing eviction and have a mountain of
personal debt related to getting myself well when doctors say that cannot be
done. It's entirely possible I will be homeless come January 1st. I am
continuing to function and even work overtime rather than taking a lot of
personal time to have histrionics over the latest stressors in my life.

I saw a TV show once about a guy who made millions in (commercial?) real
estate. In the interview, he indicated he had been career Air Force and flew
over 100 live missions, all of which involved people trying to shoot him out
of the sky. He decided that compared to that, the stresses of real estate
should be a piece of cake to face. Apparently they were as he was wildly
successful.

In addition to getting some life experience that makes you somewhat less thin-
skinned, I highly recommend you work on getting information/expertise for any
areas that concern you about your business. I am hesitant to say that because
people who suffer 'paralysis by analysis' can interpret that to mean "study it
more while doing nothing". I don't mean that. Talk to people. Show it around.
Get real world feedback. Do research if necessary, but don't get mired in
useless "academic" exercises. I guess, in a word: Launch.

Best of luck.

