
Your Web App has Launched – Now What?  - dwynings
http://carsonified.com/blog/business/your-web-app-has-launched-now-what/
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jasonkester
I rode at least one '90s dot com into the ground on that first curve. Starting
with something like $6M on day one, they staffed up, built the product over
the course of a year, launched in August and hit the ground in September.

I'm following a somewhat flatter trajectory with FairTutor (my latest
bootstrapped startup): Registered the domain a year ago, built a demo, spent 7
months traveling through South America talking to Spanish schools and building
the product into something they'll be happy to use, filed down the sharp
corners over the last month, and it should go live to paying users in about a
week.

Still have about a year's worth of runway left to polish it into something
good before it needs to start paying the bills.

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d_r
I can't upvote this article enough. Perhaps I've seen too many friends put
months into a startup, with no clear marketing / post-launch plan. The switch
gets flipped, the site goes live, people patiently look at Google Analytics,
and ... the users don't come. A couple of months later everyone gives up and
goes back to devoting full attention to their day jobs that they never left.

That, and the article makes an important point -- if you don't have that many
users, it doesn't necessarily mean that your service/app isn't valuable.
Unless your product is incredibly niche, it most likely means that not enough
people have heard about it yet. Get it out there!

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webwright
Yeah, I think this should be required reading. I couldn't BELIEVE the number
of supposed "hackers" who turned their noses up at SEO on a thread I read the
other day: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1402544>

I think a lot of wantrepreneurs wouldn't "lower" themselves, to SEO, cold
calling, shilling at conferences, begging bloggers for coverage, etc
(strangely ignoring the fact that many of the companies they admire have well-
oiled sales and marketing engines).

It's like a car mechanic who opens a garage and thinks that his job should
still be working on cars all day.

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arethuza
I think I'm going to print out "coding is procrastination" and stick it to the
top of my monitor.

The gratification with coding is short term - find a problem, think of a
feature and get stuck in and get it done. When it works you get a nice glow of
self satisfaction.

I don't know about others, but having the self-control to _not_ open the code
editor and do something else is probably the most difficult challenge I face
in getting projects out there.

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fluxcapacitor
That's a good article, but these strategies should be thought-out BEFORE your
app is launched. In fact, way before, like before you even start writing code.

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destraynor
Hey guys, Thanks for the all the nice words about my post - if you enjoyed it,
you'll probably enjoy our Contrast blog (<http://www.contrast.ie/blog>)

Cheers, Des (@destraynor)

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jonpaul
Wow, great article. I've been trying to think of how I can effectively
bootstrap my company in about six months or so. Originally, I kind of deluded
myself of by thinking I could build a SaaS app and I would start getting
customers.

It's becoming more and more clear that the only way to get more revenue is to
keep solving problems, charge for your solutions, and have patience. Easy to
forget.

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alex1
Great article but I would have to disagree with it saying that you need a
budget for development after launch. What if the founders are hackers?

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webwright
Founders gotta eat too. In that case, budget is a looser term.

The point is, launch isn't when the battle is won or lost. Launching is just
the first time you're engaging with the enemy. So you shouldn't expend all of
your resources (cash, optimism, etc.) before that point... It's a long road.

