Why you are not gonna release early and release often (and why you should!)

May 16th, 2009 by Prateek Dayal | Print Why you are not gonna release early and release often (and why you should!)

Since I started working on Muziboo, I have been a big fan of release early, release often philosophy. We launched Muziboo one month after getting the idea with very basic functionality and a very simple design. Since then, we have been listening to our users and continuously improving it. However I have to accept that many times in retrospect, I have been embarrassed by what I released. At times, I have also renounced release early release often for a few weeks (in search of design/functionality zen) only to realize later that its a bad idea and that I don’t have much progress to show for those weeks. I recently listened to a Mixergy interview with Eric Ries and started thinking about why we still don’t see that many examples of release early release often and see so many stealth mode startups around us. Here are a few points I think influence people:

A different kind of vacuum

I think everyone agrees that there is nothing worse than building in a vacuum. However I think the second worst thing that you can do is to build with feedback from people that are not your potential users. Most stealth mode startups take feedback from their close friends, family and other people in their network. The problem with this approach is that if someone is not your potential user, he/she is always gonna compare your product with the successful products of the world and not based on ‘that one thing’ that you do really well. You are only gonna get very generic feedback like “design is not that cool” or “you should try to use more ajax and overlay windows”.  In fact its very easy to get wrapped up in refining your product’s interface and delay your launch.

Ideally you should just get the basic functionality right and launch the product. You should not care if a lot of people think  that your product sucks (it does, but thats ok). Get your first few real users and listen to what they say. Solve a small problem first and then grow from there. Sure, you are going to lose some people who are never gonna come back to the site but thats ok. Internet is a large place so won’t run out of users anytime soon and once you have critical mass, most likely they will come back anyway. Find the first set of users who care for the solution that you are offering to them (because it solves one of their pain points) and grow with their feedback. Don’t obsess with UI before launch just because your ex-boss is still not impressed or because that big blogger won’t write about you unless you have a nicer interface (he won’t write about you anway and it does not matter again).

Stealth mode as a marketing technique

Another reason I see a lot of people doing stealth mode startup is to create buzz with the bloggers and potential users. Get over it. Most likely stealth mode strategy won’t create the buzz for you unless you are already very popular. Its just gonna give you too much time to work on stuff that does not matter. Some startups do end up creating some buzz (or curiosity) but in the wrong circle. Your twitter followers and your blog readers will probably get to know that you are working on this next cool thing but thats as far as it goes.  Most likely your target audience will never hear about your stealth mode product and wait for its launch. If people are coming to your site, show them the real thing and not a text box to add their email address to the wait list. Hunch can pull it off but you probably can’t.

Working in stealth mode

Working in stealth mode?

Trying to avoiding rejection (and embarrassment)

More often that not, people are just not comfortable releasing something thats not upto their standard of perfection. They don’t wanna release something they are not extremely proud of on the day of launch. Right from childhood, we are taught to work on our weaknesses and we simply can’t release something that other people can easily point holes at. My advice is that its ok. In my two years of entrepreneurship I have realized that you can’t avoid hearing from some people how your product sucks or you that you have no competitive advantage. You cannot avoid those uncomfortable moments where some people tell you that they would never use your product in the current shape and that it has a long way to go before it gets any where. You cannot avoid that situation by postponing the launch by three more months and working some more on it. As an entrepreneur you have to learn to accept some rejection (atleast early on). You cannot and should not try to please everyone.

In the end most of what I have said is from my personal experience and observation. There are always cases where working in stealth is better and if you have the vision and domain knowledge to pull it off, you should do it. However if you are like most bootstrapped startups, you can benefit a lot from releasing early, talking to your real users and then releasing often with their feedback. As Eric Ries says in the Mixergy interview, understand the difference between your product launch and PR launch.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, May 16th, 2009 at 8:08 am and is filed under bootstrapping, release early release often. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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27 Comments

  1. Jim Murphy
    May 16 09 at 9:05 am

    Well said, Prateek, especially the stealth mode vacuum and avoiding of rejection. In my experience establishing a culture of *validated* learning is so much more powerful than trying to be a perfectionist.

  2. pj
    May 16 09 at 9:28 am

    More content we don’t need.Has any one here not read a plethora of articles like this already?

    This comment was originally posted on Hacker News

  3. swombat
    May 16 09 at 9:29 am

    Hmm, while the point is good (and oft-repeated), this article is a little confusing in both its title and the way it phrases things…The linked Mixergy extract is very good though.

    This comment was originally posted on Hacker News

  4. Prateek Dayal
    May 16 09 at 9:56 am

    Thanks for your comment Jim. I think the concept of validated learning and having your early milestones around it makes a lot of sense for startups.

  5. Raphael
    May 16 09 at 1:29 pm

    And often.

    This comment was originally posted on Hacker News

  6. Andrew Warner
    May 16 09 at 9:14 pm

    I think you nailed it with the point about embarrassment. It’s very hard to show your friends and the startup community something that’s not amazing.

  7. Prateek Dayal
    May 17 09 at 1:46 am

    Thanks for your comment Andrew! The inspiration from this post comes from your interview with Eric so its really nice to have your comment here.

  8. Rajeev Lochan
    May 17 09 at 2:00 am

    Prateek,
    Its nice to see you bringing facts and myths about entrepreneurship. I appreciate your honest opinions and do agree with your philosophy of “Release Early and Release Often”

    Good Luck,
    Rajeev

  9. Rahul Yadav
    May 25 09 at 6:21 am

    I believe that bad words about a company spreads like wildfire, so one should try coming up with the best possible product/website. This always demand for extra time and extra efforts, but it’s all worth it! In my opinion a bad presentation can kill a good idea.

  10. Роман Морозов
    October 18 09 at 3:12 pm

    Занятно. Значит нужно какие-то поправки вносить.

  11. Approach
    November 27 09 at 6:37 pm

    Люблю сообщения в таком духе! Премного благодарен :)

  12. твoйтaтapин
    December 27 09 at 5:38 pm

    Хотя еще полностью непонятно, что там происходит, но точно могу сказать, что не в лучшую сторону!

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