Do you still bother with a waitlist before launching?
A few years ago a waitlist felt like a must. Now I see a lot of makers skip it and ship straight to public.
For those who ran a waitlist: did those people actually turn into users on launch day, or did most of them never open the email?
And for those who skipped it: any regrets?
Part of the gap is that the waitlist count is bigger than the list you can actually email, because some signups used mistyped or throwaway addresses that were never going to open anything. If you run one, checking the email domain at signup and sending a short note soon after gives you a truer number before launch day.