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19 Comments

Are you scared to launch your MVP?

Do you get cold feet about launching your MVP? In the beginning, I was SO siked to finish up jemsplash.com to launch my MVP but now...I am getting a bit nervous, but I am still full of excitement!

At the end of the day we all "want" our platforms to be perfect but, I am super ready for customer feedback. Just nervous, that's all!

How about you?

  1. 6

    I used to get nervous but not anymore because nobody uses my shit anyways. I can't market/sell for shit, I just get the joy out of building stuff because it's my passion.

    1. 1

      Haha, "nobody uses my shit anyways" this is so true :D

  2. 4

    Massively so. I'm stuck in a cycle of, oh, I haven't built much of an audience so if I launch it and it flops I won't know if it's the product or the poor marketing - plus all the time I've already sank into it will have to go to the wall. So I built out something else because it SEEMS productive. A new landing page, a new feature etc.

    Ultimately I'm an idiot, and really should just ship the damn thing and pull the plaster off.

  3. 3

    Yeah, but I just throw my caution to the wind and do it anyway!
    As a matter of fact, I just went live on ProductHunt, wish me luck :P

    1. 2

      Good luck! and upvoted 😉

      1. 1

        Much appreciated!

  4. 1

    That's pretty natural, you have to push through it and just release it. Doing that alone will help motivate you to continue the journey. A lot of your first users will be early adopters and they know they're using something that isn't perfect and are pretty forgiving.

    Once you grow a stable point with 100's of customers, then you need to worry a lot more about quality and stability.

  5. 1

    Congratulations on your MVP, this may come in handy - Myths about Minimum Viable Product.

  6. 1

    All the time! And not just that but HOW to launch it.

    It's been a year since I started web development, but when I feel the time has come to share the site with users, I never know where to start. Most reddit communities don't like self-promoted topics, I don't have 10,000 followers on twitter, and getting started on Product Hunt is an adventure.

    I don't think I'm afraid to launch my MVP, but I'm not sure I have the marketing skills to do it properly.

  7. 1

    If you're not nervous or embarrassed by your MVP, then you've launched too late.

  8. 1

    The this is what is MVP and what is launch? Like, literally, I published my product on some sites, but is it a launch?

    If we talk about PH launch, then yes, I'm scared. Since it kind of "one-time opportunity".

    If we talk about just showing my product, then not that much.

  9. 1

    Very interesting question.
    I think that's my biggest problem.

    I have created a lot of business lately drop servicing platforms that are ready but have never been launched.

    I think it's due to fear of failure or aversion to loss and finding out that your idea was not a great idea.

    Definitely crippling as a mindset.

  10. 1

    Same here. I keep finding small bugs, a margin that is not perfect and imagining features users might expect and things like that... but at the end of the day, the only way to make sure you're building something people want is actually talking to people 😅

    Just remember that the more you talk with your users (or potential users) the more accurate your product would be for your user's needs 😉

    Good luck!

  11. 1

    I run Founder&Startup coaching and product incubator program for people like you — got one project up and running this way already, from complete scratch 😁 my coachee even told me “without your help I wouldn’t even start, being too scared, and now I’m already running a pilot program and talking with big companies” (we started in March and first phase of her product is finishing this week)

    If you’re scared, let’s talk — it takes 1 hour a week to get you up and running

  12. 1

    I agree so much with all the replies. There’s a comfort in being able to tell people “oh I’m working on such and such and I’m really excited about it, it should be ready soon” but not actually having to face any critique from them because they can’t really ask to see it yet.

    However, any critique can prove invaluable to helping you decide where to focus your efforts. Similar to another reply here, I finally managed to get over the line and ship an MVP by creating a simple list: what is the absolute minimum my app needs to be able to do to function? Be ruthless. If it’s not essential, it can wait.

    Once you’ve ticked off each item in that list, honour the promise to yourself and get it out there! After all, work on improving it doesn’t just stop. If anything, you’ll gain encouragement and more excitement from seeing it have become a reality.

    There’s also the sunken cost fallacy coming into a play a bit (at least with me), where because I’m now paying for server, hosting etc. it’s an extra kick up the backside to focus on what’s most important, as opposed to endlessly striving for perfection.

  13. 1

    I used to be very nervous but I do not get that any more. I talk about my totally incomplete product (nowhere near MVP) all the time with people, share everywhere I can.

    One of the things I am learning from the podcasts from @csallen with founders is that you have to work really really hard to get to product-market-fit. Some, like Segment get it by luck or chance. But others like Front push themselves to the user so many times, over the span of a year (or more) before getting say a 100 customers.

    In all these startups, the founders keep on saying that their early version was close to "crap". Yeah. Think of this as part of the process, there is no shame in getting things out the door.

  14. 1

    I get massive fear. I feel totally embarrassed trying to get people to use something that isn't quite complete yet. I then get self doubt and feel maybe I should write some more code before marketing more.

    Even worse I often feel embarrassed showing things to my friends even though the reaction is never bad. I have no idea why.

    At the moment I'm just trying to tell myself it's a stupid fear and I owe myself to get something out there.

    1. 2

      Same here. Fear of delivering something imperfect. Nuts of course, but I can’t help it.
      ¯\(ツ)

      1. 1

        Eh. It's normal. Your product part of you and you want people to see it in the best light. The way to combat it is to set hard goals of "When the product does this (and hence is viable) I'll launch" and stick to them.

  15. 1

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