WhoBuilt

The Best Way To Launch Your Startup

Feb 9, 2023· 21 min· 407K views·Watch on YouTube

An unnamed Y Combinator head of Outreach shares advice on launching startups repeatedly, writing clear company pitches, and finding early users in a Startup School talk.

Launch early and learn

The speaker says founders should launch as soon as possible, even with an unfinished product, to find out whether customers care. If a launch gets little attention, iterate and try again; Airbnb launched three times before gaining traction. A small group of users who love the product can help founders decide what to improve and who else to reach.

Make the company easy to explain

A clear one-sentence pitch helps potential users, investors, employees, and others understand and share what a company does. Lead with the product and audience, avoid jargon and long backstories, and describe the problem plainly. Examples include Pave’s compensation tools and Airbnb’s marketplace for booking rooms with locals.

Choose the right analogy

An “X for Y” comparison can work when X is widely known, the audience understands why Y would want it, and Y is a large market. The speaker contrasts Paisly’s comparison to Stripe with “Buffer for Snapchat,” which may confuse people unfamiliar with Buffer. A direct description, such as a marketplace for dance and movement classes, can also be clear.

Launch through progressively broader channels

Start with a simple landing page, then test the pitch with friends and family and show an MVP to strangers. DoorDash’s founders interviewed more than 200 small business owners, found that delivery was a recurring problem, and built an MVP in hours. Online communities can provide early users: Robinhood received 10,000 signups on its first day after an unexpected Hacker News post.

Build an audience and launch again

The speaker also describes community building on TikTok, preorders for physical products, and waitlists, while cautioning that long delays can make waitlist signups harder to convert. Press is not a dependable path to sustained growth or product-market fit. Build an email list and engage communities so each new product or feature can reach people again.

Takeaways

  • Put an early version in front of potential users to test whether the problem matters.
  • Write a short pitch that says what the product does and who it serves.
  • Use an analogy only when the reference and audience are both clear.
  • Test with strangers and listen for recurring problems before building more.
  • Keep engaging an audience so each release can become another launch.

Mentioned in this talk

Y CombinatorAirbnbTikTokPaveIndieCloudPaislyBufferHarkaliveLaraRedditDoorDashDropboxGitLabRobinhoodStripeStartup SchoolGmailSlackOpenQueueYumBookfaceHacker NewsWord of mouthX for Y descriptionSilent launchFriends-and-family launchOnline community launchWaitlist launchPaul BuchheitChloe

Search inside this talk

What was claimed 14

  • built
    Paul Buchheit built Gmail
    creator, original lead developer
    “he's known as the inventor of Gmail”
    0:03inPaul BuchheitYouTube
    Verified11 sources· Talk, Web· archived
  • feature
    Y Combinator: Its team helps companies with their first launches
    “One of the things my team does is help companies with their first launches”
    YouTube
    Unverified1 source· Talk
  • metric
    Y Combinator: Over 3,500 companies had gone through the program and launched at YC, as of the talk
    “I've seen over 3,500 companies go through the program and launch at YC”
    YouTube
    Unverified1 source· Talk
  • launched
    Airbnb: Three times before they really started to get users
    “Airbnb launched three times before they really started to get users”
    YouTube
    Unverified1 source· Talk
  • feature
    Pave: Lets companies plan, communicate, and benchmark their compensation in real time
    “Pave lets companies plan, communicate, and benchmark their compensation in real time”
    YouTube
    Unverified1 source· Talk
  • feature
    OpenQueue: Helps users find and talk to target B2B users
    “Find and talk to your target B2B users fast”
    YouTube
    Unverified1 source· Talk
  • feature
    Yum: Personalized digital therapy programs for a team
    “Personalized digital therapy programs for your team”
    YouTube
    Unverified1 source· Talk
  • feature
    Harkalive: Marketplace for dance and movement classes
    “Harkalive is Airbnb for dance and movement classes”
    YouTube
    Unverified1 source· Talk
  • metric
    DoorDash: Founders interviewed over 200 small business owners across the Bay Area
    “the founders interviewed over 200 small business owners across the Bay Area”
    YouTube
    Unverified1 source· Talk
  • metric
    Bookface: Over 6,000 founders on the platform at the time of the talk
    “There are currently over 6,000 founders on Bookface”
    YouTube
    Unverified1 source· Talk
  • feature
    Bookface: Internal platform for Y Combinator founders
    “Bookface is our internal platform for founders”
    YouTube
    Unverified1 source· Talk
  • launched
    Robinhood launched Hacker News
    “Back in December 2013, they had a really simple site”
    YouTube
    Unverified1 source· Talk
  • metric
    Robinhood: 10,000 signups on the first day and over 50,000 over the next week
    “they got to number one on HN and ended up getting 10,000 signups the first day, and then over 50,000 over the next week”
    YouTube
    Unverified1 source· Talk
  • launched
    Stripe: Repeatedly launches products and engages its community
    “Stripe are masters at launching again and again”
    YouTube
    Unverified1 source· Talk

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