Launch tactics

The first product was a web app; it did OK but did not convert and growth stalled. The founder paid $1,400 for a 15-minute call with Nikita Bier, who advised going mobile. The team spent six months building the mobile app, then launched it alongside a video that went mega viral.

Used ChatGPT to make a one-page HTML site (runify.xyz) with a one-sentence pitch and rank images. Two options: pay $5 via a Stripe link to become an 'early adopter' (lifetime subscription once live) or join the email waitlist. All Reels traffic pointed there.

First goal after design was getting a two-tab, no-onboarding V1 approved by Apple so the app could be listed as a pre-order while it was still being built and marketed. Pre-orders auto-download at release and Apple emails users that the app is live. Kept the listing up ~2 weeks. Pitfall: pre-orders require a release date; he pushed it back every 2-3 days, forgot once, and the buggy build auto-released to ~1,000 users, so he had to revert to pre-order.

Borrowed the Supreme / sneaker-bot drop playbook for his dad's new restaurant: a reservation waitlist, with reservations dropped every Wednesday at 4:00 p.m. and announced in a local Facebook group. On the first drop only ~20 people signed up for 100 spots, but he declared it full anyway: better to look full and have people chase you than to look available. The waitlist also let them control table sizes (e.g. seat a party of 8 at a 7-seat table plus a chair) to fill capacity. TikToks, Google Ads and Facebook also ran.

Over one weekend, put up a website with a 3D wearable mock-up bought on Fiverr and a one-line promise ('Pacing, made simple'), honest that the product didn't exist yet. The CTA went to a Typeform asking 'If we built this product, would you be interested in coming along for the journey with us?'

Goal: show PhotoRoom is more than a background remover. Picked a smaller test market (UK, London) to get clean data. Rented high-footfall places with physical screens (the Outernet) and huge LED screens; people walked in, used a PhotoRoom photo booth, edited their pictures, and saw them blown up on the screen. Planned for UGC/online distribution from the start. Measured via branded search uplift.

Jack launched Lovely with a simple tweet: what the app does (love notes on your partner's home screen widget), shown in context, plus the goal of taking it from $0 to $5K/month in 10 weeks. He quote-tweeted it about six times with updates and context; each one got more views because it was a story (can he hit the goal?) and a cool product. When Russian news covered the app, he tweeted about that too. When a user posted the widget used as a grocery list (16M views), he quote-tweeted it with 'I made this app, someone's now using it as a grocery list'.

When the app was done, Kyle posted in r/baseballcards as the founder: 'I made this baseball card scanning app; a few months ago I posted about it and got a good response; now it's built and it's $4.99 on the App Store', with a link to the app and to the original post. Referencing the validation post made it feel like a community member following up rather than an ad. He kept posting updates for new features. A friend who later did marketing posted in r/footballcards and got banned for self-promotion.

Before the app was ready, co-founder Jack filmed a quick video on a work break panning up a Canva-made timeline that converts total workout volume into objects (Easter Island head, Stonehenge slab, '10 Donald Trumps'). It was clearly founder-posted. People followed the page to be told when the app launched; Jack then finished the app in 1-2 weeks.

Shipped the beta of the vertical short-form tool to the ~2,000-person waitlist in December 2025, charged beta users, iterated on feedback, then publicly launched March 23, 2026.

While fundraising for his fintech app, the founder manually searched the internet to build a list of investors to cold email. Reasoning other early-stage founders had the same pain, a few people manually built a database of ~40,000 investors and launched it as Angel Match on Product Hunt to test demand. He recommends the same sequence: pick a database that solves a specific problem, collect the data manually (or automate if technical), then launch to get eyeballs and see if people pay or sign up.

Before launch, built a ~3K waitlist and ~500 Instagram followers through the run club; in the two days the app was on the store before launch, asked friends and run club regulars to create profiles; launched Dec 26.