Launch tactics

At the start of each year, pre-map the year's product work, holidays and Apple campaigns into a tagged calendar (nomination / in-app event / push). Keep at least 1-2 in-app events live every month; they need no new content: tie them to seasons and moments (Valentine's Day 'plan some love time', Ramadan focus timer, back to school, International Women's Day because of women founders). Submit a featuring nomination every time you adopt an Apple technology (AlarmKit, HealthKit, widgets, Live Activities, Liquid Glass) and before seasonal moments, explaining why you fit. Respect long lead times: for Apple's Global Accessibility Awareness Day in May, submit mid-March to early April. Keep going even when most submissions get no reply; eventually the editorial team gets in touch and requests promotional artwork, which builds the relationship.

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.

Goal: get into the main GitHub trending feed by sending maximum traffic in the shortest time. Prep: register on Hacker News ~2 weeks ahead; build Reddit karma first or posts get filtered; set up Lemmy, dev.to, Medium and HackerNoon accounts. In one week: publish articles, Show HN, r/selfhosted and cross-posts, Lemmy, plus any X, LinkedIn and newsletter audience, all linking to the GitHub repo. Repeats this every week.

Submit a post titled 'Show HN: [project name]' linking to the GitHub repository rather than the main website. HN is picky and front page isn't guaranteed, but open-source projects have a very high chance.

After mocking up the product, offered 50 lifetime licenses at an 'absurdly low' price. The first 10 were cheapest and the price rose for each following batch of 10 to create FOMO. An offer so good people say yes, even if the first 10 were not profitable. Money-back guarantee: buyers could ask for a refund at any time; product promised within 60 days, then 2 more weeks to try it and request a refund. Treated a sell-out as validation.

Seven days of daily emails teasing the product's benefits (features too, but mostly emotional benefits and how it changes their life). Near the last day, push the coming presale but give no details, only a date. On launch day, queue several emails so people know exactly when it goes live, send reminders when the presale is about to end, and be highly visible on all social channels throughout.

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.

Subject line: either very short ('Please look at this because X') with the pitch in the body, or very long with everything in it and the body just contacts and a press-kit link; writers often see only sender and subject. Body: a couple of your own sentences on why it's unique (nothing pasted), optionally one strong inline screenshot. No tracking pixels, read receipts or tracked links on individual pitches, and never say 'I saw you opened my email'; a polite follow-up is fine. Attach or link a press kit with high-res images, App Store description and screenshots, feature details, a few lines of founder backstory (a teaser, not a pre-written story), and TestFlight or download links. Give a direct email and phone number and reply fast, since writers work on tight deadlines.

Built a map for himself with free GIS software and sample chart data from the Canadian Hydrographic Service, hosted it on a web page and added it to the home screen of a couple of iPads so it looked like an app. Booked a booth at a local boat show two weeks later, named the company on the spot (Wavve with two Vs because the one-V domain was taken). When visitors searched the App Store and found nothing, said 'we're in beta' and collected their emails.

With no money for user acquisition, Yves went to a French PR agency he had worked with at his previous company and asked for its retainer (about 3-5K per month) with the first six months' fees deferred until after six months; the agency agreed on trust. The pitch was easy for mass-market media: an app that pays you just for walking. Seven or eight months after launch WeWard appeared on one of France's biggest prime-time TV shows. WeWard kept the agency for at least five years and spent nothing on Meta or Google for its first four years, growing only on press and organic.

Stealth launch: sent the game to a few family members and friends and watched whether they shared it. Once they did, posted it to his social stories and a couple of X posts. The one that took off was a reply under his own unrelated NBA post: 'Hey, by the way, I made this game... I'd really appreciate if you guys all checked it out.' The game was 5 days old and retention wasn't ready.