Ask HN: Beta launch strategy: PR vs. no PR | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Beta launch strategy: PR vs. no PR

8 pointsaskneme5 comments

What's the best strategy when launching a private beta app in regards to trying to get PR vs launching quietly for only the people on the waiting list?

Trying to get PR for the beta launch:

+ Lot of visitors and potential users

+ Reduce risk of competitors stealing the unique ideas of the app if you get covered first

- Risk that many bugs will hit a lot of people resulting in negative marketing

Quiet launch:

+ Can sort out the major bugs before contacting the press

- Less users gets to test it

- Competitors can steal the unique ideas of the app without anyone knowing

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What usually happens: You launch it. Nobody signs up. You incrementally add features. Still nobody signs up. You eventually quit.

Competition rarely kills you. Product-market fit is usually the biggest factor. If you can get easy PR and signups, then go take them. Your early users will know its a beta product and will be forgiving about bugs.

It sucks, but this. Every beta I've launched has been disappointing with very, very little activity even when the sign up count is in the hundreds. I do however think betas are valuable, as it allows you to tweak things (sometimes large breaking changes) before launch.

I've been through this cycle too many times to count. Eventually it sunk in for me that having a great product/website doesn't mean much for its success rate. I've realized finding cheap ways to promote the product to its target audience is the real make-it-or-break-it part of the equation, unfortunately, and has little to do with conventional dev skills.

Just forget about "competitors stealing your unique ideas". Really, forget it. You are giving your own brilliance too much credit. You don't even have customers validating your unique ideas and you expect competitors to take them seriously?

So a part from that, regarding your question. A "private" beta doesn't implicitly means "no PR"? A private beta isn't open for anyone to sign up, if it isn't open, why the press should cover it? You gain nothing.

But, even if it is not actually "private", I still would suggest "no PR". Launch quietly, let some users come, test, validate your ideas. You will know what to improve and which of your ideas are actually unique. Then you will know what to say when you decide to go with PR.

Yes, it means fewer users trying it out and validating. But users that come from press usually are not of the "early adopters" type (meaning: they will be frustrated by the smallest bug, lack of feature or unpolished design and will leave before even trying, leaving no feedback behind).

So launch it ASAP, forget press, and submit to places like Show HN, Product Hunt, Reddit, etc.

I ran a beta period for one of my apps which I consider really successful, lots of feedback and lots of activity.

My way to go was to seek out people commenting positively about another product, then I would send them a message to see if they were interested in testing. This guaranteed that I would get, dare I say it, passionate people to test it - and I did.

One thing to note though was that I was looking for comments about "productX" which was already mine, and the new product was essentially a "productX 2". But I guess it can work somewhat similarly within a genre or category. Maybe not as perfectly matched as for me.

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