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I'm actually working on a new product (for a fairly small B2B niche) and planning to do a soft launch to work out all the kinks before I publicize it more widely. I'm thinking that'll allow me to work out any issues before I risk my reputation with people who might dismiss the product out of hand if they run into major issues. If you have more experience with it, does that make sense or should I forgo that first step?

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My gut feeling is that if you have a group of committed potential customers -- i.e., people who trust you and are already interested in what you're building -- then it will probably work. But I'd be wary before you try to get people you barely know to do your beta testing for you unless your product is extremely sexy. The buy-in has to be there before someone will commit to helping you improve a broken product.

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