Go-To-Market Launch Plan For A New SaaS Product

Summary

In this insightful video, the speaker, TK, challenges the traditional linear launch approach for SaaS businesses, advocating instead for a multi-threaded strategy. He explains that instead of waiting to perfect a product before going to market, founders should simultaneously build their product and develop their go-to-market strategy. This approach allows for continuous feedback, iterative improvements, and a gradual, sustainable growth trajectory, avoiding the pitfalls of a one-time big launch that often leads to the 'one more feature' trap and eventual stagnation.

Takeaways

• 🚀 **Avoid Linear Launches**: The script emphasizes the pitfalls of a linear launch approach where founders build a product and then launch it, expecting immediate success without market validation.
• 🔄 **Embrace Multi-Threaded Launches**: Experienced founders often take a multi-threaded approach, working on product development and market strategy simultaneously to avoid the 'one more feature' trap.
• 🛠️ **Iterative Product Development**: Instead of waiting for a 'perfect' product, founders should use feedback from early users to continuously improve the product.
• 📈 **Gradual Growth Strategy**: The script suggests a strategy of multiple mini-launches to steadily grow the user base and understand the market, rather than relying on a single big launch.
• 📝 **Building in Public**: Sharing the product development journey publicly can help build an audience and gather valuable insights early in the process.
• 📧 **Start with a Mailing List**: Building an engaged mailing list early on can provide a foundation for user feedback and marketing efforts.
• 🔑 **Understand Your ICP**: Understanding the Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) is crucial to ensure that product development meets the needs of the target market.
• 📊 **Track the Right Metrics**: Keeping a close eye on user engagement and feedback allows for data-driven decision making in product development and marketing.
• 💬 **Engage with Early Users**: Direct communication with early adopters can provide deep insights into product needs and potential improvements.
• 🌟 **Leverage Community and Product-Led Growth**: Building a community and focusing on product-led growth can foster organic user acquisition and retention.
• 📈 **Combine Shipping Code with Closing Deals**: The script highlights the importance of balancing product development with sales efforts to ensure business growth.

Q & A

What is the main difference between a linear launch and a multi-threaded launch for a SaaS business?

A linear launch follows a sequential process where the product is fully developed before any marketing or sales efforts are made. In contrast, a multi-threaded launch involves running product development and go-to-market strategies simultaneously, allowing for continuous feedback and iteration.

Why is it a mistake to rely solely on a 'big launch' strategy for a SaaS product?

A 'big launch' strategy often leads to a spike in interest followed by a drop, which can create more noise than useful data. It also assumes that the product is perfect upon launch, which is rarely the case. This approach can lead to the 'one more feature' trap and delays in market validation.

What are the core principles that TK suggests for launching a SaaS business effectively?

The core principles TK suggests are: 1) Avoid a linear launch model, 2) Implement a multi-threaded launch model by running product development and go-to-market strategies in parallel, and 3) Embrace building in public, community-first approaches, and product-led growth as part of the multi-threaded strategy.

What is the 'one more feature' trap and how can it hinder product development?

The 'one more feature' trap is the mindset where founders believe that adding just one more feature will make the product perfect and lead to success. This can lead to endless development cycles without market validation, causing delays in launching and potential misalignment with customer needs.

How does building a mailing list early on in the product development process benefit a SaaS business?

Building a mailing list early on allows a SaaS business to create an engaged audience interested in the problem space, not just the product. This audience can provide valuable feedback, help refine the product, and potentially become the first set of users or customers.

What is the significance of 'shipping code' and 'closing deals' as the two levers for a startup founder?

These two levers represent the dual focus areas for a startup founder. 'Shipping code' refers to the development and iteration of the product, while 'closing deals' pertains to sales and market acceptance. Balancing both is crucial for a startup's growth and success.

Why is it important for a SaaS business to avoid a giant launch spike followed by a drop in the linear launch model?

A giant launch spike followed by a drop can create confusion and provide misleading data about the product's reception. It may attract users who are not the ideal customer profile, leading to negative feedback that doesn't accurately reflect the product's value proposition.

What is the role of 'building in public' in the context of a multi-threaded launch?

'Building in public' involves sharing the development journey with a broader audience, which can help in building an audience interested in the product. It allows for early feedback, user engagement, and can contribute to a more informed product development process.

How can a multi-threaded launch approach help in avoiding the pitfalls of a linear launch model?

A multi-threaded launch approach allows for continuous product development alongside market validation and user feedback. This iterative process helps in avoiding the pitfalls of the linear model, such as feature overdevelopment and lack of market understanding, leading to a more successful product launch.

What macro trends does TK mention as being closely related to the multi-threaded launch strategy?

TK mentions three macro trends related to the multi-threaded launch strategy: building in public, community-first businesses, and product-led growth. These trends emphasize the importance of early user engagement, community building, and product iteration based on user feedback.

What resources does TK offer to help founders develop their go-to-market strategy?

TK offers a Five-point SaaS Growth Strategy Guide that can help founders develop their go-to-market strategy. It provides a framework for thinking through key strategic elements and includes reference videos and a one-page template for summarizing the strategy.

Outlines

00:00

🚀 The Myth of the Big Launch in SaaS

This paragraph discusses the misconception that a SaaS company's success hinges on a single, grand launch. The speaker reflects on the launch days of major SaaS companies like Slack and Snowflake, noting that their approaches were not as linear as commonly believed. The speaker then contrasts the linear launch approach, which involves building a product and then launching it in a big way, with the multi-threaded approach favored by experienced founders. The linear launch is criticized for being based on unproven assumptions and for leading to the 'one more feature' trap, where founders keep delaying the launch in pursuit of a perfect product. The paragraph ends with a teaser of the three core principles for a successful SaaS launch.

05:04

🔄 The Pitfalls of a Linear Launch Model

The speaker delves into the specifics of a linear launch, describing it as a process where founders start with an idea, validate the market, and then build the product, often with the aim of creating a minimum viable product (MVP). The linear model is critiqued for its tendency to lead to feature creep and for delaying market engagement until after the product is 'finished.' The speaker emphasizes that this model often results in a lack of market validation and can lead to building products that do not meet customer needs. The paragraph also touches on the challenges of defining an MVP and the tendency for founders to fall into the trap of endless feature addition.

10:06

🤝 Embracing the Multi-Threaded Launch Strategy

The paragraph introduces the multi-threaded launch as an alternative to the linear model. This approach involves running multiple 'threads' of activity simultaneously, such as product development and market engagement. The speaker argues that this method allows for continuous feedback and iteration, leading to a better product that is more aligned with customer needs. The multi-threaded approach is likened to computing with multiple threads, working on various tasks at once for efficiency. The speaker also addresses the counterintuitive nature of this approach, given the common advice for startups to focus on a single task, and emphasizes the importance of finding the right balance.

15:06

📈 The Power of Mini Launches and Iterative Growth

This section of the script focuses on the benefits of mini launches within the multi-threaded strategy. The speaker explains that instead of a single big launch, which can lead to a spike in users followed by a drop-off, the multi-threaded approach involves gradually increasing the user base through multiple smaller launches. This method allows for selective user engagement, better understanding of user behavior, and the opportunity to refine the product based on direct feedback. The speaker also discusses the importance of avoiding the 'one more feature' trap and the value of building a mailing list or audience early on.

20:06

🌟 Leveraging Popular Trends in SaaS Growth

The final paragraph ties the multi-threaded launch strategy to current trends in SaaS growth. The speaker identifies building in public, community-first businesses, and product-led growth as macro trends that align with the multi-threaded approach. The paragraph emphasizes the importance of understanding the principles behind these trends and not just implementing them superficially. The speaker also provides a call to action, directing viewers to a free Five-point SaaS Growth Strategy Guide to help with go-to-market strategies and encourages engagement with the video content.

Keywords

💡SaaS

SaaS stands for Software as a Service, which is a software licensing and delivery model in which software is provided over the Internet by a service provider. In the context of the video, SaaS businesses are the focus, with discussions around their launch strategies and growth. The script mentions 'epic SaaS companies' like Slack, Snowflake, Marketo, HubSpot, and Salesforce, emphasizing the importance of effective launch strategies for SaaS businesses.

💡IPO

An IPO, or Initial Public Offering, is the process by which a private company goes public by offering its shares on a stock exchange for the first time. The script refers to Snowflake's IPO as one of the 'biggest blockbuster IPOs in SaaS history,' highlighting the significance of a successful launch and the potential for growth and market impact.

💡Launch Strategy

A launch strategy in the video refers to the approach a company takes to introduce its product or service to the market. The script contrasts 'linear launch' with 'multi-threaded launch,' discussing the pitfalls of the former and the advantages of the latter for SaaS businesses. The main theme revolves around the importance of a well-thought-out launch strategy for business success.

💡Linear Launch

A linear launch is described in the script as a traditional approach where a product is fully developed before being introduced to the market. It's depicted as problematic because it often leads to a 'one more feature trap' and delayed market validation. The script advises against this method, advocating for a more integrated approach to product development and market introduction.

💡Multi-threaded Launch

A multi-threaded launch, as explained in the script, involves running multiple operations simultaneously rather than sequentially. In the context of SaaS businesses, it means developing the product while also building the go-to-market strategy. The script promotes this approach as a way to avoid the pitfalls of a linear launch and to ensure continuous feedback and iterative improvement.

💡Product Hunt

Product Hunt is a website that features new tech products and is often used by companies for product launches. In the script, it's mentioned as a platform that some founders might rely on too heavily for their launch strategy, which the speaker advises against, suggesting that it should not be the sole launch strategy.

💡Go-to-Market

Go-to-market refers to the process and strategy a company uses to reach its target audience and start selling its product or service. The script emphasizes the importance of developing a go-to-market strategy in parallel with product development in a multi-threaded approach, rather than as an afterthought.

💡Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

An MVP is a version of a product that has just enough features to satisfy early customers and provide feedback for future product development. The script discusses the challenges with defining an MVP and how it can lead to being stuck in a 'linear launch model,' suggesting that a more dynamic approach is needed.

💡Building in Public

Building in public is the concept of openly sharing the process of building a product or business, often through social media or blogs. The script encourages this approach as part of a multi-threaded launch, allowing for community engagement and feedback from the early stages.

💡Community First

A community-first approach is when a business prioritizes building a community around its product or service before the product itself is fully developed. The script mentions this as a macro trend that aligns with the multi-threaded launch strategy, emphasizing the value of an engaged community for product development and market validation.

💡Product-Led Growth

Product-led growth is a strategy where the product itself drives user acquisition and retention. The script discusses this as a key aspect of a successful SaaS launch, suggesting that making the product easy to access and share can lead to organic growth and valuable user feedback.

Highlights

Slack, Snowflake, and other major SaaS companies didn't launch in the conventional way many founders attempt today.

Two distinct approaches to launching SaaS businesses: linear and multi-threaded, with the latter being more effective for experienced founders.

The misconception of a 'giant launch button' leading to instant success is debunked, emphasizing the reality of gradual growth.

The 'one-more-feature trap' where founders endlessly delay launch, thinking the next feature will perfect the product.

The importance of not relying solely on a Product Hunt or similar launch for a SaaS business strategy.

Three core principles for launching a SaaS business effectively, based on experience and learnings from multiple product launches.

The linear launch model is discouraged due to its reliance on unproven assumptions and the risk of falling into the 'one-more-feature trap'.

The multi-threaded launch approach is introduced as a superior strategy, involving simultaneous product development and market engagement.

Building an audience and mailing list early on can provide valuable feedback and help refine the product.

The concept of 'building in public' to create a community interested in the problem space, not just the product.

Mini launches as opposed to a single big launch, allowing for iterative improvements and better understanding of the user base.

The multi-threaded approach leads to a gradual and steady increase in users and revenue, avoiding the pitfalls of a big launch followed by a drop.

The strategy of shipping code and closing deals simultaneously to accelerate growth and product-market fit.

The Five-point SaaS Growth Strategy Guide is offered as a resource for founders to develop a comprehensive go-to-market strategy.

The multi-threaded launch aligns with macro trends such as community-first businesses and product-led growth.

The necessity to avoid the linear launch model to prevent high failure rates and instead adopt a multi-threaded approach for better outcomes.

Transcripts

- Okay, so here's a big question for you.

Do you remember the day when Slack just launched?

They launched their beta.

Do you remember the day when Snowflake launched?

This is one of the most biggest blockbuster IPOs

in SaaS history.

Just happened just recently.

Do you remember when they launched?

'Cause I don't either.

You remember when Marketo launched?

How about HubSpot?

Remember when Salesforce launched?

These are epic SaaS companies.

But most of these companies didn't launch the way

a lot of founders try to launch their SaaS businesses today.

You see, when I talk to founders,

I see two distinct ways that they approach launching.

And a lot of times, the first time founders

and I made the same mistake,

approach it in a very linear way.

Whereas the second time founders and experienced founders

approach it in a very multi-threaded way.

The thing is when we think about launching

our SaaS businesses, when you're in that idea stage,

and you're building it out and you're building the product

and trying to get the features right,

we think that there's this giant launch button that you hit

and then boom!

Everything goes crazy and everyone signs up

and you're number one on Product Hunt

and then from there, you just ride the wave.

But the reality is that's not how it works.

And we know this a second time founders

and as third time founders.

So we approach it totally differently.

Where a Product Hunt launch

or a Hacker News launch or an AppSumo launch,

and I love those guys, is not really a launch strategy.

So in this episode, having been in SaaS,

having launched multiple products.

Having products go nowhere and products be successful,

here's what I've learned.

And I'm gonna walk you through the three core principles

that you absolutely need to know to make sure

that you actually launch your SaaS business the right way.

Intro.

(upbeat music)

What's up, everybody.

Welcome to Unstoppable, I'm TK.

And on this channel,

sometimes, I'll wear a sweater because in Dallas,

it's really cold right now.

But also, I bring you an episode every single Sunday

to help you grow your SaaS business faster.

So if you're new to the channel, welcome.

Be sure to hit the subscribe button and that bell icon.

That way you'll get notified every single time

I drop an episode with the TK energy.

Now, if you're already part of this growing community,

which is growing faster and faster than ever before,

if you are part of my coaching programs,

my people, welcome back.

It's really awesome to see you over here.

Now, I remember when I was first getting out there

and building companies.

We thought that launch was a very linear approach.

You would build a product and then you would launch.

And you'd try to get this big bang.

But as I tried to do this multiple times,

I've had products fail, I've had products wildly succeed,

I learned that there's no such thing as launch anymore.

Especially today.

If you look at some of the most successful companies,

even by the time they might do a press announcement,

they launched way before and in a very different

and took a very different approach to launching.

And so in this episode,

I wanted to dig into exactly how to launch SaaS businesses

the right way, because too often,

I come across founders who are like,

yeah, no, we're still building the product.

And then we're gonna launch.

I'm like, cool.

Well, what does the launch look like?

Well, we're gonna go on Product Hunt.

Like, well, okay then what?

And they don't really have an answer

and they're waiting and they're waiting

and they get stuck in this

what I call the one-more feature trap.

When they think that they just need this one more feature

and then their product will be perfect.

And then when they hit that giant launch button,

then everyone's gonna love it.

But even when I describe it, you know very well,

you're a smart person that that doesn't work.

Although, we still operate that way.

And so I wanna dig into the three core principles

you absolutely need to know so that you don't make

the same mistakes that I did, that a lot of us have.

And you actually launch your SaaS business the right way

so that you can actually accelerate growth

and get to revenues and then grow from there.

So if you're excited digging,

go ahead and smash that like button

for the YouTube algorithm.

And let's go into principle number one.

So principle number one is first,

I wanna tell you what not to do.

That's principle number one.

Don't do a linear launch.

Now here, what is a linear launch?

A linear launch is where you essentially have an idea.

You start with an idea

and then you do a little bit of work

on the market to validate it because everyone does that.

We know enough that you shouldn't just build

what you think should exist.

You should validate it.

So you'd do a little bit of market research.

And then you actually get to coding

and then you are coding and maybe you show it

to a couple of friends and then you code some more.

And then you basically say, okay, and then we launch.

And launch could be where you start hiring a sales person.

You hire a content person.

You launch on Product Hunt,

you do AppSumo deal, any one of these things.

So this is what I call the linear model to launching.

And this is what you don't wanna be doing.

And there's a whole bunch of reasons

on why you shouldn't do it and I'll get into it.

But the biggest problem with this is you think of this

as you first build a product and then you go to market.

You take it to the market and then magic ensues.

And as long as you get the features right in park ride,

and your friends love it and you love it,

that's gonna do awesome.

And you keep delaying this launch because you're like,

no, we still need those two features

and that's super important.

And then once we do that,

there's almost this like wall over here, where then you say,

cool, let's go hire the sales person.

They'll close the deals.

Let's go hire the marketing person.

They'll get content going and SEO going.

Let's maybe be or some people might say,

well, I'll be founder-led.

So I'll do the selling now.

And maybe your co-founder

is more of the sales and marketing person.

They're like, then I'll get to work

once you build the product.

And that's kind of principle number one

is don't do a linear launch because when you do this,

you're essentially building on a bunch of assumptions

that have not been proven yet.

And the reason these two models exist,

this multi-threaded model exists versus the linear model

is because enough of us founders have gotten burned

by following this model.

Because it's very natural to follow.

We're like, well, let's go build a product.

We don't have a product.

What are we gonna sell?

And what are we gonna talk to customers about?

who knows if they're telling their truth

until we ask for money?

These are all true.

So logically, it makes sense

to follow the linear launch model.

But what ends up happening is you essentially fall

into this zone where you keep adding more features,

adding more features and you fall

into the one more feature trap.

And essentially, you keep pushing off launch

and you keep investing more

without actually validating with the market what's going on.

Now, Eric Reese came around in the early 2010s.

He was an investor at ToutApp.

So I loved his book.

We gave it to our employees,

incredible model of, hey,

let's build a minimum viable product

and then let's get this out there

and then let's keep iterating.

And that wasn't really good idea but at the end of the day,

people still couldn't agree on the definition

of a minimum viable product.

Like what are the features that go

into a minimum viable product and our people not liking it

because we don't have the minimum viable product.

And interestingly enough,

although MVP is a tried and true concept,

people still got stock on what is an MVP

and then got stuck here

and stayed in this linear launch model.

And that's essentially where you don't wanna be.

And the whole reason I wanted to start here is first,

I wanted to justify the fact that if you're doing this,

I talked to a lot of founders even today that still do this,

I've done this.

It's perfectly logical.

It's perfectly natural.

It's also kinda easier to do because you're like,

well, let's just get the product right

and then we'll figure it out.

And it also puts off the things

that maybe you don't enjoy doing as much

like marketing or selling,

but at the end of the day, this is the wrong way to do it.

So principle number one

is don't do the linear launch model, essentially.

So if you're like RTK,

I shouldn't do linear launch model.

What do I do?

How do I do this?

And the biggest thing I could tell you

is number the principle number two,

you actually wanna run a very multi-threaded model.

And if you're a startup founder,

you should know what multi-threaded is.

Instead of the computer using one thread to compute things,

you have multiple threads

and you're working on multiple things at once,

which may sound obvious, but not everyone does it.

And also it's a little counterintuitive because a lot of VCs

and investors will constantly tell like,

no, you gotta focus, you gotta focus, you gotta focus.

You gotta get this right.

And that's also true.

And this is one of the tough things about being a founder,

multiple things can be true.

And what will work for you is finding the right balance

between those truths.

If you try to stay in the extremes

and just follow the common advice,

then things won't work for you.

Everything's very nuanced.

And there are a lot of gurus out there

like, well, you gotta do this.

It's like, well, no, it depends.

It really depends.

This is one of the things that we do

in my coaching programs,

where we really dig into like, okay,

well, what are the nuanced things here?

And what would we do?

And based on my experience, what would I do?

And based on your domain knowledge, what would you do?

And let's call us on what the right strategy is.

On one hand, you wanna focus but on the other hand,

you actually wanna be multi-threaded

in how you approach your launch.

And the best way to think about this

is instead of having this linear approach

of just one thread that's running you through the product,

you get the MVP right and then you launch,

what you actually wanna do is essentially run two threads.

The first thread is what you are naturally inclined to do

as a startup founder.

If you're an engineer or you are mostly engineering driven,

this is what we tend to do.

I'm an engineer also.

You essentially are building the product.

This is thread number one.

Now, in the linear model,

you're essentially building, building, building,

and waiting to launch and trying to get the MVP right

and then you go for this launch,

doing a Product Hunt thing and an AppSumo thing.

And the biggest problem with this is when you think

about mapping out what your user graph

or your revenue graph, or your active user graph looks like,

you essentially stay flat and then you hit this giant spike,

and then it goes like this again.

And then you have to figure out what you need to do next.

There are some companies that just blow up

but that's actually very rare.

For most of them, you'll see a giant spike.

You'll get a bunch of users

that aren't quite your ideal customers.

And they come with a bunch of complaints.

Maybe you do this like lifetime deal.

Although like, what is recurring revenue business

if you do a lifetime deal?

And essentially, the chart looks like this.

Giant spike, bunch of noise,

and then back to nothing, and then it dwindles away

and now you're like, what do I do?

And then you're like,

I know if we just add this one more feature

and then we launch again, then we're gonna be awesome.

And you fall into that trap.

Now the alternative is to be multi-threaded on this

and saying, okay, one thread

is to continuously build the product.

And even when there is no product,

we are also going to essentially have a thread

that thinks about building go-to market.

And this is kind of the big aha.

A lot of people essentially think about,

well, we'll do go to market.

We'll do sales, we'll do market

once we have a great product, but the reality is,

if you actually build out your go-to market,

then you will have a better product.

Meaning the more people you're bringing into your world

and you're talking to, and they're trying out

even the crappiest version of your product

and giving you feedback,

the better off you're going to be in actually having

a proper product and actually honing in

on the right product.

Otherwise, you're building, building, building

based on a bunch of assumptions.

And there's a certain way to do this.

You might be asking, well, first of all, like,

Hey TK, if we don't have a product, like what are we doing?

What are we selling them?

What are we marketing?

Why should we do it?

How do we do it?

And it's easy.

Like the first thing you can do in this thread

is actually build a mailing list.

And the fancy people will say audience,

which is pretty much the thing.

You can build an audience.

You can build a mailing list.

Essentially, what you're looking to do

is build an engaged group of people

that are not excited necessarily about the product,

but are excited about the problem space you're in.

So for example, before I started Tout App,

I was working on, so Tout App happened very quickly.

But I was already building a mailing list of people

that wanted to use tools,

we wanted to use productivity tools

'cause I was playing around

with different productivity tools.

And I had a lot of founders

and I had a bunch of salespeople, marketing people,

like it was a good group.

And so I was already building a mailing list and an audience

through my blogs or my mailing list

just by telling the story.

And because of that,

I was able to continuously talk to these people,

give them early versions of all the different types

of products that I was building.

And essentially, I was able to do both these things at once.

And it allowed me to build a better product.

Another way you can be doing go-to market early

is you could also be doing building

what they say now building in public.

A lot of companies do stealth.

You build in public.

Meaning you get on Twitter and you start sharing

like, hey, I'm building this.

Here's the problem solving.

Here's what happened this week.

You're essentially sharing your journey.

And that way, you start to build an audience of people

that are interested in that journey,

interested in that product and can start to give you

interesting insights and you can actually pull them.

You can show them the product, you can demo the product,

get them early in like obscene alpha and get their feedback.

What you're essentially doing is getting more interactions

going into your product instead of waiting

for one giant launch.

What we're also not doing is building a bunch of features

under the assumption that it's the right set of features.

You're actually stress testing it

with this audience that you're building.

And the other thing you're doing

is there's no big fat impending date of a launch.

And until that nothing,

you're actually getting little by little

more and more people into the product

and seeing what they do with it.

So you can actually iterate on it and tweak on it.

And little by little, you get bigger and bigger and bigger.

The other thing that's super powerful and different

about multi-threaded is you're no longer doing

this one big launch.

You're not doing that because those just don't work.

You get this giant spike and then it falls.

And the big problem is you get a lot of data here,

but with all that data,

you actually don't know what it means.

If 50 people complain about a certain feature,

but they would never use a software like this

or not in your ICP, you're like,

well, what do I do with that?

It's too much noise.

But in this kinda scenario,

the biggest difference is you're actually doing

multiple mini launches.

And this is super powerful.

And the meaning behind this is there's no big bang launch.

What you're really doing is a little by little

as you're building this audience, little by little,

you're letting more people into the product.

As you're building and public,

little by little more people are engaging

with the trial maybe

that you've put out there on like,

hey, maybe join the wait list or join my mailing list.

And I'll give you a secret invited to try out the product.

Little by little,

you're adding more and more people into the product.

And what that does is you're being selective

about who you're letting in.

And you're really understanding what they do in the product.

What features they use, are they activating?

Are they actually doing the right things in it?

And when you're doing that,

you're actually starting to get a better understanding

of what you're building

and if it's actually providing value.

And you can actually like call them or email them.

In Tout App in the early days,

whenever someone clicked on an upsell link

but didn't convert or they checked out a certain feature

that was building and I didn't know quite

how to get it right,

I would monitor that and I would send them an email saying,

hey, I saw you check this product,

would you mind getting on a quick call with me?

I just have a few questions.

It would mean the world to me.

And I'll give you an extra three months.

'Cause at that point, data from qualified users

was more important.

And the biggest thing about this is when you do

these multiple mini launches and you parallelize,

essentially you're building of product

and your go-to market instead of waiting

for the go-to market to come later.

What you're essentially doing here

is little by little increasing your user base

and little by little, getting better and better

about what your product is.

And you're learning more about what your ICP is.

You're learning more about what features are used.

You just make decisions on the product.

Like essentially, this is feeding into this

and this is feeding into this.

Meaning the better your product gets,

the more people are happy and they'll tell other people

and you get more go-to market

and more people in your audience

and the better your audience gets.

And the more people you get,

the more we'll go into the product

and it just gets better and better and better.

And essentially, you're doing a multiple mini launches.

And the beauty of this is it doesn't mean

you can't launch on Product Hunt.

What it means is that you can launch later on.

What it means that maybe you don't need Product Hunt.

You just know exactly who your customers are.

And you have a massive mailing list and you keep opening up

more of the waiting list.

What it may mean is now,

you know exactly how to position your product.

You know what the features are

so you can run ads because you've got revenue generating.

And the big difference here is you never fall

into this one more feature trap,

and you never fall into this like scary launch.

And you never offload like, hey, we'll just figure it out.

That marketing and sales stuff later.

You build it into the DNA of your company

and you iteratively get better and better and better.

And if you were to compare this graph,

essentially, what the graph for the users or active users

or revenue will look like

is there'll be like little wiggles.

And then over time,

it'll just get bigger and bigger and bigger,

and then it'll take off.

And the reason for this is every single mini launch

that you're doing will essentially increase

your likelihood of success.

More users will come in, you'll nail in the features.

And even if the products are not fully ready yet,

you're giving it as a trial.

You're giving it as a six-month trial maybe,

or you may be pre-selling of whatever it may be,

people are gonna be more engaged

because people love being part

of something early and special.

And they know it's like almost like special access.

And little by little you're getting them in

and you're giving them the white glove service,

you're doing all the unscalable things necessary

to really understand who these users are,

what features they need, how do you solve the problem?

What's the most important problem?

How much are they saving in terms of money and time

so you can know how to price it.

All these things come together.

And instead of this one giant spike and then a huge drop,

which is what happens with this linear strategy.

With this multi-threaded strategy,

you keep building better product

and keep building better go-to market.

And it gets better and better and better

and better and better.

And this like goes into one of the core mantras

that I have on this channel.

Like as a startup founder, especially as an early stage one,

you essentially have two levers.

You either shipping code or you're closing deals.

Shipping code, closing deals.

Those are the two levers.

And you're able to operate both those levers.

In the linear model, you're just shipping code,

shipping code, shipping code.

You're not closing any deals

and you don't even know what you're doing.

With this, you ship some code, you can close some deals.

You close some deals, you ship some better code

and it just get better and better and better.

And over time, you start to actually take off.

And maybe like, who knows?

At this point you can say, you know what?

Lets us do a giant press release,

except you're not coming out with, oh my God,

check out this tiny tool, we just got hunted.

And then nothing happens.

It's like, hey, we have this many users, we're growing.

This is what we solve.

And we're going to the moon.

And there might be a more interesting way

to get discovered that way.

Or maybe you don't need the PR 'cause who cares?

You can actually feed the money you're generating into ads.

Or you can feed the money into outbound.

You can feed the money into SEO or better content,

or just get your audience to refer more people.

And then you can start to grow on that.

And then you can raise your next round

and then do a press release around that.

Now does that mean you won't do a big launch

where you say we're so excited to launch.

And I'm so proud.

It's like, yeah, but who cares?

Who cares about this giant spike of users

that you didn't want any way with no data, no learnings.

And now you don't know what to do,

except you think you need to build another feature

because they're angry users.

'Cause that's what they are.

There's a whole group of people on the internet

and they just love trying new tools and shitting on them.

Like that's it.

That's all they like to do.

And that's what you get with the linear model.

Whereas with this,

you really hone in on who your real users are

and you start to move forward.

Now, I have this third principle that I wanna hone this,

like kinda tie this together.

But before I do that, let me pause here for a second.

Are you starting to see the power in this?

Are you starting to see the power

of if you do a multi-threaded launch, we just don't put up

go-to market, you start to do the two lever,

ship code, close deals.

You will actually get to a better product

and your revenue is faster

and you'll build the right product

and you'll do (mumbles).

It starts with the power.

And can I just get a yes in the comments below?

Also smash that like button for the YouTube algorithm.

It really likes it when you do that.

Also I have a Five-point SaaS Growth Strategy Guide.

It's completely free.

If you're in this stage where you're figuring out

what is my strategy to win?

What's my market, my ICP, all that stuff.

Go to getunstoppable.com/strategy.

I'll link to it below,

but let's go to principle number three.

This multi-threaded launch is actually a strategy

that is behind a lot of the popular things,

but people will do them without doing them right

'cause they don't understand the principles behind them.

But now you do.

The popular things is principle number three.

The popular things right now is building in public.

Essentially, that's what a multi-threaded launch is.

You're building in public,

meaning you're getting your go-to market,

getting the word out while you're building the product

instead of waiting.

Another macro trend is community first.

Community first businesses where you build a community first

and then you build the product.

And that's what multi-threaded is.

As you're building a product,

you build a community and out of that community,

comes your first set of users and that community grows

and then your user grows and your revenues goes faster.

And the last thing is the other big macro trend

is product-led growth.

And this is also super interesting because a big function

of product-led growth in the early stages

is to make the product easy to get into and spread.

And what you're essentially doing

is instead of building, building, building,

as early as possible,

you get people into the product and get them to spread it.

And then you get those users to tell you

how to actually build a product

instead of doing a giant launch.

Giant launch, believe it or not,

is more of a traditional marketing model.

Whereas a product led model is to just get people into it

and see how they do, track those metrics

and kind of iterate from there.

And so all these things we talk about that you should do,

people kinda do them on a surface level

without truly understanding what it really is

and what you're really doing is a multi-threaded launch

instead of a linear launch.

And so if you're in that early stage,

you in the pre-revenue stage and you're building out

your product, you need to ask yourself.

Am I doing a linear launch

or am I doing a multi-threaded launch?

Another easy way to say this,

am I putting off my go-to market

thinking I know best on how to build a product?

Or am I actually thinking about building the product

shipping code and also closing deals?

I'm building up the go-to market.

Is it harder?

Yes.

Is it more effective?

Absolutely.

Are you more likely to fail if you follow

the linear launch model?

110%.

This is why you see a lot of companies that are stealth

and then they raise millions of dollars

and they build this thing in a dark room

and then you never hear from them again.

Whereas the companies that actually build the product

and build the go-to market and keep iterating

and this feeds off of each other

and then track the right metrics,

everything comes together

really, really, really, really well.

So that's what I had for you today.

Now, if you're in this stage,

now you know exactly how to think about

this multi-faceted launch.

What you may not know is, well,

how should I think about this go-to market?

How do you flush that out?

This is why I have my Five-point SaaS Growth Strategy Guide.

It's never too early to flush out your go-to market.

And so go ahead and download

my Five-point SaaS Growth Strategy Guide.

It's completely free.

Just go to getunstoppable.com/strategy.

getunstoppable.com/strategy when you download that guide.

It's really awesome because it walks you through

what are the key pieces you think through.

Here are reference videos on my YouTube channel

that you should watch.

You can summarize it all in a one-page template

I have for your strategy

and that will help you get started on this second thread.

So if you're stuck in this linear launch thread

and you're like, I need to get to two threads,

but how do I kick off the second thread?

I already know how to build a product.

Then just go down with that guide,

they'll tell you what to do.

Just go to getunstoppable.com/strategy.

Also link to it below.

Now, if you got value from this video,

please smash out like button for the YouTube algorithm.

Loves it when you do that.

If you're part of a WhatsApp group, a Slack group,

a community of other founders

and they would get value from this video,

please share it with them.

We put a lot of love into these videos.

So it'll mean the world to me and my team.

Also, if you haven't subscribed,

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And lastly, remember,

everyone needs a strategy for their life

and their business.

When you are with us, yours is gonna be unstoppable.

I'm TK.

I'll see you in the next episode.

(dramatic music)