Launch and Distribution

The Three-Wave Launch

Wave 1 — Inner circle (Week -2): Give your product to 20-50 people you know. Friends, colleagues, Twitter mutuals. Ask them to break it. This isn't about growth — it's about catching embarrassing failures before strangers see them.

Wave 2 — Community seeding (Week 0): Post in the communities where your target users already gather. Product Hunt, Hacker News, relevant subreddits, Discord servers, LinkedIn groups. Don't post "check out my AI tool." Post the output. Show the magic trick.

Wave 3 — Content flywheel (Week 1+): Turn your product's outputs into content. Screenshots of results, before/after comparisons, user testimonials, use case breakdowns. Every piece of content demonstrates the product without being an ad.

Show the Output, Not the Tool

AI products have a superpower that traditional SaaS doesn't: the output is inherently shareable. A beautifully generated design, a perfectly structured summary, a surprisingly accurate analysis — these are their own marketing.

Add a subtle watermark or "made with [your product]" tag on outputs. Make sharing frictionless — one-click export to social media, email-ready formats, embeddable widgets. Every output your user shares is a free ad that demonstrates value instead of claiming it.

Building in Public

Document your journey building the AI product. Share your architecture decisions, your prompt engineering insights, your cost breakdowns. The AI builder community is hungry for real, transparent content. Every post attracts potential users who think "if they're this thoughtful about building it, the product must be good."

Share numbers. "We hit 100 users this week. Average query cost dropped from $0.08 to $0.03 after prompt optimization. Here's how." This kind of content builds trust, attracts users, and establishes authority simultaneously.

Launch Day Is Just Day One

Most AI products don't go viral on launch day. They grow through consistent demonstration of value over weeks and months. The Product Hunt launch gets you 500 visitors. The Twitter thread that shows a mind-blowing output gets you 5,000. The SEO article that ranks for "best AI tool for [your niche]" gets you 500 visitors every month forever.

Plan for sustained distribution, not a single moment. The launch is a starting gun, not the finish line.

The Pre-Launch Checklist

Launching without preparation is like opening a restaurant before the kitchen is ready. Complete these before you announce anything publicly.

Product readiness: The core workflow works reliably on 20+ test cases. Error messages are clear and helpful. Loading states communicate progress. The happy path is smooth and the failure path is graceful.

Infrastructure readiness: Error tracking is active (Sentry or equivalent). Analytics events fire correctly. Cost monitoring has alerts set. Rate limiting protects against abuse. Your database can handle 10x your expected day-one traffic.

Content readiness: Landing page clearly communicates the magic trick. Pricing page is live with working payment links. Three demo outputs are prepared for social sharing. A "how it works" video or GIF is ready (under 60 seconds).

Support readiness: You have a way for users to report issues (email, Discord, or in-app chat). FAQ covers the top 5 questions you anticipate. You have a process for handling the first 24 hours of feedback — even if that process is just "check email every 2 hours."

Legal readiness: Privacy policy exists and covers AI-specific concerns (how you handle user data, whether inputs are used for training). Terms of service are in place. If your AI handles sensitive data, you've reviewed relevant compliance requirements.