Why Startup Founders Should Launch Companies Sooner Than They Think 

Chapters (Powered by ChapterMe) - 00:00 - Coming Up: Founders embarrassed by product launches 00:57 - Why do founders avoid launching companies? 02:17 - Why is it bad to wait? 02:55 - Dangerous Myths: Pop culture knowledge 04:02 - Why first-time founders feel precious about it? 05:07 - Cool thing about YC: Peer Pressure 06:35 - Launch to find the right customers & Love rejection 08:26 - Asking yourself and not upsetting myself 10:59 - You launch and no one uses it 12:07 - Tweaking vs Pivoting 13:16 - How do you break the fear? Focus on the goal 14:19 - Advice for founders in the pre-launch phase 16:46 - Launching too early 17:45 - Early stage YC startups 18:05 - Outro

There are many VCs that make money but make no impact by keeping their "trade secrets" to themselves. Y Combinator not only makes money, but also makes impact by sharing their knowledge with the outside world...Thank you.

Even Apple don’t launch when they have a “launch”. They give you a demo of the new OS, its then released to developers full of bugs and the actual launch is 6 to 12months later

just joined your VIP group, and I'm already seeing some amazing results. Your insights are truly invaluable!

Not gonna lie I f’d up by not launching yet after over a year, not even because of perfectionism but because I’ve been coding in rather short sporadic increments. Hard to stay fully zoned in without a small office and it sucks working at home and at cafes. No excuses though I’m launching this month, then running full speed.

Just launched my first SaaS and about to launch my second, so this really helps. Thanks guys!

Insightful, thank you!

Thank you for this inspiring video!

I watch more Y Combinator videos than I work on my project. (Just kidding!)

Appreciate y'all sharing this advice. As a solo builder who can't quit my job and apply to YC (I'm old and have a family), I can still get a great education on RU-vid. Thank you.

I can't express how incredibly true this advice is. I kept stopping myself from launching because I thought the onboarding wasn't ready. The product itself currently doesn't work without me manually going and editing the database. So I waited and kept working and kept working and kept working. It took so long and eventually a colleague at my incubator said just shut up and get someone to try it manually. Go through the onboarding and explain it to them manually set up all of the things that you're currently automating. Just do it's all manually and see what they say. I've just done this for the past few days and oh my God I was so wrong about so many assumptions. I would have spent months building more and more stuff just to find out and wasting all of my time. I'm so so glad that I just went and manually set things up for people in the database instead of trying to make the product fully functional. Even if your product currently doesn't fully work, just make it work by manually changing stuff with the database. It sounds silly, but it's a lot more silly to spend weeks automating something that you're going to delete anyway

Also sometimes the problem is that i can't dedicate enough time for product cause haven't free time, maybe i need to quit my job and do my thing. It was super interesting point of view, love it: Quotes ''founder often find reasons to launch later because they are afraid'', ''focus on building something 100 people love'', ''when you are super small with the jankiest mvp you should absolutely launch''.

You guys were speaking yo my soul. Ive been working on my product for 4 years plus. N now im just like im just gonna start. Then have a full launch later. Thanks guys. This was great

Thank you 🙏

I launched early, next launch in August. Good video.

10:25 focus on making 100 people love love love your product 10:40 if someone’s willing to pay for a janky simple early version of your product, you know you’re solving a real problem for them 14:50 even big companies start very rudimentary. And if customer’s still engage with you, you might have a hit

Some say, "Timing the market is everything," while others argue, "It is impossible to time it." Both perspectives hold truth. While a company like Apple makes headlines with every misstep, a startup often goes unnoticed-like a tree falling in an empty forest. The key takeaway? Don't overburden yourself, striving for perfection in your initial release. Early adopters are generally forgiving. Having worked with two promising startups, I witnessed firsthand the consequences of excessive R&D at the expense of customer acquisition. Despite our products being loved by users and boasting cutting-edge technology, we ultimately lost funding. Today, with the advancements in AI, those startups could have potentially transformed into multi-billion dollar enterprises. The lesson is clear: Launch sooner, learn faster, and adapt. The market rewards those who take calculated risks and prioritize customer engagement over perfection.

Incredible ❤

This could have been an email 😂

You've got to launch sooner rather than later, because it can take a long time to find early adopters and then attract their attention and time.

Thanks to this, I’m gonna launch in 1 week time… feel free to ask me how it went in a month time😊

I’ve always wanted to go to yc, but base on my life situation I can’t, for me coolemart was always my ❤️… ,

Does anyone know what lighting Gary is using? His face is so vibrant and I'm looking something like that.

10:30 YC is remixing "Crossing the Chasm" (by Geoffrey Moore) cuz it's still true. Get those Innovators and Early Adopters and use them to reach the Early Majority.

Hey everyone, I wanted to emphasize the importance of NDAs and IP filings before sharing ideas. Recently, I noticed some startup advice suggesting not to require an NDA signed before sharing your pitch, claiming it would deter interest. However, this can be extremely risky! As a struggling single mom of three/inventor in technology, I had my former 'senior advisor' (who was already a multi-millionaire) sign an NDA when disclosing my idea, thank God. Seven years after my invention/start-up I found out that he was building my business model out with a major bank who bought my invention/business model for almost $100 million! Do NOT give your ideas freely! Your ideas take THOUGHT POWER! A lot of people are too dumb to think, so they look for smart, creative people to do it for them, but the only difference is that they have money and the connections to make YOUR idea/concept happen. These types should be held LEGALLY accountable! Lesson: NDA'S, Copyright, and file IP. Then you have a case;)

You’ll see my launch soon

9:28 NO IT IS NOT LIKE THATTTTT

But what about that pin app, what was it called humane?

Been working on my product for 4 years and haven’t launched yet. I have you all beat 😂

This advice seems apt for B2C tech-lite startups. Tech-heavy B2B is a different arena.

What about not knowing yet what to develop and launch during early customer discovery? What about Deeptech products that take time? What about the data of many succesfull companies that took many months, even years before launching publically, eg, OpenAI? I understand the value in launching as soon as you can have something functionnal packaged, but 2 months as a general rule? What if through discovery you decide to change product altogether? What should you do then, cancel the first one? Maintain it?

Hopefully everybody watching these videos understands that Y Combinator has a conflict of interest; in that they are investors, so they burn their own cash the longer it takes their portfolio companies to launch. The conflict is in that fact that they participate in the upside, regardless, but very rarely, and to a much lesser extent, share the same downside of a founder, if and when there's a premature launch.

that's me, I'm the idiot that hasn't launched

Launch and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. Resume Don't watch the video just a waste of time.

Would be great to mention Rabbit R1 launch, as an example of too early and spoiling own reputation because of this

I can’t launch cause I need full stack engineer

Waiting for developers to build my app.

🫡