⊨  Korrect

Book Four: Launch

launch first, build later

The Uncomfortable Truth About Launching

You should NOT spend hundreds of hours building a product... until you know for certain that there is demand.

You should launch with just a landing page. Write a one pager on what you will build. It should take you under a day.

Add a stripe checkout button. Launch everywhere. Market for 1 week straight.

If you can't get signups within 1 week... KILL IT and START OVER.

The Three Reasons People Won't Pay

Most "startups" are not winners. And there are only THREE reasons why someone will not pay you:

  1. They don't actually have the problem.
  2. They aren't willing to pay to solve the problem.
  3. They don't think your product is good enough to try and pay for.

A landing page with a checkout button tells you which one in 7 days. Building for 6 months tells you nothing.

The Ethics of Testing Demand

This is where I'm going to get hate:

  • • It is not unethical to advertise a product you have not finished building.
  • • It is not unethical to put a checkout link and collect payments for an unfinished product to test demand… as long as you simply refund "customers".

If people do sign up and check out, you simply come clean:

"I actually haven't finished the product yet, but I'd love to talk to you about the problem you're facing. I put a sign up link on the website to see if anyone would actually care about my product enough to pay for it"

Then you refund the customer. And now you have a validated idea AND your first beta user.

The Launch Playbook

Day 1: Build Landing Page

  • • One clear headline explaining the problem
  • • Three bullet points on how you solve it
  • • One pricing tier
  • • Stripe checkout button

Day 2-7: Launch Everywhere

  • • Post on Reddit (find the right subreddits)
  • • Share on X/Twitter (use relevant hashtags)
  • • Message on LinkedIn (to your network)
  • • DM anyone who's mentioned the problem
  • • Post in relevant Facebook/Discord groups

Day 8: Decide

  • • 10+ signups → Build it
  • • 5-9 signups → Pivot the positioning
  • • 0-4 signups → Kill it, start over

The Numbers Don't Lie

This is personally how I tested 39 different startups… and killed 37 of them with little to no revenue to show for it.

For context: Of the 2 startups that DID get traction from this strategy:

  • • One went on to hit $50M+ in GMV
  • • Rivin.ai went on to raise an investment from Jason Calacanis and works with multi-billion dollar e-commerce brands

37 failures. 2 successes. That's a 5% success rate.

Most people have a 0% success rate because they never launch.

Stop Wasting Time

Do not waste hundreds of hours of your valuable time building products no one cares about.

Test demand with a landing page and checkout link.

If demand is proven: build it.

If demand isn't proven: start over with a new idea.

Repeat.

You will get a hit if you do this… eventually.