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I'm about to launch a social travel network PhD colleague. It uses a complex algorithm to rank results and recommendations. We've just concluded the development and must say that we made mistakes by not launching the MVP earlier (I read Lean Start-up too late).

Now that everything is ready, how do I go about launching considering that I am based in Prague? Does it help to pitch to blogs and is this something you would advice? I mean, we are not Stanford/MIT folks - we are just from a tech university in Prague and no experience of building something before. We think that we have a fantastic product backed by the unique algorithm and several nice features. The question is how to push it out?

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If people need to create an account and log in to use the site, the barrier to entry is too high. If you need to create a user account, use facebook/yahoo/google login (like stack!). Make sure people get what the site is about in less than 5 seconds. – frenchie May 29 '12 at 6:52

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Launch and try to scale first, for the following reasons:

  1. If early adopters embrace your product in numbers, it validates your assumption (assuming you didn't do a focus group while conceptualizing your product -- and you shouldn't).
  2. allows early adopters to give you feedback (please make it easy for adopters to provide feedback), then very SELECTIVELY choose which to implement. You may have finite developer resources, so don't squander them developing everything that seems right. This "to be developed" list also helps you quantify the amount of investment to hire more developers, which in turn...
  3. it allows you to refine your business plan with substantiable numbers before you seek seed and early-round investments.

One last thing, please don't choose a "velvet rope approach" to increase awareness. Lower unnecessary barriers for early adopters. Be open to possibilities. You may just stumble upon a market you didn't expect.

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