Ask HN: Best way to launch your product?

We are about to finish coding our first public beta of hotelninjas.com which means we can finally accept high volume of customers. And I was wondering what is the best way in your opinion to let the world know we're out there?

We're a bootstrapped startup with very little resources so everything we're looking at is low-budget, guerrilla stuff.

What launch tactics worked best for you?

What is a complete waste of time that needs to be avoided?

In the past week, I've experienced a fairly epic failure in the launch of a project of my own. Perhaps you can learn from it?

I wanted to run a fundraiser for Syrian refugees, and I spent a lot of time with a mock-up product that fit my sense of humor (and that of several friends). I got the first 10 donors lined up, so I thought, now I should launch.

I used GoFundMe for the project (http://www.gofundme.com/2d64j4), but I did very little initial publicity. I worked my email lists of potential victims and shared it via Facebook. Well, many of the original donors decided not to contribute and I only heard from two random donors that found my project via the FB shares. Out of 115 visits, I have three donors, whereas I originally only contacted 20 people, out of whom I received 10 orders.

So, I would say that this is not the best way to launch. It's possible that I planned the entire project poorly, and I'm currently trying to think of other ways to tell the world about it.

With tourist season starting here in Turkey (where I live), I would suggest contacting hostels and pensions that are advertising online. Pitch them directly and give them a trial.

In my experience, there isn't a lot of planning ahead and I have been shuffled around as part of a hotel managers efforts to juggle their availability. Larger hotels surely have a solution for this, but small and mid-sized venues clearly don't. I encounter lot's of ledgers kept on paper, and little to no automation. Meanwhile, the owner has a laptop open on the desk displaying FB or an online game. So, I think you have a market here in Turkey, if you can convince them to pay the price. That would probably mean getting into the local language though.

Good luck, -s

Thanks, this is pretty nice reference. Btw, I will soon face the same problem with launching my service http://besthi.re

Launch now.

What is "launch" exactly? Do a Show HN. Tell all friends/family you're live and to start spreading the word. Email your personal networks and do the same. If you have a mailing list, let your list know you're live and ready to go.

Start getting feedback as soon as possible and don't ever stop listening.

Thanks for sharing your learnings.

If you are available maybe we can do something together in Turkey. We will be very happy to get customers there and our product works perfectly for the type of customers you're describing (small and mid-size, shitty tech solution to manage their property, tech-savyy employees)