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Comment by startupguy73 | Hacker News Reader

We could have launched it last month, but I don't think I could handle the workload myself in my spare time, and they want to keep delaying our launch until they think the site is perfect.

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screw that, launch. launch it and control your workload by controlling your marketing plan, trying to keep the number of users in check with what you can handle. then polish it.

Seconding this. You're not going to have a perfect site specifically because you haven't launched. Without audience feedback, all you're doing is endlessly second-guessing yourselves - that sort of feedback exacerbates any existing groupthink behind the design, potentially causing it to be far less usable than it originally was.

Third, launch then get feedback, interate quickly. I was scared when I launched my startup, but you will realize it takes time to get users to try your service out. We were lucky to get techcrunched before launch which led to a bunch of signups for our beta. So we had about 2000 users on our list prior to launching.

This is false. You could certainly handle the workload. You may handle it poorly, but you can handle it. It will not kill you. It will not maim you. Perhaps you gain 10 lbs from overeating due to stress and your WoW rating goes down (or whatever you fill your time with). But the statement above is patently false.

I say this as someone who lies to himself like this sometimes, too. Any time you hear yourself saying the words "can't" and "need" you have to stop and realize that you're probably lying to yourself. You don't _need_ that feature. You _can_ survive being stressed out for 3 months.

Launch early and iterate often! Websites fit this model perfectly. Launching can be scary -- but what do you have to lose? Feedback from a partially working site is better than nothing!

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