A launch is not a single post on a single site. It is a short project with three phases: getting the product ready to be judged by strangers, putting it in front of the right people on the same few days, and turning the attention into users who stay. This checklist is written for SaaS founders launching to a US, UK or Canadian audience, but most of it applies anywhere. Platform rules quoted below were checked on 30 October 2026.
Disclosure: Pulltip publishes this guide and is one of the launch platforms mentioned. See our sponsored content policy.
Phase 1: Product readiness (2 to 4 weeks before)
Strangers judge a product in seconds. Before you invite them, make sure the first five minutes work.
- Write the one-sentence description. "X helps Y do Z without W." If you can't write it, visitors can't repeat it. You will reuse this line everywhere.
- Test signup on a clean device. Use a fresh browser profile and a new email address. Time how long it takes to reach the first useful moment.
- Remove barriers you don't need. Hacker News asks Show HN posters to make it easy to try the product, "ideally without barriers such as signups or emails." A demo account or a sample project helps.
- Fix the top three onboarding bugs. Ask two people outside your team to sign up while you watch. Note every pause.
- Check pricing and plan pages. Make sure what you sell is clear, including what's free. Visitors from launch sites compare quickly.
- Publish the legal basics. A privacy policy and terms page, plus a working contact address.
- Set up a status or support channel. A shared inbox or chat widget you will actually watch on launch day.
- Prepare for load. If you expect a spike, check rate limits on your email provider and any third-party APIs.
Phase 2: Measurement (1 to 2 weeks before)
If you can't tell where users came from, you can't repeat what worked.
- Define one activation event. For example, "created a first project" or "connected a data source". Count it, not just signups.
- Add UTM parameters to every link you control (newsletter, social posts, directory listings that allow it). Keep a simple naming sheet so "producthunt" and "product_hunt" don't split your data.
- Verify your site in Google Search Console and submit a sitemap. Google says it automatically looks for sites to add to its index and you usually don't need to do anything, but Search Console shows whether pages were actually indexed.
- with four numbers per day: visits, signups, activated users, and replies or feedback received.