Launch Your SaaS in 14 Days

Week 1: get shippable

1. Day 1: pick a launch date, tell three friends publicly. External accountability beats internal willpower.
2. Days 2–3: fix onboarding. Time-to-value under 3 minutes is the goal.
3. Days 4–5: seed data + demo mode so cold visitors can see value without signing up.
4. Day 6: 60-second demo video. Loom is fine. Ship it, don't perfect it.
5. Day 7: draft launch posts for each board and community. Different angle per surface.

Week 2: launch and respond

1. Days 8–9: soft launch to your waitlist and DM network. Fix top 3 issues.
2. Day 10 (launch day): publish on rankraw, Product Hunt, Hacker News (Show HN), and one niche board. Same day. Different angles.
3. Day 11: reply to every single comment. Ship one small patch based on feedback.
4. Days 12–14: post a follow-up thread with what you learned. Convert launch attention into ongoing content and community rhythm.

What NOT to do during launch week

• Don't ship new features. Ship fixes only.
• Don't beg for upvotes. Every seasoned board bans it, and it feels transactional to real users.
• Don't run paid ads before you've reached PMF signals. Amplifying a leaky funnel just wastes budget.
• Don't disappear on day 3. The launch is 14 days, not 24 hours.

FAQ

How do I launch a SaaS?

Set a public launch date two weeks out. Spend week one polishing onboarding and building a small waitlist. Spend week two coordinating a same-week launch across rankraw, Product Hunt, Hacker News, and one niche board. Reply to every comment on launch day.

What day is best to launch on Product Hunt?

Tuesday or Wednesday, midnight Pacific time. Avoid Mondays (heavy competition) and weekends (low traffic). rankraw runs a continuous ranking, so any day works.

Do I need press for a SaaS launch?

No. Indie SaaS launches are won on discovery boards, communities, and personal networks, not press mentions. Chase press only if you already have a story a journalist would want to tell — otherwise it's a waste of the week.