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In today’s episode, Steli and Hiten discuss the best practices to launch your product. Hiten uses his own launch of Draftsend as the basis of this discussion—a new platform that allows users to create and share their interactive presentations. Listen as Hiten gives listeners a behind-the-scenes take on a very unique and successful product launch where he leveraged social media and invited customers to take part in the launch itself. Tune-in to hear Hiten’s process firsthand and to learn how you can adopt these extremely wise strategies. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: how to launch your product 00:34 – Hiten recently launched Draftsend 01:47 – Steli congratulates HIten for Draftsend’s launch success 03:01 – Draftsend’s launch was all over social media 03:13 – Draftsend is a platform that allows you to create and share interactive presentations; you upload a pdf and audio and Draftsend acts a viewer 03:23 – “It feels like a video, and people are able to listen to a presentation” 03:33 – For those creating , you can record right on your browser on top of the pdf while going through your slides 03:45 – One key feature of Draftsend: all presentations are public 03:51 – Draftsend can feature your presentation right on their website 04:01 – “If you’re building a CRM, you don’t have the same opportunity to be all over social media, because your product should be shared on social media all the time” 04:32 – We had 20 people share their presentations for our launch day; we tweeted and promoted their content throughout the launch day 04:48 – Take advantage of the opportunity to share your content 05:07 – Having a definitive launch date encouraged those 20 customers to finish their presentations in time 06:04 – Our goal by having these 20 initial customers was to demonstrate what our product could do so that people could get inspired 06:18 – If it wasn’t just Hiten’s content that was displayed by Draftsend, he knew others would be more apt to share it 06:36 – Draftsend was launched in Product Hunt 07:14 – This product was so unique they wanted to access Product Hunt’s audience as opposed to just launching to their own existing audience 08:09 – Steli cannot believe a product like Draftsend did not exist before Hiten launched it 08:53 – Product Hunt has a very positive community 10:11 – Product Hunt gives tons of exposure; and people really care about giving their feedback 10:46 – Draftsend initially had 110-113 comments in Product Hunt 11:29 – “Launch when you know the thing will NOT fall down” 11:51 – Solicit feedback in your community and engage with the audience 12:43 – The launch date is not the birth of your product 13:59 – Product Hunt has an upcoming feature where you can set-up a “coming soon” page for your product 14:38 – The launch went well because Hiten and his team kept adjusting and learning thru the feedback they received prior to its actual launch 15:51 – Hiten already had hundreds of people suing Draftsend before they launched it on Product Hunt 16:16 – A launch is not just a launch where you can expect to just sit back and collect—it’s a small event that encourages you to refine your product, create growth loops, gain more users etc. 17:01 – Some people think they’re work is done after a launch, it’s just beginning and it’s NOT the hardest part of the process 17:33 – Your launch is like the beginning of business 19:25 – The number one goal for Draftsend’s launch was to get as much feedback as possible 20:07 – The second goal for the launch was to do everything Hiten can to maximize what happens—make adjustments on the fly during the launch to maximize user experience 22:13 – They were deliberate in asking for feedback