Every item below exists because we have watched a launch suffer without it. The clock assumes a Tuesday-to-Thursday morning launch, which is the standard B2B window.
T−14 to T−8: foundations
This assumes the date is already chosen. If it is not, choose it deliberately, because the day of the week and the hour are distribution variables worth more than most of the items below. Picking the date.
- Write the one-line claim. What it does, for whom, better than what, no adjectives. If deleting the product name leaves a sentence that could describe four hundred companies, it is not ready.
- Pressure-test it on a skeptic. Someone technical who does not work for you. If they cannot argue with it, it will not generate replies, and replies are what carries reach.
- Decide the single primary metric. One. Launches measured on everything are measured on nothing, and the right answer depends on which kind of launch this is: a funding round is measured on hiring and branded search, a self-serve product on trials above baseline, an enterprise product on qualified conversations from target accounts, a developer tool on installs and the first outside pull request. The full table.
- Confirm the date against the calendar. Avoid major industry events you are not part of, the week of a competitor's known launch, and Fridays.
- Check the product actually works for a cold user. The single most expensive launch failure is traffic arriving at a broken signup.
- Name the person who owns distribution, with the authority to move the date, a budget they can spend without a second approval, and a scorecard made of reach rather than assets shipped. Why this is the item that decides the rest.
- Record the baseline. Daily signups, direct traffic and branded search, starting now. Nobody can report lift against a number that was never written down. What to record and for how long.
T−7 to T−2: the build
- Select carriers on median performance and audience overlap with your buyer. Never follower count.
- Brief each carrier individually. Context and an angle. The creator writes the post. Identical posts across accounts read as a paid campaign in seconds.
- Lock category exclusivity so carriers cannot post a direct competitor inside your window.
- Build the asset. A raw screen recording of something surprising beats a produced film for technical products. No video at all is survivable, an article can carry a launch.
- Write the founder's post yourself. In the founder's voice, from the founder's personal account. Audiences detect a ghostwritten founder immediately.
- Draft the follow-up post now, while you have time to think. You will not have time on the day.
- Prepare answers to the three hardest questions you expect in replies. Pricing, the obvious competitor, and the thing your product does not do.
- Warm the account. Post something related 48 hours out. A dormant account competes against its own silence.
T−1: the day before
- Send the launch calendar invite. Every investor, advisor, friend and teammate, 50 to 100 people, for the posting minute. Everyone in your ecosystem knows you are launching and when. The link goes into the invite the moment the post is live.
- Confirm every carrier in writing with their exact posting time. Assume one will forget.
- Load the landing page and check it on a phone. Most of your launch traffic is mobile.
- Clear the founder's calendar for launch day. This is the item teams skip and then regret, the highest-weighted ranking signal available requires the author to be in the replies.
- Brief whoever handles inbound on what a qualified lead looks like and where to route it.
T−0: launch day
| Time | Do this |
|---|---|
| T−0 | Founder posts from their personal account. Not the company account. |
| T+0 to T+10m | The 50 to 100 people on the launch calendar invite open the post, reply and save it. Their invite gets the link the moment it is live. |
| T+15m | First carrier wave posts, each with its own framing. |
| T+30m | Founder begins replying. Every substantive comment, no exceptions. |
| T+2h | Company account amplifies with a different angle. Each one written for its own audience. |
| T+4h | Second carrier wave, technical, market, and customer angles. |
| T+8h | Check inbound is being routed rather than accumulating in a shared inbox. |
T+1 to T+14: the part everyone skips
- T+24h, post the follow-up. A detail, a number, or a genuine response to the best critique. One post is one object to rank; four is four.
- T+48h, reply to every qualified DM. This is where the launch becomes pipeline and where most teams have already moved on.
- T+3d, pull carrier-level numbers. Which specific accounts drove people who converted. This is the only data that tells you what to repeat.
- T+7d, post once more. A result, a customer reaction, a thing you learned. Keeps the warmed audience warm.
- T+14d, compare inbound against the prior fourteen days. Not against zero, and not against same-week revenue.
What you can safely skip
Checklists get long because nobody removes anything. These items are commonly recommended and rarely worth the time:
- A press release. Unless a specific publication has asked for one, it serves no distribution purpose.
- A produced launch film, for technical products. Polish reads as marketing; a raw screen recording usually outperforms it.
- A countdown campaign. Teasing to an audience that does not yet care spends attention you have not earned.
- Launching on five platforms at once. Pick where your buyers actually are and concentrate. Diffuse effort produces a slope no ranking system notices.
- An investor thank-you in the first line. It signals the post is for the cap table.
Questions we get asked
How do you get engagement in the first hour of a launch?
Put your own network on the post at the same minute. A calendar invite for the posting time, sent to every investor, advisor, friend and teammate, 50 to 100 people, with the link added when the post is live. Real replies and saves from people who know the company in the opening window give strangers a reason to talk about it, and give the feed a reason to send it past the following.
How far in advance should we start?
Fourteen days is comfortable and seven is workable. When a date is fixed we can turn a launch around in 48 hours, drawn from creators already active in your category.
What is the single most-skipped item?
Clearing the founder's calendar for launch day. Author-engaged replies are the highest-weighted signal available and they are free, and teams routinely forfeit them by scheduling meetings.
Does the launch day of the week matter?
Less than people think. Tuesday to Thursday morning US Eastern is the standard B2B window, but the first thirty minutes matter far more than the day.