How TechCrunch launched on X

What this launch shows

The post went out from an account with 11.1M followers and was seen by fewer people than follow the account. Accounts of that size usually reach 2.2 times their following.

This one did not get far past the people who already followed it. It ranks 615 of 678 launches from accounts that size. Against every launch in the directory it is below the median of 603K views, at rank 1794 of 2314.

Replies led. 31 of them, 3.3 per 10,000 views against a median of 2.5.

The post started a conversation, and the ranking model pays for conversation with reach in the hours after. Bookmarks came in at 90, reposts at 30.

The post opens with “TypeSafe AI raised $870 million in a round led by a16Z”. It carries no media, which leaves the ranking model nothing to hold a reader with past the first line. The copy runs 12 words, shorter than a launch post here, where the median is 41.

The body carries a link, so the post had somewhere to send the reader and paid a little reach for it. It went out on a Friday. Launches posted on a Friday have a median of 647K views in the directory, which makes it the strongest day.

How to announce a funding round covers this: the round is the news and the post has to turn it into customers and hires. For the next one, read why posts from large accounts under-reach: a post seen by fewer people than follow the account was held back by the ranking model.

Whether a launch needs a video is the guide for it: 99% of the launches in the directory carry one, and the guide is about when the 1% is the right call.