Free checklist and 30-day calendar
The SaaS launch checklist: everything to do before, during and after launch week
Forty checks for the site your launch visitors will land on, then the 30 days from first submission to launch week. Tick them off here, or get the printable and the tracker in the Launch Kit.
- Checks
- 40
- Groups
- 5
- Calendar stages
- 8
Free, one email
Get the Launch Kit
Every place in the playbook in one tracker, plus a 30-day calendar that says what to do each day.
- Tracker: The Launch Tracker spreadsheet
- Calendar: The 30-day launch calendar
- Templates: The Submission Kit templates
- 40 checks: The 40-point pre-launch checklist
300+ websites shipped, clients in 4 countries
The 30-day launch calendar
witscode.com/resources/saas-launch-checklist. Timing source: Leo Bosuener, Product Hunt launch guide, Lenny's Newsletter.
The short answer
What has to exist before you submit anywhere?
A page that says what the product does in one line, shows proof it exists, has one working call to action and loads on a phone. Then the assets directories ask for. The 40 checks below cover both.
01The checks
The 40 checks
Five groups, eight checks each. Your ticks stay in this browser only.
You have 0 of 40
Positioning
01 to 08, 0 of 8 done
Can a stranger tell what this is, who it is for and why it exists?
How to check: Show the top of the page to someone outside your field for five seconds. Ask what it does and who it is for.
How to check: View the page source and your draft tagline side by side and compare the spelling and capitalization.
How to check: Ask the same five-second viewer which tool they would compare it to.
How to check: Scroll the first two screens and find a real product image showing the main job.
How to check: Read the hero aloud. Replace any internal jargon or feature code names.
How to check: Look for a pricing link, a free-during-beta line or a next-step line under the waitlist form.
How to check: Find your name and photo on the home page or the About page.
How to check: Point to the sentence. If you cannot, write it.
Proof
09 to 16, 0 of 8 done
Is there evidence the product exists and that a person stands behind it?
How to check: Confirm the images show the working product, not a mockup or stock art.
How to check: Play it start to finish on a phone and time it.
How to check: Match every quote to a real person who agreed to it and every count to your database.
How to check: Keep the written permission for each logo on the page. Remove any you cannot find it for.
How to check: Open it and confirm the newest entry is recent.
How to check: Click both footer links and confirm neither returns a 404.
How to check: Send a message from a personal address and time the reply.
How to check: Open it and look for names and a location.
Conversion
17 to 24, 0 of 8 done
Does the one action you want work, and can you see where it came from?
How to check: Scroll the page and count the buttons in each screen. One should lead.
How to check: Sign up with a new address in a private window and reach the product or the confirmation.
How to check: Check the inbox and the spam folder of the test address from check 18.
How to check: Open the page and count the competing buttons.
How to check: Visit the path and confirm your analytics records the visit with the source.
How to check: Sign up from a URL with UTM parameters and find them on the new user or lead record.
How to check: Complete a signup with your analytics real-time or debug view open and watch for the event.
How to check: Finish the trial or demo flow and confirm the last screen offers a next step.
Technical
25 to 32, 0 of 8 done
Does the site load, render and share cleanly?
How to check: Open the site on a phone and drag sideways on every page you will link from a directory.
How to check: Open the browser console on each key page and look for mixed content warnings.
How to check: View the page source and read the title and description tags.
How to check: Paste the URL into LinkedIn Post Inspector and check the preview image and title. Source (opens in a new tab)
How to check: Look at the browser tab and at a bookmark of the site.
How to check: Search the page source for noindex and check robots.txt for a Disallow: / line.
How to check: Visit a made-up URL on your domain and confirm the page links back to the home page.
How to check: Run the home page in PageSpeed Insights on mobile. A new site may have no field data yet, so read the lab LCP and CLS values instead. Source (opens in a new tab)
Directory readiness
33 to 40, 0 of 8 done
Do you have what the submission forms ask for?
How to check: Compare your exports with the asset table in the Submission Kit, which lists each size next to the page it came from.
How to check: Count the characters, spaces included.
How to check: Paste each into a word counter.
How to check: Check them against the Submission Kit asset table.
How to check: Write the category next to each platform in the Tracker before you submit.
How to check: Count the words and confirm the headshot is recent.
How to check: Send a test message to it and confirm it arrives.
How to check: Log in to both and confirm each account has activity from before launch week. Source (opens in a new tab)
02The calendar
The 30 days
T0 is your primary launch day. The slow approvals start a month out, the scheduled boards two weeks out, and the easy directories wait until after launch.
T-30 to T+7, one stage at a time
T-30 to T-22
Get ready and start the slow approvals
Run the 40-point checklist against your site and fix every failed check.
Create and use your maker accounts on Product Hunt, Hacker News, Indie Hackers, Peerlist and the two subreddits you will post in, so none of them is new on launch day.
Join the communities you will launch in and post nothing promotional yet.
Start the approvals that take longest: your G2 profile, your Capterra listing and any marketplace partner accounts.
T-21 to T-15
Write it once and submit the hard ones
Fill in the Submission Kit once: tagline, descriptions, maker comment, founder bio.
Export the logo and screenshots at the sizes each platform asks for.
Submit to the review sites and marketplaces rated Hard or Medium, so they go live around launch.
Publish a building-this post on Indie Hackers.
T-14 to T-8
Queue the pre-launch boards and book your slots
Submit to the pre-launch boards: BetaList, Launching Next, PitchWall and StartupBase.
Book your launch slots on Uneed, Microlaunch and Fazier, and a Monday on Peerlist Launchpad.
Set up a launch landing path and UTM tracking so you can see which board sent each signup.
Line up people who will try the product and tell you what they think. Do not organize upvotes.
T-7 to T-1
Final checks and warm-up
Run the checklist one last time.
Draft the Product Hunt maker comment and the Show HN post.
Warm up your audience every day. The Lenny's guide says to start 30 days out; this is the final week of it. Source: Leo Bosuener, Product Hunt launch guide, Lenny's Newsletter (opens in a new tab)
Confirm the launch-day schedule. The same guide says to launch on Product Hunt at 12:01 a.m. Pacific. Source: Leo Bosuener, Product Hunt launch guide, Lenny's Newsletter (opens in a new tab)
T0
Launch day
Launch on your one primary board.
Answer every comment fast, all day.
Post the launch note in one community you already belong to.
T+1 to T+3
Second wave
Post Show HN if you did not on T0. Never in the same hour as Product Hunt.
Run the secondary boards you booked.
Developer tools: publish the launch article on DEV or Hashnode.
T+4 to T+7
Easy directories and cleanup
Submit to the directories rated Easy, five at a time.
AI products: submit to the AI tool directories.
Claim every listing that went live and add screenshots.
Write the launch retrospective post.
Timing source: Leo Bosuener, Product Hunt launch guide, Lenny's Newsletter.
The Launch Kit
Get this as a PDF and the tracker
The checklist and the calendar as printable PDFs, plus the Launch Tracker spreadsheet and the submission templates. One email.
- The Launch Tracker spreadsheet
- The 30-day launch calendar
- The Submission Kit templates
- The 40-point pre-launch checklist
Where to submit once the checks pass
The SaaS Founder Launch Playbook03Work with us
If you would rather have the site built
The page your launch-day visitors will judge you on. We build it so it passes the checklist.
04FAQ
Frequently asked questions
One line that says what the product does and who it is for, a real screenshot of the product in use, proof that is true today (a customer quote, a waitlist count or a changelog), one call to action that works end to end, and a page that loads on a phone without sideways scrolling. The Positioning, Proof and Conversion groups above cover each one.
A logo, three to five screenshots, a tagline, a short and a long description, a category and a support email. Launch boards also want a maker profile and a maker comment. Sizes differ by platform, and the Submission Kit lists each size next to the page it came from.
About a month out. Leo Bosuener's Product Hunt guide on Lenny's Newsletter says to start warming your audience 30 days before launch, and that startups that do well on Product Hunt put 50 to 120 hours into preparing. The calendar above starts at T-30 for that reason, with review sites and marketplaces first because they need vendor or partner accounts before anything goes live.
Source: Leo Bosuener, Product Hunt launch guide, Lenny's Newsletter (opens in a new tab)Yes. The Launch Kit email includes this checklist and the 30-day calendar as PDFs, plus the tracker spreadsheet and the submission templates. It is one email, and we do not add you to a list.
Launch on a site that is ready for it
300+ websites shipped, clients in 4 countries