6 Comments
User's avatar
Deepam's avatar

Fantastic read, Gaurav! Loved it. Thanks for sharing honest insights.

Superhuman did indeed create an impression that having a waitlist is a cool thing, thanks for breaking the myth. :)

Expand full comment
Sibi S. Murugesan's avatar

Finally someone is talking about the false momentum that can be provided by waitlists!

Expand full comment
Gaurav Vohra's avatar

I concur, not enough written on it! But affects so many startups in the early days

Expand full comment
Sibi S. Murugesan's avatar

When you work with founders, what (if anything) has helped them stop focusing so much on "hey I'll spin up a quick LP + wait list!!" ?

Esp when they index on past and arguably recent success of waitlists turning into revenue (Manus comes to mind but might be poor comp), feels like everyone runs the same playbook == no alpha at least for GTM?

Expand full comment
Gaurav Vohra's avatar

I basically send them this essay / talk through the lived experiences of what a waitlist *actually* entails.

Like this essay covers, it's reasonable to spin up a LP + Waitlist at the very beginning, but it's important to not let that *become* one's growth goals!

Expand full comment
Manoj Surya's avatar

Haven’t tried much on waitlist, but doing smoke tests with lifetime deals and pricing tiers before product exists seems to tell some idea on which icp, messaging and channels may work.

What do you think on these smoke tests?

Expand full comment