YC SUS: Kat Mañalac and Eric Migicovsky discuss Week 2 SUS Lectures

Introduction00:02

Eric, facilitator at Startup School, joined by Kat Mañalac, YC partner, answering questions on Week 2 lectures: How to Talk to Users and How to Launch Again and Again and Again. Questions from Startup School forums, YouTube comments, Twitter, smoke signals.

Gustavo from Flexo00:30

Flexo enables building financial models for growing companies in minutes, not days. One-liner is good, but add who it's for: startup founders or small businesses?

Balancing Launches vs. Success

Question: Many channels to launch on—quick launch or spend days/weeks maximizing success per channel? Recommendation: Don't spend weeks perfecting channels. Spend few hours on messaging, couple hours to days on feedback. Pre-order/Kickstarter/press take longer. Stop emphasizing one perfect launch.

Everyone in the world doesn't know who you are right now. Every time you launch, 0.01% of the world finds out. Every single launch is brand new to so many people. Maximize surface area. Hard to get people to care early—want more chances, feedback. Like MVP: if perfect by launch, waited too long.

Matthew from Katara03:00

Katara helps find and eliminate bias in AI training datasets.

Landing Page CTAs and Waitlists

How long is too long for CTAs like "sign up to be notified of alpha launch" or "get on mailing list"? Longer waitlist = harder to reengage. Get MVP out ASAP. CTA as short as possible: users don't care about alpha/beta. Say "sign up for launch notification" or "newsletter." Get feedback on copy: post on Startup School forum for eyeballs. Ask what they think. Obsess less over perfect copy—users don't know what you're talking about yet. Jump in on forum posts you don't understand for honest feedback.