A 30-day launch roadmap for a new app

By Ivan Cernja, 11 October 2026

You've built the app. This is a simple 30-day plan to get it in front of people, built on one idea from Paul Graham: "You can't wait for users to come to you. You have to go out and get them" (Paul Graham).

Week 1: Get clear

• Write the one sentence: who it's for, what it does, why it's better.
• Rewrite your landing page headline to match it.
• List 5 to 10 places your users already talk.
• Set up a real domain, basic analytics and a way for people to reach you.

Week 2: Make the assets

• A 30-second video of the app, and a 15-second cut for social. (Teasr makes both from your site in under 10 minutes, from €39.)
• Three or four clean screenshots. For Product Hunt, gallery images are 1270x760 and you need at least two (Product Hunt Help Center).
• A short "why I built this" story for your first comment and posts.

Week 3: Warm up and launch

• Spend a few days being useful in your communities before you post anything about your app (Reddit).
• Message 20 people who've described the problem, one by one.
• Launch on one main platform: Product Hunt, or Show HN if people can try it without signing up (Hacker News).
• Stay all day and reply to everyone.

Week 4: Follow up

• Post to the smaller launch boards and your builder's community, one a day.
• Talk to every new user. Fix the first thing that confuses them.
• Ship one visible improvement and announce it with a short video.
• Write up what happened. Honest launch write-ups get shared.

After day 30

Keep the rhythm: one improvement and one post a week, in the same few places. That consistency is what most makers skip, and it's most of what works.