Waitlists are speculative, and it’s a vanity metric, unlike most people think. I wouldn’t use a waitlist as a benchmark for future reference or consider it as a validation for your business in any category.
When I pre-launched my SaaS, I had a list of 700 people joining the waitlist.
My biggest mistake? I launched too early, and I didn’t anticipate potential slower growth or progress pre-launch.
People lost interest, and when the launch date arrived, I only managed to convert a fraction of them into paying customers.
If that wasn’t bad enough, I wasn’t sending enough updates to those signups, which probably caused a portion of revenue loss.
I was too focused on the launch, but I was neglecting my waitlist to keep them interested.
What I probably should have done back then was to consider more meaningful updates and offer them a pre-order or early bird deal to validate if my business and model were viable enough.
How To Validate Your Idea With A Waitlist?
Don’t make the same mistakes I did back then; instead, try the following:
- Launch a waitlist once you’re 80% done with development or progress
- Regularly update your progress (weekly, bi-weekly) and start blogging about it
- Update your progress through socials, without overselling your product
- Offer early subscribers heavy discounts
- Try to convert them into early adopters or enthusiasts
- Reach out to a select group of enthusiasts who might become organic brand ambassadors
Don’t make the mistake that a big waitlist or a few sales are enough to validate your business.
It’s valid when you see revenue dripping in at a slow but steady pace. It’s valid when people organically start mentioning your business and buy a subscription.
Waitlists are tricky, and it’s about nailing that timing right.
Launch too early and you might lose a big chunk of your early signups. Launch too late, and it gets invalidated, or people move on to a similar tool that has shown effort with regular updates.