Our Launch Week Story – The High and Lows of going live

Hey folks,

We just wrapped up our first-ever AICamp launch week from June 24th to June 28th. I’m excited to share our experience and learnings with you.

What is a Launch Week?

A launch week is a strategy for releasing features that helps create momentum around a product. You choose a week and release a new feature each day, building excitement and engagement.

The Backstory

On June 15th, my co-founder Nishchit and I were sitting in a café, brainstorming ways to release features differently. Nishchit suggested doing a launch week. Initially, I was skeptical, thinking it was only for dev tool products (we had experience with this from building Firecamp, an open-source Postman alternative).

Nishchit persisted, saying, “Just because no one else is doing it doesn’t mean we can’t.” We agreed to give it a shot, though I secretly thought it would be too much work.

Then Nishchit proposed live launches. When I asked who would host or manage the live sessions, he mentioned his friend Joe, a community builder with a decade of experience in webinars and live sessions. Joe quickly agreed to help, and we’re incredibly grateful for his support.

The Rollercoaster of Launch Week

Day 1: Teamspace
Day 2: AI Assistant
Day 3: RAG Extensions
Day 4: OpenRouter Integration
Day 5: Chat Presets

The Planning Phase

With just over a week to prepare, we divided responsibilities:

• Content & Marketing: Shreya
• Community engagement: Shreya & Nishchit
• Live feature launching: Nishchit
• Help center writing: Shreya
• Tool setup: Shreya
• Feature design and shipping: Nishchit

We focused on several key areas:

1. Marketing Channels: We leveraged Discord, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Facebook groups.
2. Content Preparation: This included webinar descriptions, dates, times, and joining links (Our approach )
3. Blog Posts: We planned an announcement post, daily feature release blogs, and a wrap-up post.
4. Email Communication: We sent emails to our community at the start and end of the launch week.

Tools We Used

1. Streamyard for webinar scheduling and multi-platform streaming
2. AICamp for team AI collaboration
3. Figma for graphic design
4. Notion for planning
5. Slack for internal communication
6. Resend for Email communication
7. Discord for Community update

Challenges and Mistakes

No launch is perfect, and ours was no exception. Here are some key lessons we learned:

1. Tool Verification: We lost our first day’s recording due to Streamyard’s free trial limitations.
2. Platform Requirements: We couldn’t go live on YouTube on day one due to the 24-hour verification process. So if you want to go for youtube live, you’ll have to be verified before 24 hours.
3. Feature Readiness: Some features were only 90-95% complete as we were incorporating last-minute customer feedback.
4. Planning Timeline: We should have started preparations at least 15 days in advance for better promotion.

Results and Wins

Despite the challenges, our launch week yielded impressive results:

1. Community growth: 50+ new members in two weeks

2. Engagement: Active discussions on bugs, features, and suggestions

3. Customer acquisition: 4 new customers and 3 demo bookings

4. YouTube growth: From 2 to 15 subscribers in a week

5. Onboarded one affiliate partner

6. Launched a brand new website

7. Personal growth: Overcame imposter syndrome around public speaking

Key Takeaways for Future Launch Weeks

1. Start planning at least a month in advance
2. Create LinkedIn events early and invite your network
3. Collaborate with relevant communities (e.g., OpenRouter community for our OpenRouter support launch)
4. Have help center content and blogs ready a week before launch
5. Explore collaborations with community members for increased visibility
6. Leverage platforms like Reddit for broader awareness

The Impact of Stepping Out of Our Comfort Zone

As introverted founders, facing the camera and speaking live about our product was daunting. However, this experience pushed us out of our comfort zones and helped us develop crucial skills in public speaking and product presentation.

https://www.youtube.com/live/OymorbPd7q4

The launch week wasn’t just about feature releases; it was a journey of personal and professional growth. We learned to think on our feet, adapt quickly, and keep pushing forward even when things didn’t go as planned.

Looking Ahead

Our first launch week may be over, but the momentum continues. The connections we’ve made, the feedback we’ve received, and the confidence we’ve gained are invaluable as we move forward with AICamp.

To fellow founders considering a launch week: embrace the challenge. It’s an intense experience, but the rewards – in terms of product development, community engagement, and personal growth – are well worth the effort.

As we look to the future, we’re excited about the possibilities. Our community is growing, our product is evolving, and we’re more committed than ever to making AICamp the go-to platform for AI collaboration.

Best,
Shreya

P.S. A huge thank you to our community for joining us on this ride. Your enthusiasm, feedback, and support mean the world to us. Here’s to many more exciting launches together!