Your VP Product just told you about a major launch in six weeks. You asked about budget. They laughed.
Welcome to startup launch planning. No PR agency. No event budget. No paid campaign spend. Just you, a Slack channel, and the expectation that this launch will somehow drive meaningful adoption.
Most launch advice assumes resources you don't have. Here's how to plan launches that actually work on startup budgets.
Categorize the Launch First
Not every release deserves a launch. Most don't. Your first decision is: does this need external announcement or just internal enablement?
Tier 1 - Full Launch: New product, major capability, or significant market expansion. Happens 2-3 times per year. These get external announcements.
Tier 2 - Feature Launch: Important new capability for existing product. Happens monthly. External announcement to customers only, not market.
Tier 3 - Update: Improvement or small feature. Happens weekly. In-app notification and support docs. No launch activities.
Most product teams want every release to be Tier 1. Most releases are Tier 3. Your job is to call this honestly.
If it doesn't change who can use your product, what jobs it can do, or what markets you can serve, it's not Tier 1.
Budget-constrained launches mean picking your battles. Save your limited resources for releases that actually matter.
Build Your Launch Brief
Before planning channels or tactics, get clarity on fundamentals. Create a one-page launch brief:
What's launching: One sentence description.
Why it matters: The customer problem it solves.
Who it's for: Specific persona, not "everyone."
Success metrics: How you'll measure if it worked.
Key messages: Three bullets on what you need people to know.
Launch date: When it's available.
Circulate this to product, sales, customer success, and leadership. If you can't get everyone to agree on this one-pager, you're not ready to launch.
Disagreements about the launch brief reveal misalignment about strategy, not tactics. Fix strategy alignment before planning launch activities.
Focus on Owned Channels First
Paid campaigns require budget. Owned channels are free.
Email: Your existing customer list is your highest-value launch channel. They already trust you and can adopt immediately.
In-app: Product notifications reach users at the moment they could use the new capability. Much higher conversion than email.
Sales team: Your reps talk to prospects daily. Enable them to pitch the new capability in active deals.
Website: Update key pages to reflect new capabilities. This affects all inbound traffic without incremental cost.
Support documentation: Users search docs when evaluating capabilities. Update these before launch day.
These channels cost time, not money. For budget-constrained launches, owned channels are 80% of your distribution strategy.
Create a Minimum Viable Launch Kit
Sales and customer success need materials to enable the launch. Create the minimum viable set:
One-pager: What it is, why it matters, who it's for, how to get access. PDF format. Takes 2 hours to create.
Demo script: 3-minute walkthrough hitting key value points. Bullet points, not prose. Takes 1 hour.
FAQ: The 10 questions you'll definitely get asked. Takes 2 hours with input from product.
Email templates: For sales to send to prospects and CS to send to customers. Three variations: cold outreach, existing conversation, current customer. Takes 1 hour.
Total time investment: One day. This covers 90% of what teams need to talk about the launch.
You don't need: 40-slide pitch deck, video production, case studies (you don't have them yet), press release, blog series.
Ship the minimum. Add more based on what teams actually use.
Plan Your Launch Sequence
Launches aren't single moments. They're sequences spread across 2-3 weeks.
Week before launch:
- Brief sales and CS teams
- Update website and docs
- Prepare email and in-app notifications
- Test with 3-5 beta customers if possible
Launch week:
- Sales enablement session (live, 30 minutes)
- Customer email announcement
- In-app notification goes live
- Update homepage/product pages
- LinkedIn post from CEO or founder
- Share in relevant Slack communities or forums
Week after launch:
- Monitor adoption metrics
- Collect early customer feedback
- Update FAQ based on questions received
- Sales follow-up email to engaged prospects
This sequence costs zero dollars. It requires coordination and execution, which you can control.
Leverage Your Founder's Network
Early-stage companies have one unfair advantage: founder access and credibility.
Your founders have LinkedIn networks, Twitter followers, and personal relationships that established companies don't.
Have your CEO or technical co-founder:
- Post about the launch on LinkedIn (personal posts outperform company posts)
- Share in relevant Slack communities where they're members
- Email their personal network about what you built
- Do a product demo video explaining why it matters
This reaches qualified audiences without media spend. Founder credibility drives attention that paid ads can't buy.
Create Customer Proof Points Fast
You can't launch with case studies you don't have yet. But you can create proof points fast.
Identify 3-5 beta customers or early adopters. Before broad launch:
Get a quote: "We tested [feature] and saw [specific outcome]."
Get usage permission: "Can we mention you're using this?"
Get a short testimonial: Two sentences on what problem it solved.
These aren't full case studies. They're proof the capability works for real companies. That's enough for early launches.
Full case studies come later, after you have ROI data and customer approval for detailed stories.
Measure What Actually Matters
Launch metrics should connect to business outcomes, not vanity metrics.
Track:
Activation: What percentage of customers started using the new capability in the first 30 days?
Sales impact: How many deals included the new capability in discussions? How many closed because of it?
Support load: Are customers asking questions about it? (Good sign of engagement)
Revenue impact: Did this affect expansion revenue, new deal sizes, or win rates?
Don't track: press mentions, social media impressions, or website traffic unless you can tie them to downstream outcomes.
Budget-constrained launches can't afford to optimize for metrics that don't affect the business.
Coordinate Without Spending
The hardest part of launches isn't creating materials—it's coordinating people.
Create a launch Slack channel. Add: product, sales, CS, marketing, and whoever handles website updates.
Post updates daily for two weeks before launch:
- What's ready
- What's blocked
- What needs review
Use a simple checklist visible to everyone:
- [ ] Sales enablement materials ready
- [ ] Website updated
- [ ] Email drafted and scheduled
- [ ] In-app notification ready
- [ ] Support docs updated
- [ ] Sales team briefed
Everyone can see progress. Nobody needs to ask "are we ready?"
This costs zero dollars and prevents launch day chaos.
When to Delay
Sometimes the right launch decision is waiting. Delay if:
Core functionality isn't ready: Launching broken features destroys trust faster than delaying builds anticipation.
Key stakeholders aren't aligned: If sales doesn't believe in it, they won't sell it. Fix alignment before launch.
No clear success metrics: If you can't measure whether it worked, you can't learn or improve.
Major customer issues unresolved: Launching new capabilities while existing features are broken frustrates current customers.
Delays feel bad. Bad launches are worse. When in doubt, wait until you can execute well with resources you have.
The Budget-Launch Reality
Launches on startup budgets succeed by:
- Picking fewer, more meaningful launches
- Focusing on owned channels and internal teams
- Creating minimum viable materials instead of comprehensive campaigns
- Leveraging founder networks and early customer proof
- Measuring adoption and revenue impact, not vanity metrics
You can't outspend competitors. You can out-execute them with focus, speed, and scrappiness.
That's how early-stage launches work.