How does a product launch differ depending on the size of the company?

I've worked at Series B startups all the way up to F500 companies. The theory behind product launches is the same - you want to align your launch to business goals. But, the HOW (the tactics and resources) and the WHO (the team) behind executing a product launch are really where there are differences.  At a F500 company, you've got dedicated teams for naming, brand, sales enablement, web, social, and more. PMMs might focus only on launch messaging at a larger company, and spend a lot of time on ...Read More

It looks like Loom has ~250 employees (according to LinkedIn), raised a total of $203.6M in their series C in 2021 (according to Crunchbase), and was valued at $1.53B. I’m sharing this mainly for context for other readers, even though my answer to your question will be a bit indirect because the startups I joined early were at least Series B and well-funded (i.e., not super early stage or lean). The big differences between lean/small/early stage startups and bigger ones are: Budget—money will be ...Read More

It depends on your resources and the skills of your team.  A larger company might be able to tap into more channels successfully or might already have more users and so the launch will inherently be more amplified.  You can still do a successful launch as a small company with some creativity and good storytelling! Try to think about the channels that will have the most impact given your constraints and work with a good designer to make compelling assets, and use Loom to create fun demos...(shame ...Read More

You can read my answer about taking a Tiered approach in one of the other answers. If you're a lean start up, I would suggest focusing on doing just 2 Tier 1 launches a year, and sprinkle in two Tier 2s throughout the year (rather than the 3 Tier 1s 3 Tier 2s I recommend for a more mature company). In addition to quanity of launches, you can use your "Bill of Deliverables" as a lever. Bill of Deliverables are the assets you are going to create for launch - think customers facing slides, messagin ...Read More

A successful product launch requires collaboration, coordination, and communication. A launch is easily the most cross-functional initiative a company takes on. It's a coordinated dance of different functional areas with distinct workflows working toward a common outcome. Smaller companies are less complex and have fewer products. The 3Cs are easier. Bigger companies have more products and are more complex. The 3Cs are harder. There is a need for much greater process rigor as a company grows. Th ...Read More

Every launch strategy will differ company to company. I’ve brought the same framework to my past 4 orgs and had to adapt it to fit the company, the market, and the team. It also gets modified after each launch to smooth out any hurdles identified in the last launch. What I’ve noticed in launching products in a start up vs a scale up is resources and timing. Startups are stilled tuned towards the hustle culture of get products at the door. See what works. Stop what doesn’t. Because timing is so f ...Read More