The Complete Launch Week Checklist

A launch isn't a day, it's a week. The founders who treat it like a single Tuesday burn out by Wednesday and miss the long tail that actually drives revenue. Here's an hour-by-hour playbook you can copy.

Sunday — Prep

• Final QA. Break your own product on mobile, in Safari, on a slow connection.
• Lock the landing page copy. No more edits after 6 PM.
• Schedule your X thread for 9 AM PT Tuesday.
• Pre-write the launch email and queue it in your ESP.
• Tell your partner / roommates / dog that you'll be useless until Thursday.

Monday — Soft launch

• Email your list a private link. Subject: "Sneak peek before tomorrow."
• Ask for honest feedback, not upvotes.
• Post a teaser GIF on X. No link. Just curiosity.
• DM 20 friendlies the PH preview URL.
• Sleep early. Tomorrow starts at midnight.

Tuesday — Launch day

• 12:01 AM PT — Product Hunt goes live. Post maker comment. Send launch email.
• 12:30 AM PT — Reply to the first wave of comments.
• 6 AM PT — Coffee. Quick metric check. Don't refresh obsessively.
• 8 AM PT — Publish and pin your X thread. Tag three people who genuinely helped.
• 10 AM PT — Post to IndieHackers, LinkedIn, and your one warm subreddit.
• 12 PM PT — LinkedIn personal post (different angle than X).
• 2 PM PT — Submit to BetaList, Peerlist, Uneed, There's An AI For That, Alternative.me, Fazier.
• 4 PM PT — Record a 60-second "thanks, here's what's happening" video for X.
• 8 PM PT — Final reply pass. Then close the laptop.

Wednesday — Momentum

• Reply to every single comment from yesterday.
• Send a personal thank-you email to anyone who signed up.
• Post a "day 1 numbers" tweet with real metrics.
• DM five new users and ask what almost stopped them from signing up.

Thursday — Press and partners

• Pitch three niche newsletters with a personal angle (not a press release).
• Reach out to two complementary tools about a cross-promo.
• Post in one Slack/Discord you're already a member of.

Friday — Compound the SEO

• Publish a launch blog post (this one counts).
• Submit to two more directories you skipped Tuesday.
• Reply to every X reply, even the late ones.

Saturday — Retro

• Write a public retro. Numbers, mistakes, surprises, next step.
• People love a post-mortem more than a launch.
• Schedule the next launch for ~6 weeks out. Momentum compounds.

Sunday — Off

• Genuinely off. The product will survive one day without you. Prepare the core message in advance, then write each update for its audience as launch week unfolds.