Ok. I just made a ton of people doubt themselves when I tweeted "waitlists are for the weak". I truly believe this, but I also believe new founders don't know how else to launch, so they just go with what has worked. In this thread, I will show you a new way. A better way.

For some context. I previously started and helped scale a company called @PubLoft from $0-$25,000 MRR in 7 months, bootstrapped. I also started @fwdthinkingcity 2 months ago, and this has been its growth of paying users. I've never used a wait list to launch once in my life.

Let me make one thing clear. Waitlists work. This thread is not to debunk the effectiveness of waitlists. From @RobinhoodApp to @Superhuman to @joinClubhouse, time and time again, waitlists have been proven to work.

They work in the same way that Facebook works. Facebook's business model absolutely crushes it. They are making sooo muuuuchhh moneyyy, right? This is why so many people aimed to copy their monetization model. How many VCs got the "revenue from ads" pitch? I know I did.

But sometimes when something works, doesn't make it right. Facebook has shown us this more than anything. I personally don't think waitlists are right. I think they are net negative for the both the founders, the users, and the world.

So, why do waitlists exist? Simplified, I think there are 3 main reasons why people use waitlists:

1. They don't have a finished product but want to capture attention
2. They want to create FOMO in the market pre-launch
3. They have too much demand, still want to capture attn

This thread will be helpful for the founders in #1 group. Founders in the #2 group already stopped reading this thread, and the founders in the #3 group probably are begging for answers but this thread wont cover them (DM though, my experience with @prendalearn can help you).