The first time you heard the word “launch” you may not have known what it meant. But likely, you quickly understood that launch day is like test day in school. A day where pain teaches you what you should have learned. And because of that stinging pain, what you learn at launch day has a good chance of staying with you.
It was the time of dotcom hype and ecommerce. We worked 16 hour days, played WLAN parties, drank, danced and smoked at the office until the sun came up. Our bosses were artists, DJs and unpredictable eccentrics. 1999 was the best time to do Internet things. Nothing was defined, everything was possible. And it was the worst time. No one knew what they were doing. Today, that dotcombubble Internet company is history. But man have we learned from its launches!
Launches were like rocket ships going into space and with every launch you’d somehow hope that everything changes. At 52, I should be cooler. But to this day, launches are a tense matter. Launch day brings out both the sunniest optimist and the darkest pessimist.
After turning the key, we cheer, wide eyed and drinking in every stat we can find, interpreting it in the best and the worst way. Until, as it happens, something goes wrong. And you need to fixitfixitfixit. After that, launches usually go well. Some launches end in explosions. The really bad stuff normally only shows days, sometimes weeks later, when you can’t fixitfixitfixit, and the astronauts are lost in space.
Today’s launch of iA Presenter was quite a frenzy. Though we didn’t need to patch up the product itself (we’ve learned our lessons about testing), there always seems to be something that requires a quick fix.
So, now we’re having beers. If you’d like to celebrate the launch with us, there now is a launch party going down. On a launch Website, a Website made to cheer launches daily. Meet us at ProductHunt, look for “iA Presenter” and—if you don’t get lost in another party—leave us a Prosit. Of course, we’re also very happy if you try our newly launched app.