Checklist
The Startup Launch Checklist
Everything worth confirming in the week before you launch — product, legal, marketing site, tracking, and what happens the morning after.
Launch day feels bigger than it is. Most of what determines whether it goes well was decided in the week before. This checklist covers the parts founders forget under launch-week pressure.
Product Readiness
- Core user journey has been tested end-to-end by someone outside the team
- Error states and empty states are designed, not placeholder text
- Payment flow (if any) has been tested with a real card in production
- There is a way to roll back or hotfix quickly if something breaks
Legal & Compliance
- Terms of service and privacy policy are published and linked in the footer
- Cookie consent is implemented if you have EU or UK visitors
- Data collected matches what your privacy policy actually says you collect
Marketing Site
- Meta title, description, and OG image are set on every page, not just the homepage
- Site works and looks correct on the most common mobile screen sizes
- 404 page exists and links back to something useful
- Favicon and social preview image are set (test by pasting the URL into Slack)
Analytics & Tracking
- Core funnel events (signup, activation, purchase) are wired before launch, not after
- You can answer "how many people signed up today" without asking an engineer
- UTM parameters are planned for every channel you will launch on
Launch Day
- Someone is watching error monitoring and the support inbox in real time
- Launch post or announcement is drafted and scheduled, not written live
- The team knows who owns responding to comments, DMs, and support requests
Post-Launch
- First-week retention is tracked, not just signups
- A scheduled retro exists within a week to capture what broke and what worked
- A prioritised list exists for the bugs and requests that came in during launch week
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