There’s No Perfect Time to Launch

You can’t make this up…“In 2012 I started the process of transforming Lunya from a dream to a business. I was learning the fashion business and happened to also be in business school while pregnant. The process was slow and painful, and I remember in 2014 I finally had some product and a rough website coming together. Since the business was only me and one other person, we started slow – propping up the site and sending it to people one at a time so we could test it as we went. In September 2014, I went into labor with my second child. Labor was relentless, as one would expect, until I finally gave in and got an epidural. Now, I was comfortable and in a euphoric waiting game in the delivery room. 

In my relaxed and peaceful state, I was reflecting on the project that was coming together with Lunya and was overcome with appreciation for those who were making it possible. I shared a thank you post on Facebook (remember this was 2014) to my dear (and only) employee Jasmine, thanking her for all the time, energy, and passion she showed up with every day. Shortly after I posted, I realized that the post was gaining steam and my wording was a little confusing. People thought that I was launching Lunya. In an abundance of generosity, all my friends and family started resharing the post linking people off to the site which, of course, was locked down with a password. I was in a weird conundrum...I could either take advantage of this organic support and take the password off the site enabling people to access it or keep it on and waste the momentum that was building. I decided to do the former and on September 16th I gave birth to my daughter Vesper and Lunya.” – Ashley Merrill, Founder of Lunya 

How long does it take to relaunch a clothing line? Design a home collection? Write a book? 

I asked these questions to myself when I felt a surge of momentum, albeit not as dramatic as Ashley’s. To all the parents reading...Can you imagine? 

These three company initiatives weren’t planned. They came to fruition when like minded partners approached us. Our philosophy is to say ‘Yes’ and figure it out along the way. 

Is it glamorous? Hardly. It was a series of magic tricks to restart our clothing division back in 2009. Handbags were our sole business until an episode of the reality TV series, Laguna Beach, reaired with our old fashion show. We found out the next morning when stores called to ask why we didn’t tell them that we relaunched apparel. We hadn’t, of course. Still, Uri and I viewed the demand as a catalyst. He fielded calls that we were indeed relaunching, while I called my friend, stylist Ilaria Urbinati, to co-design the line with me. We spent the next six months meeting what felt like barely attainable deadlines. Twelve years later, I reflect on that accomplishment with both pride and levity; Had we known then that we’d later design a collection in 24 hours, six months would have felt like six years! 

Momentum is one of the strongest forces in business; When opportunity knocks, you have to use it to expand. This week, we chat with Ashley and Fundr Co-founder Lauren Washington about seizing the moment.

There’s no perfect time to launch. You can always find a reason - or 10 - to delay. The site’s not ready. The marketing campaign could be better. Should we make this one last design tweak? Lauren shares how she keeps doubt from becoming a roadblock… 

“In December 2019, I was in the midst of planning Black Women Talk Tech’s 4th annual conference. It was a two and a half day event and we were expecting over 1000 people. At the same time, I had been bootstrapping and slowly building out my new venture, Fundr. We had discussed a few months before that it could be a great test and promotion to use Fundr to review applications for BWTT’s $15K pitch competition. Only problem - the platform wasn’t finished. 

Fundr’s CTO had been working tirelessly to get the platform up singlehandedly, but a few pieces still weren’t ready. We weren’t happy with the UX and we hadn’t done any real testing yet. The deadline was approaching to open up the applications and we had to make a choice - launch and hope for the best or miss this big opportunity. We decided to put our pride aside and launch even though it wasn’t perfect. We figured we could manage any incoming issues on the fly and since we were testing on other founders, they’d give us a little grace. We opened the applications and held our breath. The applications started rolling in and...it worked. There were only two questions on logging in that were easily fixed. Moreover, the algorithm seemed to be working - ranking the startups the way we normally would, but much faster and more efficient.

The real test was the day of the conference. The judges, from Harlem Capital, Essence Ventures, 43North and Black Girl Ventures, were seasoned and respected investors. Since they hadn’t seen any of the Fundr scores, would they validate our algorithm by choosing the startup with the highest score? After the finalists did their live pitches, they debated for almost an hour. Our startups were all so strong, so I can’t imagine it was an easy decision. It was time for the reveal and the winner was the startup with the highest score on Fundr - we had predicted the winner. Taking that chance and launching before we were ready gave Fundr the attention, users and validation we needed to catapult us to where we are not even a year later.”

Every entrepreneur has been in Lauren’s position, likely a few times this month. We planned to debut The Female Founder Collective’s directory alongside our membership program. Then, the pandemic raised an urgent need to support brands. Within a few weeks, we teamed up with Ladies Get Paid and, through heroic efforts by Elisabeth Leonard and Christina Jones, had a directory of thousands of women-owned businesses online by June. The acceleration required going live without features we long envisioned. The opportunity to amplify these businesses outweighed them every time. 

Doubt is ever present in business. Decisions get easier with time, though. I rely on a simple check-list to escape the perfection trap: Will anyone notice this is imperfect or is it just me? Can it cause harm to the brand or others? Will it break as we start driving? If not, proceed! 

Launch day often feels like the finish line. It’s only the beginning of the race. We’ve never kicked our feet back and said: Ah, 10 out of 10! Nothing to change here! Iteration is the process. 

When did you seize the moment in your career? Share your story in the comments!