To launch, or not to launch? Exploring startups’ digital product launch

New high growth companies provide the society with jobs and innovation, hence having a significant impact to the economy. These companies, i.e. startups, are recognized to have the potential of being a source of significant growth, and they have the potential to reshape traditional industries. Yet, startups tend to fail within a short period of time from the product launch. This short-term success correlates significantly with the product launch and provides an interesting avenue for research. Thus, this thesis studies startups’ digital product launch. More specifically, the study concentrates on the tactical launch decisions that are previously proposed as key variables in defining new products’ success in the market after launch. However, the literature is lacking knowledge in the context of startups’ digital product launch. Therefore, this study aims to extend the knowledge of startups’ digital consumer product launch. Seven in-depth interviews were conducted to entrepreneurs who have launched multiple digital products to consumer markets. The study argues choice of sample, method and quality of the research followed by findings and results from the study. The results suggest that instead of being made after product development is complete, the tactical launch decisions are being made as a part of a dynamic launch process. Furthermore, the study proposes that companies make different set of tactical launch decisions than in the past, mainly because the emergence of global digital communication and magnified power of consumer-to-consumer influence. More specifically, the results of this study indicate that a successful launch of a digital consumer product requires four critical decisions, namely product, price, promotion and viral sharing decisions. These decisions should be iterated through the dynamic launch process to ensure the right content of these decisions. The managerial implications of this study, although focused on startups, can be utilized by vast group of digital consumer product focused companies, independent from the size of the company. The findings of this study indicate that the use of viral sharing is a critical decision in a digital product launch process. Moreover, in the context of startups, the use of dynamic launch process is critical to the short-term success of the launch. This study is limited by the small sample size but gives direction and starting point for further, more quantitative analysis