Want to Be Great? Embrace Embarrassment. Advice on Imperfection from Reid Hoffman, Sheryl Sandberg and Mark Zuckerberg. Top leaders in the tech world explain why it is so imperative to launch your startup sooner, rather than later.
By Andrea Huspeni •
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Editor's Note: In the new podcast Masters of Scale, LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock partner Reid Hoffman explores his philosophy on how to scale a business -- and at Entrepreneur.com, entrepreneurs are responding with their own ideas and experiences on our hub.
Waiting to launch your product? Don't.
Launching early -- earlier than you think you should -- is a major lesson from Masters of Scale a 10-episode podcast about scaling a company hosted by Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn and partner at Greylock.
In the series, Hoffman talks to big-name leaders such as Mark Zuckerberg and Marc Pincus of Zynga. They explain that every moment you delay your launch is another moment you can't grow your customer base, get needed feedback and drive revenue. And as you wait, you give your competitors one of the most valuable assets early-stage companies have: a head start.
Related: Why Mark Zuckerberg Runs 10,000 Facebook Versions a Day
"Your assumptions about what your users want are never exactly right," Hoffman says in the fourth episode, Imperfect is Perfect. "You need to test a real product with real customers as soon as possible. It's the fastest way to build something users can't resist."
Related: When It Makes Sense to Release an Imperfect Product
Watch this short video and get more hard-won insights on launching early from other top leaders.
