Get signups before you build.
And know which post brought each one.
Free plan, no time limit · No card · Stripe stays read-only
The short answer
Put up a one-page site with a waitlist before you build: describe the problem and the outcome, ask for an email, and share it where your future users already are. Record where each signup came from. If people from one place sign up, you have an audience and a channel. If nobody does, you've saved months of building.
Example data - Where each signup came from, kept on the signup.
- The campaign, when the link had one.
- One email to everyone when you launch.
The cheapest test of an idea.
Building takes months; a waitlist takes an afternoon. If nobody gives you an email for the promise, they're unlikely to give you money for the product.
Where signups come from matters as much as how many. Fifty signups from one community of people with the problem tell you who the product is for and where to launch. Fifty from a giveaway list tell you very little.
And the list becomes your launch: the people who asked to be told are the first ones you tell.
Put it up this week.
- 01
Write one page
The problem in your future users' words, what life looks like once it's solved, and one field: email.
- 02
Tag every link you share
utm_source for where, utm_campaign for which post, so each signup says where it came from.
- 03
Share it where your users already are
The communities, forums and newsletters where people describe the problem. Answer questions; link when it helps.
- 04
Talk to the first twenty
Email them: what made them sign up, what they use today. Their answers shape what you build.
A waitlist that records its sources, free.
Launch gives you a hosted waitlist page, a script-tag widget or an API, with referral links and positions. Every signup keeps the referring site and UTM values it came with, with no cookie needed. When you launch, one announcement tells everyone, and the launch report shows who paid.
The free plan holds 100 signups per project, for two projects. Indie ($19 a month) holds 2,500 and adds confirmation emails, invites in position order, the leaderboard and CSV export.
Set up in about five minutes.
- 01
Paste one line
About two minutes
Add the script tag to your site, or run npx nordva@latest init and let your AI coding agent wire it in. The first visit shows up within a minute.
- 02
Connect Stripe, read-only
About three minutes
Create a restricted Stripe key with read permissions and paste it. Launch can only read; disconnecting deletes everything it synced. Every plan, Free included.
- 03
See who pays, and why
From the first visit
Where visitors come from, which of them sign up, what they ask you for, and which source brought the ones who pay, on one record per person.
When Launch is the wrong tool.
- You need a full landing-page builder with templates and A/B tests: Launch gives you a waitlist page and widget, not a site builder.
Questions, answered.
How many signups do I need before I build?
There's no magic number. What matters is signups from the people you're building for, and a few of them telling you in their own words why they signed up.
Do I need a website first?
No. Launch hosts a waitlist page at launch.nordva.dev/waitlist/your-project, and you can share that link today.
Can signups invite friends?
Yes. Every signup gets a referral link and a position, and referrals move them up the list. The public leaderboard needs Indie.
Put your waitlist up today.
Free, no card. Share the link and see which post brought each signup.