Get your drum rolls ready! Endevr is officially launching this week!
Well, I guess you can say launching to the public … but still in somewhat of a beta. We actually went live last week (on the 24th to be precise), but we’ve been working through some initial user acceptance testing and inevitably resolving some initial bugs.
Bugs, much like finding ants at 5th-graders outdoor summer birthday parties, are also inevitable when launching new software.
[Yes, even Steve and Woz had some issues.]
And some of these bugs that we’ve resolved are some that we needed to resolve before releasing Endevr to the public at scale.
You see, virality is our focus.
Virality, the element of spreading virally amongst users in response to our team having designed a network effect.
Before I get too far off topic–those who know me, you know I can easily digress–I want to highlight something I’ve already mentioned in this blog post. And it’s the very humbling, very exciting fact that we already went live a week ago, yet here I am claiming this as our “launch.”
Launches, at least in the startup world, are nothing really glorified. You see, we actually launched last week, when we went live on the 24th. That was our launch. Nothing really special, nothing glorified. No spotlights, no massive post on TechCrunch (well, that’s coming soon), and no special party. We went live, we sent the platform to our close friends and colleagues, they went “ooo, ahhh”, then received texts and Slack messages with lists of “hey, this isn’t working” and “yo you need to check this button I think it’s broken.” And just like any good startup team, we got right back to work.
We launched, we spoke to users/customers, and we haven’t stopped iterating and resolving bugs/breaks since going live on the 24th. That’s a launch.
Let me paint another picture for you.
It’s 11:45pm on a Wednesday night. A couple of twenty-something-year-old roommates are slouched on their apartment couch. One with his laptop, the other with his iPhone. Both have been logged in [and out, with a few cookie/cache clears] on joinendevr.com for roughly ten hours now.
“Hey, check this button out.”
“Recent messages search icon is broken.”
“Scrolling on mobile only shows five items.”
“Okay that’s fixed.”
“Oh nice you fixed that already.” etc. etc. etc.
Add a couple bags of fruit snacks and chips. There you have the reality of launch day.
And just so we’re clear … I wouldn’t trade it for anything. As a startup founder, those types of days and nights light a fire in me and our team like not much else can.
I guess my point in all of this, is to offer a reality check on startup launches.
Do you remember the day Twitter launched? Or Instagram? How about Reddit?
The answer to that is no, you don’t, because you don’t actually know when they launched. And I can promise you the day those platforms truly went live, truly launched and were made available, Jack, Kevin, Steve, Aaron, and those guys were doing something pretty darn similar to our launch day. And I bet they were loving every second of it too.
Nonetheless, launching is and has been very rewarding, mentally and emotionally. After a long six months in development, Endevr is ready for the world (well, our target users if we’re being technical).
We still have a list of bugs to work through and ongoing iterating that truthfully doesn’t ever end. The day we stop iterating is the day we stop innovating, and the day we stop innovating … well then shame on us and strip me on my entrepreneurial badge. Iteration and innovation are indispensable ingredients to a successful and sustainable company.
You can check us out on joinendevr.com (unless you’re already here right now on the site reading this).
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Visit our FAQ section or feel free to contact us directly connor[at]joinendevr.com
Cheers to launching Endevr, and cheers to getting back to work.
