60 days to 1,000 signups. The plan that works when you do not have a product yet.

In 2019 I raised $330,000 in a month for Woolet - a smart wallet with GPS. Apple later killed the category. My pivot to eyewear started from zero: 374,000 monthly searches for "glasses for wide faces", 0 sales, 0 audience. Eight weeks later there were 120+ signups from people who actually wanted to buy.

It was not luck. It was a 60-day plan. Four stages. Each with a different goal and a different channel.

If you are building a product and do not have a list yet - this post is for you.

Why 60 days before launch at all?

The most common mistake I see in founders: you build the product for 6 months, on launch day you drop a LinkedIn post and wait for "the viral moment". It is not coming.

A waitlist is not for bragging about a number. It exists so that on launch day you have 1,000 people who already know you, trust you, and are hovering over the "Buy" button.

A well-prepared waitlist converts at 15-35% on launch day. Cold traffic converts at 1-2%. The difference = whether you make money or not.

4 stages. 60 days. 1,000 signups.

Stage 1 - Days 1-2: the first 10 from your inner circle

Goal: 10 signups in 48 hours.

Sounds trivial. Most founders skip it because they are embarrassed to ask family and friends. That is the biggest mental barrier in prelaunch.

What you actually do:

• A list of 30 people from your life (family, friends, ex-coworkers, people from previous companies)


• Send a personalized DM/SMS/email. Not "please share" but: "I am building X for people with problem Y. Sign up here - I want you to get early access."


• Ask for specific feedback after the signup, not just the signup

What you get (besides 10 signups):

• First validation that people even understand your pitch


• The "X signups" counter on your page starts above zero (social proof)


• Easy-mode training before real prospecting

Stage 2 - Week 1-2: the next 40 from warm communities

Goal: reach ~50 signups total.

"Warm community" = a place where you already spend time, have a history of posts/comments, and someone there recognizes you. You do not walk in as a spammer.

Concretely:

• 3-5 groups on Slack / Discord / Facebook where your future customers hang out


• Subreddits (r/indiehackers, r/startups, r/SaaS, r/buildinpublic - or your niche equivalents)


• 1-2 podcasts/newsletters you have followed for months

You do not drop "hey, here is my waitlist". You drop a problem story you know inside out because you have been touching this product for months. The waitlist link shows up in the comments if someone asks, or at the end of a long thread.

At Crowder (scaled to 3M PLN in revenue) this is exactly how we started - by educating the community about the problem, not by pitching the platform.

Stage 3 - Week 3-6: build in public, the next 50 signups

Goal: reach ~100 signups.

This is the moment you open X (Twitter) and LinkedIn as the official channel of the project. Not marketing. A build journal.

What works in 2026 (verified on fresh data):

• The 70/30 rule: 70% comments on other people's posts, 30% your own. Accounts that do this grow ~10% per month. Accounts that only publish their own - 2-5%.


• 1-3 valuable posts per day + at least 20 substantive comments


• Content like: "Week 3 - what broke", "A decision I regret", "Numbers, live" - not "Excited to announce"

Your feed becomes a magnet for people with the same problem you are solving. Those people do not need to be "convinced of the product". They will ask for the link themselves.

Stage 4 - Week 7-8: referral loop, 100 -> 1,000

Goal: turn 100 signups into 1,000.

This is where most founders break, because they think referral = "please share" in the email footer. No. Referral has to be mechanically built into the waitlist product.

What you do:

• Every signup gets a unique link


• For every referral they get a concrete reward: earlier access, lifetime discount, bonus, spot in a private community


• The threshold starts low (3 referrals = bonus), not 50

Tools: Waitlister, LaunchList, GetWaitlist, Viral Loops, KickoffLabs. Or a simple Make.com webhook (that is what we did for Wellbri).

On average, referral lifts list growth by ~17%. That is the difference between 600 and 1,000 on launch day.

What NOT to do (mistakes I see every week)

• Do not build a waitlist without post-signup nurturing. Welcome email + a 5-email cycle over 2 months. Without it, the list dies before launch arrives.


• Do not chase signup count at any cost. 200 people with hot intent beat 2,000 cold addresses. Only the first group converts.


• Do not copy someone else's playbook 1:1. Stage 2 (warm communities) means your places, not theirs. If you have not spent time there for 6 months - it is not warm.


• Do not delay the start until "it is ready". The first email sent to the list in week 1 beats the perfect email sent never.

What to do tomorrow (if you start today)

• Write the list of 30 people from Stage 1


• Pick 3 communities from Stage 2 you have been part of for at least 6 months


• Put up a landing page with one clear CTA (target 15-35% conversion)


• Turn on the referral mechanic on day 1, not in week 7


• Set a 60-day deadline from today - without a deadline none of this works

Every launch I have seen work - Woolet, eyewear, Crowder - had the same 4 stages. Only the tools changed.

Audience first. Product second.

That is the entire MVA Framework in one sentence.

---

Working on a prelaunch and want to walk through it with someone who has done it before? See the 90-day MVA program ->