Ask HN: Should I launch in my local city or abroad?
I have an app with a target market. I can launch in my local city, which isn't really known for startups, has a very small market. Or I can launch abroad and fly there for a 1-2 months and try to launch it there. Launching abroad has a much larger market size, but I don't know anyone there.
Should I simply try to launch in my local city and see if my business model works first?
In my own entrepreneurial efforts, I've found it to be tremendously useful to test-market any product on a small scale before pouring a ton of time and money into it. Doing so can tell you lots of things that you might not know, such as what aspects of the product customers value the most, what desperately needs changing, whether it's priced too low or too high, or whether there's even really a useful amount of demand for it in the first place.
So, I would always recommend launching locally as a test. Gather data, do customer interviews, watch people using it in real life, and so forth. Then regroup and digest what you've learned, iterate your product based on that, and follow up with a larger scale launch.
What's the service? If it's a local one, you're way better off doing it in a market that you are familiar with (your hometown). Not sure what you really mean by "not known for startups" and that shouldn't matter. If your app provides a useful service, people will use it.
There are many other unknowns launching in a city you are entirely unfamiliar with, especially if you have to move there.
It comes back to what the app actually does. Do you have to be in the city to launch it? Is there an offline component of it? If the answer is yes, stay home.
Launch where you can get the most number of customers, that also have the most money, and will hand you that money the fastest. This will yield less time to get to more money, the cheapest.
Why not both? I did a soft launch with one app in Malaysia, but after a few months, the majority of users are in US and UK. If it spreads, it will likely end up wherever your target market is.
I guess when I read launch I was just thinking the app itself was focused on that city. I wasn't thinking of it in terms of your business based out of there.
If it was just the app and the app has some local components then a city you know could be helpful.
If we're talking establishment of a company, employees, etc, that is something else and way beyond my knowledge ;)
So, I would always recommend launching locally as a test. Gather data, do customer interviews, watch people using it in real life, and so forth. Then regroup and digest what you've learned, iterate your product based on that, and follow up with a larger scale launch.
There are many other unknowns launching in a city you are entirely unfamiliar with, especially if you have to move there.
It comes back to what the app actually does. Do you have to be in the city to launch it? Is there an offline component of it? If the answer is yes, stay home.
http://www.paulgraham.com/startuphubs.html
If it was just the app and the app has some local components then a city you know could be helpful.
If we're talking establishment of a company, employees, etc, that is something else and way beyond my knowledge ;)