Launches fail in one of two ways. They fail dramatically — the site crashes, the product is late, the press falls through — and everyone knows immediately. Or they fail invisibly — the returns rate is 12%, the review score plateaus at 3.9, the abandoned-cart flow was never set up — and the founder discovers the failures one by one over the next six months, as slow bleeds.
The invisible failures are the ones that kill more brands. They are also almost entirely preventable, because they come from a small list of pre-launch omissions that repeat across every brand we've seen fail.
This is our internal checklist. We run it the week before every launch across the portfolio. It has grown by a few items every year, always in response to a specific thing that went wrong. There is nothing exotic on it. That is the point.
Product
- Shelf-life confirmed by third-party stability testing, not by the manufacturer's spec sheet
- Every SKU batch-tested for microbial, pH, and viscosity — retain a sample per batch
- Final ingredient list matches what the front-of-pack claims — check both directions
- Label copy reviewed by regulatory (US, EU, UK) for the markets you will actually ship to
- Warning statements present where required — a $50k fine begins with a missing warning
Pack
- Master carton spec locked and shared with the 3PL — count, weight, dimensions
- Damage-tested at the 3PL by shipping a case to yourself via each carrier you will use
- Unboxing tested by five people who did not design it — record their reactions on video
- Fragrance or oil bottles tested with airline pressure changes if you ship internationally
- Small-package inserts (care card, brand card, sample) confirmed present in the fulfilment SOP
Content
- Hero photography approved on desktop, mobile, and printed — all three read differently
- At least forty organic-ready assets sitting in a shared drive, tagged and captioned
- Three founder-story cuts — a 15-second vertical, a 60-second vertical, a 90-second horizontal
- Product description copy proofed by someone who has never seen the product
- SEO — title tags, meta descriptions, alt text on every product page
Commerce
- Shopify tax settings tested from three US states and, if selling internationally, the UK
- Shipping calculator tested against three known-tricky ZIPs — Alaska, Hawaii, PO Box
- Payment methods live: card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Klarna or Afterpay if your AOV justifies
- Review app installed and pre-seeded with legitimate reviews from the test panel
- Abandoned-cart flow live with two follow-ups, spaced 1h and 24h
- Post-purchase flow live — order confirmation, shipping confirmation, delivery, first-use tips, review request
- Site load speed under 3 seconds on 4G mobile — measured, not assumed
Launches fail in two ways: dramatically, or invisibly. The invisible failures kill more brands.
Operations
- 3PL contract signed with SLA — 24-hour ship, 99% pick accuracy, and defined penalties
- Returns policy published, and the returns SOP walked through with the 3PL
- Customer service inbox monitored — a shared inbox with a 24-hour SLA and a Sunday check
- Inventory buffer sized for the first 45 days at 2x forecast — the launch will surprise you
- Reorder trigger set at 60 days of cover — you cannot go out of stock in the first quarter
Marketing
- Paid media accounts warm — do not launch cold on Meta or TikTok, spend the two weeks before
- Creator programme with 20+ shipped seeds two weeks before public launch, embargoed to launch day
- PR embargo signed with the outlets that will cover, day-of-launch
- Email list warmed — one teaser, one countdown, one launch email
- First 48-hour paid budget committed and creative loaded
Legal and financial
- Terms of service, privacy policy, and returns policy live
- Trademark filed in the primary market
- Founders' agreement or company operating agreement signed
- Insurance active — product liability at appropriate coverage
- Bookkeeping set up — you cannot fix month one in month twelve
The morning-of ritual
On launch day itself we do three things before public launch, and only three.
- Test purchase — buy one unit at 8am from a different browser, on a different network, with a different card. Watch the entire flow, including the receipt
- Confirm the first hundred orders are physically pickable — the 3PL should have shelves ready to move
- Silence Slack for the launch team for the first two hours — no metric-watching until 10am; the brand didn't die if nothing sold in the first ninety minutes
The launch is the beginning of the work, not the end. This checklist doesn't guarantee success. It guarantees the failures you have are the interesting ones, not the boring ones.