Idea: Hosted Pre-Release Signup Pages
Watching and participating in the several Startup Weekends has given me some insights into common elements of each weekend that could be streamlined with the use of additional tools, preparation (no, not like Toronto), or services.
One thing that each Startup Weekend implements, as do a number of Software as a Service companies, is the pre-release splash page. This is the page that announces the imminent release of the product, and allows an interested user to signup with his or her email address to be notified when the product launches.
I envision a service that manages and hosts pre-release splash pages on behalf of SaaS companies. I know, in the case of Startup Weekend Boulder, when we were developing VoSnap, we got our page up late in the game. We also had to spend time and resources designing and posting the page on the production server.
I believe the pre-release splash page is a simple yet very important of any startup company. It should be posted as soon as a domain name is available to capture and gauge customer interest, and to develop a mailing list that can be used for marketing purposes and a way to continue generating “buzz” about your product long after a potential customer’s initial visit to your site.
Pre-release splash pages are relatively simple to create and usually adhere to a common structure. I believe a pre-release splash page hosting service would be beneficial to SaaS developers because it would eliminate the need to spend time reinventing the wheel by developing and hosting their own custom splash page. It would also provide additional benefits such as list management, email campaigns, mobile SMS text notification, and analytics, that a roll-your-own solution would not be able to provide. It could be monitized through advertisements (of course), and fees for premium services such as SMS text and analytics.