Waitlister is waitlist software for launching a product: a signup page, referral rewards and emails to your list in one tool, free to start.
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Send emails automatically when someone joins, after a delay, or at a points or referral goal.
A waitlist only works if you fill it and keep it warm until launch. Robinhood's grew for 15 months before it opened, which is a long time to keep people interested.
Waitlister's place in line and referral program start on the $19/month Launch plan.
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What to copy if you're launching without an audience:
→ a pitch that names what people already pay
→ one field
→ the place in line, and how to move up, right after signup
→ a first spike you plan. Robinhood's wasn't planned, but it had a press launch ready
What Robinhood hasn't published: how much each channel brought.
Tenev has pointed to Hacker News, people sharing it on Facebook, and "a clear value proposition".
Referral bumps, press and word of mouth all ran at the same time.
6. The list kept growing for 15 months
→ 160,000 by late Feb 2014
→ almost half a million at the iOS launch in Dec 2014, with invites going out in batches
→ 800,000 invited when it opened to everyone in Mar 2015
The first day's 10,000 were about 1% of that.
5. Sharing moved you up
→ Dec 2013, per TechCrunch: tweeting about Robinhood bumped up your place in line
→ by Feb 2014, the page said each referral improved your spot, with no cap
4. Every signup joined a queue
→ the page offered "a place in line in Robinhood's virtual waiting room"
→ invites went out by position
→ by mid-2014, the screen after signup showed how many were ahead of you and behind you
Tenev says Mailbox's waitlist inspired it.
3. The team wasn't ready
A press launch was already planned. Tenev, recalling the Hacker News day in 2017: "None of the emails are wired up. The website's broken."
The launch went ahead 4 days later, on Dec 18: seed funding news and a TechCrunch story.
2. A stranger posted it to Hacker News
→ it had already leaked to Reddit
→ Sat, Dec 14, 2013: #1 on Hacker News (426 points)
→ co-founder Vlad Tenev on who posted it: "We have absolutely no idea"
→ TechCrunch reported 10,000+ signups in 24 hours
1. The page asked for one thing
Dec 2013, robinhood[.]io:
"The world's $0 commission stock brokerage. Stop paying $10 for every trade."
→ one field: email
→ one button: "Get Early Access"
Robinhood went from a one-field signup page to ~1million people on its waitlist in 15 months.
It took off when a stranger's Hacker News post hit #1, before the team had even wired up its emails.
How it was built:
Making a phone app? Put a QR code next to the App Store badge.
HangUp's homepage does this. Someone reading on a laptop can scan it and install, without searching the store.
Zynga tested game ideas as five-word links that ran for five minutes. Some clicks landed on a page that said "404 not found."
On your own fake door, say plainly it isn't built yet, and give people a place on the list for the click. Then ask what they expected.
Zapier's Wade Foster found forum threads asking for app integrations and said he was working on one, with a link.
Each reply got 10 to 20 visitors; about half, he said, told him they really wanted it.
Without an audience, start there. Check link rules first.
Buffer's first test added a plans page between the landing page and the email field: free, $5 a month or $20 a month. A small number of visitors clicked a paid one.
Show your price before the signup form, so every signup comes from someone who has seen it.
"How many waitlist signups do I need?"
Start from what the launch needs: 10 people on a rough beta is a different target from your first 100 paying customers.
Then read the count next to your visitors. 30 from 60 and 30 from 2,000 need different fixes.
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If your launch was quiet, split the list before you blame demand.
→ didn't open: check spam and the subject line
→ opened, didn't click: was there one clear ask?
→ clicked, didn't buy: look at price and checkout
waitlister.me/growth-hub/gui…
