[ultimatejman]

No, this is probably the only thing they did right. Getting early traction is important for many reasons.

- It gives you an opportunity to get early feedback from people interested in your product. If you can get an email you can talk to your users. - It gives you some early KPIs and a limited, but important understanding of acquisition channels. If you can't find any one who is interested in your product as a concept, how will you get users? - It motivates companies to get products out earlier. - It helps when talking to investors to mention that you have 1,000 people on a waiting list.

I agree though, you always need to get the product to market.

[rjbwork]

I get your point, but I think that if you're consumer focused, and your app doesn't actually do it's core function when you start drumming up hype, you're screwed. Consumers have a low attention span and want instant gratification. You may only have that once chance to get them hooked, and a beta sign up list has pretty low engagement rates. If they hear about the hype, find a beta sign up page, and bounce, you've lost them.