[mountaineer]

I think in general the "you never get a second chance to make a first impression" attitude by startups is overblown. It's a big world out there. That's not to say you should launch something that sucks, but get it out there if it's interesting.

[crenshaw]

This depends. For most startups what you say is true. You can launch 5 times and most wouldn't notice. But for a startup with a lot of press, a bad launch can hurt momentum (I'd think). Look at Color.

[spolsky]

or Cuil. Or Apple Ping, or Google Wave, or Google Buzz.

[mountaineer]

Ok, so if you're a big name, big brand, or have invested big money in a product you may not a get much of a second chance (be it from customers or investors/managers).

But, for the rest of us nobodies, there will be other opportunities for news and first impressions as we trudge along. I launched my first app in 2005 to no press, just a couple of blog posts. It was almost dead, then NY Times writes about it 3 months later while covering the topic (Personal Finance). Every few months a another press mention would popup out of the blue and 5 years later when it got its second NY Times coverage a whole new batch of people discovered it. Of course, I no longer own or work on it, and I'm still "working for the man" so what do I know?

[smackfu]

Yeah, honestly, a lot of these sites are so low profile that your "launch date" is whatever date you tell the reporter you are talking to at the moment.