Building my first real “big” project and as I near the end, I’m realizing I don’t have many things prepared for launch. How important is a ToS and privacy policy? Should I require the checkbox that says they agree to the ToS and PP? I don’t use cookies besides whatever next.js creates to run and the user’s session data. I don’t have an admin page to manage users either. If I had to look a user up, it would be directly in the database. I’m just overwhelmed. I want to launch in early Q2 and it feels like even after MVP (which is not done yet) I still have loads of administrative work to do. Anyone have an article that outlines what you should have for a web app with a user base? Any help would be appreciated.
ehhh, depends on what you’re doing. I’ve worked with many many many companies to launch MVPs and unless you have been cultivating marketing what usually happens on day 1 is …nothing.
That’s when the real work begins.
@Maris
I’ll also say every single CEO (dozens and dozens) all thought things were going to crazy on day one. I only remember 2 times when we saw anything to celebrate. Most projects launch soft and take awhile to grow.
@Maris
For sure this, but I’ve always thought it’s best you build like 1000 users will sign up day 1
My last project, we had quad digit signups week 1 so it really was a good job we had everything sorted ahead of time.
@Drew
If I can even get 100 users in week 1 that would be a huge win for me. It’s a free service for a niche community so I’m hoping they will be excited for a new platform in their space.
10000% make sure you have TOS and privacy policy in place, make sure they are accessible. They can be done fairly cheaply these days. If you’re expecting to need to look at user data a backend admin panel with even just a table and search filter will save you a lot of hassle. If you’re able to, take the time to set up a tool like Sentry, it will help you find bugs and errors on launch and can give your users an easy way to send you bug reports.
Make sure your CI/CD pipeline is set up and you can make changes rapidly. Aim to get the site to a stable point and then from that point on don’t push directly to your main branch, instead always work from a dev branch and push to a staging branch which can be used to preview prod builds before you push live. The last thing you want is to break something with users trying to actually use the site.
There is probably a lot more but this is what comes to mind.
@Drew
Thanks for the info! You make a good point about the CI/CD pipeline. I’ve never actually set one up. Going to look into that. For an admin panel, what would you recommend in terms of where it’s located in the app? Should I create a subdomain like admin.domain.com and create a small SPA to manage users or just have a portal at something like domain.com/admin-portal? Sounds like additional cost to me, but I really want this to look and feel “professional.”
@Kai
Unless you’re doing some crazy backend stuff you’re gonna be much better off keeping it in the same app. Just a /admin route or something like that with a middleware to protect it and it’s subroutes will do you perfectly fine.
Launch your app within two months of development. More than that is a waste of time. Idc what it is
You should’ve probably launched by now
Your app will never be ready on MVP. Launch, work out the kinks, figure what is buggy or should improve.
Run through a few scenarios with what you have and see how easy it is to solve the various problems with users and some of the legal stuff that you’ve outlined.
Doing that will tell you how much you want to add those features.
Use GPT to write a basic privacy policy & TOS for now. Also, as long as you do not process payments, you shouldn’t stress too much about the TOS… Once you start integrating payments, banks will review & correct your privacy policy, refund policy & TOS anyway.
@Hollis
This really does depend on the app. A small project, sure GPT it, but if it’s something “big” then it’s worth starting it right. It can be done for like £50 online.
Drew said:
@Hollis
This really does depend on the app. A small project, sure GPT it, but if it’s something “big” then it’s worth starting it right. It can be done for like £50 online.
Yes on high ticket sales (1k+) a lawyer is useful. Those tools use templates or even AI as well and don’t take any legal responsibility anyway. So it’s a wasted 50 USD imo. Our TOS’s are for PCI DSS audited sites that are charging 1k cards each month per site & we’ve never had an issue with them.
@Hollis
£50 in the grand scheme of a company is absolute nothing imo, plus I’m not talking about AI tools I’m talking about using a company like SeedLegals who have actual law experts who review all the contracts including Privacy Policy and Terms of Service. Again for such a small price it really doesn’t seem that big a deal, and is something we factor into the cost of any project we deploy like this.
@Drew
I agree £50 isn’t much for an operating business, but it can be for a startup. Anyway, I reviewed their terms & they offer 0 guarantee/take 0 responsibility… If you really need a TOS for a risky and/or high ticket sales business, you’re better off imo to spend x.xxx on an actual lawyer than on a platform like SeedLegals.
@Hollis
I have Stripe integration that can accept payments, but it’s not mandatory for signing up. Skeptical about trusting ChatGPT, but I don’t have funds for lawyers so this will have to be the way for now.
@Kai
Ahh I see. I only have experience in high risk processing, which is very strict. In high risk processing banks review your TOS letter by letter & request the most ridiculous changes. What we did was copy a TOS of a competitor, asked GPT to rewrite it using our country/state laws, then adjusted it a bit here & there and the bank did the final revisions. I wouldn’t use a lawyer to set up a TOS unless your service is very high ticket sales or people’s lives are at danger, else you’re just wasting money on lawyers. Good luck mate!!