Early Launch publishes two permanent pages for each launch: a founder interview and a product review. This page explains how both are made, so that a reader can judge them and a founder knows what to expect.
Who writes
One named editor, Zach Bowman, writes and signs every interview and review. A signed page can be questioned and corrected. An unsigned one cannot.
What we cover
We cover products between idea and early traction. We do not cover established companies that are already growing, and we do not rank products against each other on a scoreboard. There are no upvotes and no leaderboard.
What counts as evidence
We use three kinds of evidence, in this order of weight.
- What we can observe directly: the product doing something, a feature present or absent, a price on a page.
- Documents the founder can show.
- Statements we only have the founder’s word for. We label these as the founder’s claims, and we say plainly when we could not check something.
The founder interview
The interview is the founder’s account, in their words, shaped by questions that are specific and slightly uncomfortable: what was thrown away, who actually uses the product, what is still not known. The founder may check the page for factual accuracy. The questions and the final text stay with the editor. Read more in the founder interview, step by step.
The product review
A review follows a fixed order: a short summary, what the product does, who it suits, what works, what does not, claims and evidence, where it sits among alternatives, and the date and author. Every review names weaknesses. The founder can correct facts but does not approve the verdict. A review the subject controls is a press release. Read more in the product review: what we look at and how we write it.
Limits
A review is one author’s view at one moment. It cannot cover every use or every kind of user. We say what we looked at, and we date every page.
Corrections
If a page contains an error, tell us with the correct information and, if you can, a source. We check it and correct the page, and we mark the revision. If a product changes in a way that makes a page misleading, tell us as well.
How free coverage is chosen
Some coverage is free and chosen by the editor. The choice does not depend on which products are paying. The same standards apply to free and paid launches. Read more in how a product gets selected for free coverage.
Interests and AI
Early Launch has commercial interests and uses AI tools in limited ways. Both are stated on the disclosure page.