How to Launch Your Startup THIS Weekend (No Excuses)
Featured Author: Sepehr Khosravi
How to Launch Your Startup THIS Weekend (No Excuses)
I taught an award-winning course at UC Berkeley on how to launch startups. Last semester, we had 21 products launched in just 14 weeks.
Too many people overthink instead of taking action. They spend months perfecting an idea, only to realize no one actually wants it.
Let’s fix that.
In under 5 minutes, I’m going to give you:
✅ A summary of the most import parts from the course.
✅ A step-by-step plan to launch your startup this weekend.
✅ Access to a community of weekend builders to hold you accountable
Before We Get Into It – One Important Truth
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, recently said that if he could, he’d take back all the startup advice he ever gave.
Why? Because there’s really only one piece of advice that matters:
Build something people want.
That’s it.
What you’ll read below is a proven framework, BUT it’s not the only way to succeed. I don’t care if you scrap all of it. I don’t care if you do none of it.
But what I do care about?
That you START.
Too many people sit on ideas, overthink, and never take action. Guides like this help eliminate that hesitation—they give you a direction, a starting point, and a clear next step so you can stop thinking and start doing.
By far the worst thing you can do. Is do NOTHING.
Step 1: Figure Out What to Build
If you don’t know what to build… 🤔
- Follow your passion. Choose an area you’re genuinely excited about—you’ll be living here for years. Think about problems you’ve encountered.
- Be a painkiller, not a vitamin. Focus on solving real headaches people would pay to eliminate, not just nice-to-have improvements.
- Look online for complaints. Twitter and Reddit are gold mines for finding people venting about frustrations waiting for a fix.
DON’T start with a solution. Bad Example: “Wouldn’t it be awesome to have a button that automatically orders pizza?” …Why? Can you not call them yourself? Is this really a pressing problem? This idea already failed in 2015
Talk to people. Talk to at least a few others who might have this same problem. Ask open-ended questions about the problem. Don’t pitch your solution—just listen.
📌 Tip: Read The Mom Test to learn how to interview customer properly or at least ask ChatGPT for a summary.
Step 2: Plan It Out (But Don’t Overthink It)
Brain dump every idea or feature. Now cut 90% of it. Your first product launch should have only 1-2 core features—the ones you can’t live without.
Why? The goal is to ship something fast and see if people actually use it. You can add the rest later.
Example:
✅ Good Launch: App that records your workout using short voice notes.
❌ Bad Launch: Full fitness tracker with workouts, nutrition, sleep tracking, social sharing, heart rate monitoring, and AI-generated coaching.
Step 3: Build an MVP using Lovable
You don’t need a perfect product—you just need something good enough to see if people actually want it.
With AI-powered no-code tools like Lovable, you can build a working prototype in a single day. No coding experience required. Just plain English.
If you are feeling stuck? Check out my livestream recording, where we build a product live together.
My first time trying it out, without writing any lines of code. I built this AI couples therapy app in ~6 hours.
Step 4: Tell People About It Without Feeling Icky
You’re gonna start by reaching out to your warm leads. This just means anyone that knows you exist. You can text, Instagram DM, email, use MySpace. Doesn’t matter.
“But it feels icky to reach out to people selling my app.” I understand that concern—and you’re right. Don’t directly sell to them.
You’re not going to ask them to buy anything. You’re going to ask them if they know anyone who has X problem that you’re solving, and would want to try out your product for FREE.
📩 Example Outreach Message:
“Hey [Name], I’ve been working on a tool that helps [solve X problem]. Do you know anyone struggling with this who might want to try it for free?”
📌 Pro Tip: Read $100M Leads by Alex Hormozi for a masterclass in launching and selling.
Step 5: Rinse & Repeat
Now, see if people actually like your product. If they don’t? Find out why, pivot, and try again.
Keep repeating until you find product-market fit—a group of people who LOVE what you built.
Final Words: Just Start. No Excuses.
I don’t care if you follow this guide perfectly.
I don’t care if you throw the whole thing away.
But what I do care about?
That you START.
Building Community
🚀 If you struggle with accountability and want people to build alongside you, I host a small weekend builders group where we spend 4 hours each weekend in a virtual coworking space, building out our ideas.
We have room for a few more people—if you’re serious about building, DM me on LinkedIn, and we can see if it’s a good fit.
Weekend Startup Launch Action Plan
💡Friday: Picking a Problem
- ☐ Write down every frustration you personally experience throughout the week.
- ☐ Jot down a few areas you’re interested in or have skills in.
- ☐ Brainstorm problems you’ve seen in the industry.
- ☐ Narrow your list down to 3 problems.
- ☐ Search online (Reddit, Twitter, forums) to see if others have the same issue.
- ☐ Talk to at least 3 people who share the problem.
- ☐ Ask for 10 minutes of their time to chat.
- ☐ Read a summary of The Mom Test to learn how to ask the right questions.
- ☐ Listen, don’t pitch. Gather real insights.
- ☐ Repeat this process until you find a problem that sticks.
🔨 Saturday: Build Day
- ☐ Brainstorm solutions.
- ☐ Jot down everything that comes to mind.
- ☐ Cut it down to 1-2 core features. No fluff.
- ☐ Start building with AI.
- ☐ Go to Lovable.dev and start coding in plain English.
- ☐ Checkout my live building session recording if you’re lost
- ☐ Commit to finishing the MVP.
- ☐ Grab some coffee ☕, stay at your desk until it’s done.
🚀 Sunday: Launch Day
- ☐ Write an outreach message.
- ☐ Reach out to at least 30 warm leads.
- ☐ Get at least 10 people to try your product and give feedback.
- ☐ Identify what needs work and go back to Lovable to fix it.
- ☐ Rinse & repeat. Build, iterate, improve.