Labour Pains: What It Really Feels Like to Launch a Product

Everyone’s been asking me the same thing over the past few days:

“Ganesh, how does it feel now that your product is about to launch?”

It’s a fair question. You spend years building something — people assume this must be the proud, celebratory moment.

But to be honest? It doesn’t feel like celebration yet. It feels like labour.

Yes — I told someone this straight: I feel like a pregnant mother in labour.

Sounds odd, I know. But that’s honestly the closest description I could come up with. And if you’ve ever built something that took years of thought, countless rounds of shaping, unshaping, rewriting, obsessing — you’ll probably get what I mean.

The Analogy That Hit Me

Before I dive into that analogy, let me just say this: motherhood is, to me, the most incredible system design in the universe.

The idea that one living being can build another entire living being inside themselves, over time, is mind-blowing. The body doesn’t need constant instructions. The development is automatic. The parts come together. The design calibrates itself. The process is happening even when the mother is asleep.

I’ve always found that miraculous.

I've seen it up close too — I’ve been through two pregnancies as a witness beside my wife. From the first confirmation to the scans to the movements to the final moment when you're holding the baby, it’s a lifetime of emotion compressed into nine months.

And there was one thing I always used to ask her: "How does it feel to have another life inside your body?"

Because I don’t feel my rice, rasam, or sambar inside my stomach. But she could feel a baby kick, stretch, and move. It fascinated me.

Every time the baby moved, she’d call me. “Come, feel this!” And I’d place my hand on her belly in pure amazement. But inside, I also knew — I’ll never understand what this truly feels like.

That’s the blessing (and mystery) of being a mother.

What I Witnessed — And Could Never Experience

Now, bring that back to a product journey.

When an idea gets conceived, there’s a small spark — just like the moment of confirmation in a pregnancy. You don’t fully know what it’ll become yet. But something has begun. From there, it’s a long, intense phase of nurturing.

You shape it. Then reshape it. You feed it the right resources. You see it grow day by day. You do checkups (testing, QA, reviews). You keep asking — is it healthy? Is it maturing the way it should?

Each milestone feels magical:

• First feature coded — it’s alive.

• First internal test passed — it works.

• First customer tried it — they smiled.

Just like how a parent starts seeing baby bumps, then the first heartbeat, the first scan, the first kick.

There’s joy in those moments. The journey is beautiful. But then comes the final stretch.

The Final Stretch — And the Pain Before the Push

In pregnancy, it’s the last month. The body is heavy. The sleep is disturbed. The anxiety kicks in. And then, the labour pains begin.

In a product launch, it’s the final few weeks. Everything gets intense.

• You find a bug late in the cycle

• You don’t like the screen font anymore

• Someone points out a use case you missed

• You redo entire decks

• Your launch invites, your words, your visuals — everything needs precision

The pressure builds. You’re not sleeping properly. You’re anxious about things breaking. You want it to go right. Not because it has to be perfect — but because you know how much went into this.

And if you’re an obsessed builder — the pain is even sharper. Because in your mind, you’ve already seen what this should feel like when it launches. You’ve mentally launched it a hundred times. Now you’re trying to bring that internal vision into the real world.

You’re reviewing every line of copy. Every design. Every button. Every dinner menu. Even the colours on the stage, the name tags, the RSVP link — nothing escapes you.

Just like a mother nesting before delivery — setting up the crib, packing the hospital bag, choosing baby clothes — you’re prepping everything, down to the last inch.

Because the world is about to see something… that only you have felt until now.

What I’m Feeling Now

When my wife went into labour, I was there. I saw it. I stood beside her. I held her hand. But I also knew — I could only witness, not experience.

They say the pain of labour is equivalent to hundreds of bones breaking at once. I believe it. I saw it. And I respected it.

Now, I’m not trying to glorify product launches. But if you're a founder or creator who’s been through the final days before a big release — you’ll know this feeling.

It’s not about the feature list. It’s not even about the launch event. It’s about bringing something into the world that was invisible before. Something you believed in before anyone else did.

And just like childbirth, you can’t skip the final pain. You have to go through it.

You hope it all goes smooth. You want the world to receive it well. You want the baby to be healthy. You want to look back and say — it was worth it.

That’s where I am right now. Labour pains.

I just pray this one ends in a happy delivery.

— Ganesh