Prelaunch is changing the status quo of product launches. Instead of relying on surveys or focus groups, the platform asks real people to put down small deposits before a product even exists. It’s a simple move that separates curiosity from true demand. For founder Narek Vardanyan, the idea came from years spent watching companies pour money into launches that failed. He wanted a system that makes sure real customer demand comes before any costly development.
Founded in 2022, Prelaunch raised $1.5 million in seed funding to build its validation platform. After years of watching well-marketed products flop, Vardanyan thought startups should know whether a product will resonate with real customers before building a prototype, setting up an e-commerce page, or pouring money into production.
And there’s good reason. In product development, failure is often accepted as part of the process. Research from Harvard Business School (HBS) shows that roughly one-third of startups fail in part because expectations about demand are wrong. HBS Professor Clayton Christensen suggested as many as 95% of new product launches miss the mark. And across industries, other studies indicate that around 70% of product launches fall short of revenue or market share goals, often because real customer demand wasn’t “validated beforehand.”
“It was so frustrating,” Vardanyan told 3DPrint.com during a recent interview. “We’d work with these startups and big brands, spend a year planning their launches, do everything right on the marketing side, and then, six months later, the product would disappear from the market.”
That kind of failure isn’t limited to apps or consumer gadgets. Prelaunch has also worked with application-driven 3D printing startups.
Prelaunch’s platform.
From Agency Work to Innovation Science
Prelaunch was born out of necessity. Vardanyan’s team had been running a marketing agency focused on product launches. Over time, he began to see a pattern emerge: even high-budget campaigns backed by glowing market research failed to generate long-term interest. So they started digging.
What they found was a broken system. Companies were relying on focus groups, surveys, and expert panels, but all of these methods rewarded “polite feedback” and “theoretical opinions” rather than actual buyer behavior.
“Basically, companies were paying people to tell them what they wanted to hear,” Vardanyan explained. “But those people weren’t real customers. And they had no skin in the game. That’s where Prelaunch flips the model. Instead of asking people if they might buy something, it asks them to put down a small, refundable deposit, often as little as $10 or $20. That’s when the signal becomes real. It’s controversial, but it works. If someone is willing to pay to reserve your product before it exists, that’s the best kind of validation.”
Prelaunch’s platform.
The Werlot Case
One of the latest projects on Prelaunch is Werlot, a modular, 3D printable watch display and winder. It’s designed for a niche but passionate audience of collectors and makers who want to customize their own gear at home.
“3D printing is one of our favorite categories,” said Vardanyan. “There’s a real community spirit. These are people who care deeply about features, precision, and materials. They push companies to innovate.”
In Werlot’s case, that innovation wasn’t just about product design; it was about collaboration. Once customers placed their deposits, they were invited into what Prelaunch calls a co-creation process. They provided feedback on everything from materials to dimensions to desired features.
“People were saying things like, ‘I want it to be this many millimeters wider,’ or ‘I want it stackable on my desk,’” Vardanyan said. “This is gold for companies. It’s not a guess, it’s direct data from real users who actually want to buy the thing.”
Werlot’s 3D printable watch display.
Faster Feedback, Smarter Launches
The Werlot project went from idea to validated product in just two months, a timeline that would be considered unthinkable using traditional research methods. Prelaunch tracked behavioral data from over 10,000 visitors, tested messaging and price points, and helped Werlot shape a launch strategy with a built-in customer base.
Prelaunch’s customer input.
Even more impressively, regional interest data, broken down by country, city, and even neighborhood, showed where demand was strongest. In Werlot’s case, the U.S. market came out on top, but Prelaunch often spots unexpected trends.
“We’ve seen bizarre but amazing insights. Like discovering that people in the Netherlands were buying a home gardening product to feed their guinea pigs, because fresh pet food was too expensive. Or that fishing hobbyists were really into indoor herb gardens.”
Werlot 3D prints its watch displays.
A Future for B2B and Industrial AM?
While Prelaunch is best known for its work with consumer products, including big names like Ducati, Philips, and Procter & Gamble, it’s expanding into industrial applications as well.
“This model can scale to more complex and even industrial 3D printing products,” he noted. “We’re testing B2B scenarios now, like one project with Bosch, where we validate tech with end users, and Bosch uses that data to design for their downstream partners. Even in scenarios where there’s no e-commerce checkout, there’s still a need to test reactions, measure intent, and surface unmet needs early in the process. You might not get a deposit, but you can still see who’s subscribing, what they’re engaging with, and what features they care about. It’s still behavioral data.”
Werlot’s 3D printable watch display.
3D printing is now being used in more applications than ever before, some of them so new that startups are testing uncharted waters. That’s why understanding what people really need has become crucial, and as Vardanyan says, the “best innovations come not from assumptions or surveys, but from real, nuanced human behavior.”
“It’s all about the why,” concluded Vardanyan. “People can’t always explain it. But if you follow the data, you can uncover the pattern behind the behavior. Prelaunch doesn’t just help companies avoid failure; it helps them build things that should exist in the first place. And in an industry where too many good ideas never make it past the prototyping stage, that might be the biggest innovation of all.”
Images courtesy of Prelaunch