How to write a launch memo on Starch

A launch memo is the internal document that tells your team — and sometimes your investors or advisors — what you're shipping, why now, why it matters, and what everyone needs to do before and after it goes out. It's not a press release and it's not a project brief. It sits between those two things: enough context that people understand the decision, enough direction that they know what to do next.

Most operators write launch memos reactively — the day before a release, in a Google Doc, from scratch, pulling details from wherever they happen to live. The result is either a wall of text nobody reads or a short email that leaves half the team confused about scope, timing, or ownership.

What this looks like in practice depends on your context. A product launch at a software company, a new service offering at a professional services firm, and a retail rollout each have different stakeholders, different timing pressures, and different definitions of 'done.'

On Starch, you end up with a structured memo — context, decision rationale, go-live date, owner list, and next steps — drafted and stored somewhere your team can actually find it. Relevant project tasks get created automatically. If you're distributing it over email, a draft lands in your outbox ready to send. The memo doesn't live in a forgotten Doc tab; it lives next to the work it's coordinating.