RSS and maillist support are nice, but I don't think they add to much value to the proposition. If I am expecting a pre-launch hype, it likely means that I have a marketing budget and therefore I can certainly host temporary landing page myself.
In other words - I'm not sure about the customer acquisition and conversion strategies. I just don't see qualified paying customers between your potential users.
I don't want my potential users to have this kind of experience.
I would have been a potential customer, but no thanks.
However, neither would gojomo's.
Fact of the matter is that customers and investors only see these kinds of expenses in very summary form if at all. So it's generally impossible for them to make a decision based on this kind of information.
On the other hand the total expense picture is always a factor in pricing and investment decisions and this one would play a small part in that.
However, a manager that was spending $1,000 for a launch page he/she could have deployed for free or maybe even $5 a month that manager is probably having problems with other aspects of expense management and this would show up in the final pricing and investment picture.
At this point, on my day job, my time is worth $75 an hour. So, if I can save 6 minutes, I've saved myself $7.50. By spending $5 a month on launchsplash, I've saved myself about $250 worth of my time.
It's not a matter of having to use the service. It's a matter of expediency. The quickest/cheapest way to get from point a to point b for me is to outsource my splash page and email collection right now. It's not a core competency, why not outsource it?
But, you have to understand some of the developers I've worked with over the years. No question they would have that much into before the darn thing worked right.