Don’t want your product to start immediately, but instead to have it start somewhat in the future?

Setting a start date allow customers to purchase your product now but only gain access at a later date.

Introduction

Setting up a start date can be helpful in a few different scenarios:

You’d like to pre-sell your product and allow customers to pay for it before the launch date.
You’d like to have all of your customers start your product at exactly the same time.
You’d like to run your product multiple times per year (and have these different cohorts start together with every new start date).

With this feature, your customers will be charged immediately after they purchase.

⚠️ This is different from our waitlist option, which only collects email addresses of people interested in buying your product when it launches.

Setting up a start date for your products

Here's how to set a start date for your products:

From your Podia dashboard, click on Products in the sidebar menu.
Click the Edit button next to the product you’d like to set a start date!
Go to your product’s Availability tab and scroll down to the Limits section. Click on "Edit" next to the Start date field.
Select the "Starts on future date" option and set up a start date for your product.
Once you’re done, hit "Save" to save your start date.

Pro tip: You can have these start dates displayed on your site pages if you want!

Add a Products, Table of contents, Featured, or Banner section to your pages, click to edit, and control it using the left-hand menu:

Viewing past start dates

Once your start date has passed, you can add a new start date if you’d like to run your product for another group/cohort of customers in the future.

As you add new ones, past start dates will show up directly from the start date menu, allowing you to view how many people signed up for each of these dates.

Giving customers early access

If you want certain customers to get access before your product's start date, you can give them early access.

Here's how to give specific customers early access:

From your Podia dashboard, click on Products in the sidebar menu.
Next, click on the name of the product you want to give customers early access to.
Locate or search for the customer you'd like to give early access to.
Click on "..." next to the customer name and select "Give early access".
You'll see a confirmation message saying they've been granted early access.

Important: Granting early access to a customer won't impact its delay schedule.

Delays you have set up for your course will still take the original start date into consideration.

Understanding the customer experience

Customers who register for products with a start date can see these products in their customer dashboard, but they won't have access until later.

They will be able to see the specific date when the product will become available.

Podia does not automatically send an email when the product is made available to customers, so you might consider scheduling an email broadcast if you want to communicate to your customers that your product is available.

FAQs

Do I need to publish my product so the start date works?

Yes! If you want people to be able to purchase your product and get access on the start date, you'll need to publish the product.

Can I add another start date?

Yes, once your start date has passed, you can add a new start date if you’d like to run your product for another group/cohort of customers in the future.

What happens if I remove a start date?

You can remove a start date (and give everyone access immediately) by selecting “Remove” anytime before the start date passes.

If you do this, anyone who enrolls in your product will get immediate access, and anyone who has already enrolled before the start date will get access.

Do drips/delays start based on a course start date?

Yes! If your product is an online course with drip content, the delayed content won't start until the start date.

Once the start date has passed, delays will get back triggering based on each customer's enrollment date.

How do start dates work with products with subscription pricing?

If you’re selling a subscription-based product with a future start date, here’s what to expect.

Customers will be charged as soon as they purchase, but access to the product will begin on the start date you’ve set. The subscription will continue to renew based on their purchase date—not the access date.