The early phases of supernovae (SNe) reveal very important characteristics of their stellar progenitors and their explosion mechanisms. On the one hand, the shock breakout, which is the first electromagnetic signature occuring when the shock emerges at the surface, carries key information on the structure of the exploding star. Secondly, for core-collapse SNe the rise behaviour is directly related to the properties of the collapsing star while for thermonuclear SNe the unknown companion of the exploding white dwarf can leave an imprint in the first hours to days of the light-curve. We present past and current results of early light-curve studies of different SN types and lay out the exciting landscape that the new high-cadence surveys like the KMTNet Supernova Project (KSP) and the High-cadence Transient Survey (HiTS) will bring along.