We're going to charge for our product

Time to learn faster. And get paid.

because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills,
because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept,
one we are unwilling to postpone

John F. Kennedy - Man On The Moon speech

We’re taking the plunge with EnVsion. In July 2022, we’re introducing pricing plans for the first time in our rocky history. To be perfectly candid, I feel a little squeamish about this big move, and a tidbit terrified.

Charging for the product is something Stathis and I obviously discussed in the past, but delayed incessantly. Being a bit too perfectionists at times, we feared the product was not good enough to charge money for. Evidently, we also fell prey to the “one more feature” fallacy - the belief that shipping that extra feature we conjured up would miraculously flip the tide in our favour.

But we’re done believing in feature fairytales.

The truth is, what we’ve been building and shipped months ago is way more than a MVP. It’s way more than what we should have gone out with initially. I reckon the product we should have started with ought to be simpler. And our current product probably needs further simplifying.

But our decision is made. Our resolve is firm. We are going to charge for our product. We are going to enter the SaaS league for real now.

Besides, we believe that charging for our product will act as forcing function to help us focus on the things that matter to our customers.

Additionally, having a paid product out there will accelerate our learnings because we will find out in a much more objective way:

• what current customers like about our product and want to see more of

• why some users are unwilling to pay for the product - what is lacking, and whether they are the type of prospects we should pursue in the future

There is certainly some healthy apprehension at the dawn of our pricing days, but I feel this cannot be a bad thing. It will bring us closer to the truth and turn EnVsion from just a product to a business.

Wish us luck, and MRR.

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Thanks for reading this post! I share my learnings and progress while building my startup EnVsion! EnVsion helps UX researchers & founders to create clips of key moments in user interview videos in seconds!

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