Give the product away free to get first customers/feedback quicker?

AAnonymous ·April 5, 2014 ·4 answers

I am working on a SaaS product for businesses. We have a full MVP.

We need early adopters / beta testers urgently.

We have a client who wants to pay us but is dragging their feet.

Should I give it away for *free to get them (and others) on board quicker? In doing so, risk losing revenue yet get valuable feedback quicker.

*definition of free is a 95% credit back on the full product cost if they hold up their end of the bargain. Conditions are:

– provide regular feedback / become test account
– become a reference / referrer account for us to earn more business
– get us a meeting with their chairman at the conclusion of test period so we can extend an offer to join our advisory board (ie be the FIRST on it)

Thoughts?

4 answers from the community

AAnonymous· Apr 5, 2014

"get us a meeting with their chairman at the conclusion of test period so we can extend an offer to join our advisory board (ie be the FIRST on it)"

Can't imagine that any company would agree to this. First I would research how other SAAS startups got their first customers and emulate. I'm guessing most had a beta period where they allowed prospective clients to test their product and then they used that to find paying clients. After you get paying clients, you go back to your beta testers, thank them for their help and feedback, and then show them your pricing.

AAnonymous· Apr 5, 2014

Why are you asking folks on this site? Shouldn't you be asking potential customers this? Nothing is stopping your from tailoring your offering. Just try different value propositions with different potential customers.

AAnonymous· Apr 5, 2014

Why not a freemium model. Give them some of the features for free, but if they want all of the features they have to upgrade to the paid version.

AAnonymous· Apr 5, 2014

If you can't get someone to pay now, chances are you never will.

Give the product away free to get first customers/feedback quicker?

4 answers from the community

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