Launch without monetizing first?
Hi!
I came across this problem when scheduling meetings over the email in different timezones so I quickly built an MVP in literally one day. It's a Google Chrome extension where you can set some emails and their timezones, and using the extension you can automatically convert to the other one's timezone.
I want to monetize with a subscription model based on the number of email-timezone combination you want.
The thing is I was really hyped when I built it. Then found out that I cannot use Google Web Payments because Romania is not on the supported countries yet. So I have to build a simple Ruby on Rails app with a login/signup and wait for BrainTree to allow me to make payments with them...
The whole process is slowed down because I'm also working on my Bachelor's thesis.
What would you do? Should I simply launch without monetizing first? (Maybe add a buy me a coffee or smth)
TL;DR Built this timezone converter chrome extension but it is hard to add the monetization part now and also more expensive (domain, hosting etc). Should I simply launch without that, get people on a subscription list and then use that to monetize and also validate the idea?
Thanks,
Cosmin
Update: Thanks for helping me with this. I'll prepare the landing page, make some adjustments and launch next week.
Launch without monetizing is important to get the feedback and need of people. It also helps in analysing interest of people or user group.
It's a great apporach.
Launch now! If you get a bunch of users, you could even grandfather them in with "free lifetime access". Then use their social proof to charge for the next batch of customers who find your product and want to give it a try.
Good luck!
Definitely launch before monetizing. If you get 100 users then you should start to think about doing a proper V1. Then you can test and measure from your users what they are willing to pay.
I'd say launch it, get feedback from your users, monetize afterwards - or perhaps sell it directly? :)
I launched a Chrome extension recently for free which will later become paid. I think it's a great approach personally. You'll get lots of feedback from people using the paid features and it gives you time to gather reviews and testimonials to use for marketing. If you go paid from the start, you're going to have less downloads, reviews and users, so people are going to be more cautious about trying it out.
I made sure to write "free while in beta" on the website, store description and in the extension. I was worried people wouldn't understand this and be annoyed when I switched it to a free and paid model but from the feedback I've got people seem fine with it.
Send me a message if you want to discuss approaches to logins/payments as I agree this is an annoying roadblock. I could have used Google's payment system but I want to support Firefox as well so have to do something custom.
Curious, what's the extension? Haven't seen that many pay-to-use chrome extensions
I've not started charging but you can find out more here: https://www.checkbot.io/
I would love to hear more about how you went about monitzing your extension.
I've not started charging but you can find out more here: https://www.checkbot.io/
Launch! The benefit of launching now is you'll be able to learn from user feedback. You can start charging when you've built a better rails app with features that you've validated from your "MVP".
Perhaps you can offer a discounted price to your previous users to get them to switch to paid later.
That's the route I would go. If the service costs nothing to run, collect emails and simply use it as an audience to market your next related project.