10+ products, $0 revenue. What my one loyal user taught me about pricing.
I've shipped over ten products as a solo founder with a full-time job. Combined revenue is close enough to zero that I'll just say zero.
The latest one is Meerkat, an AI prompt tool. In September I stopped guessing and looked at the data. The coworkers I'd given free access to used it once and disappeared. The only person who stuck around was a stranger who'd used it pretty much weekly since June.
So I emailed him. Three things he told me changed my plans:
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He hit my paywall and never noticed it. The upgrade only showed up if you tried to save an 11th prompt. He never tried, because he kept his prompts in Obsidian. I was charging for the wrong thing.
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He'd pay "without thinking" for Meerkat inside ChatGPT, where he already works. That's in review now.
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He couldn't name a single time it fell short. I'd built something useful and then hidden the value from everyone.
What I changed: the paywall now meters runs, not storage. I added a founding price. And I stopped building features until someone pays.
I've given myself until October 22. If paying users are still at zero, it goes into maintenance mode with no guilt. I'll post the result either way.
What would you have done differently?
One loyal user paying is a clearer pricing signal than ten products with zero. I'd ask that person what almost made them not buy, then price the next thing around removing that objection, not around how many hours you sunk into the other nine.
Metering the action people actually hesitate on (runs) instead of the inert resource (storage) is the whole lesson. Storage feels abstract until it's full; a run is a decision. Founding pricing plus "stop building until someone pays" is harsh and usually correct after product #10. The loyal user wasn't asking for more features — they were telling you where the willingness-to-pay moment lives.
Here's the link to the tool: https://getmeerkat.dev/roast
It's the free part, no signup. Paste a prompt you're using (custom GPT instructions, a system prompt, whatever) and it tells you what's missing and gives you a rebuilt version. If it gets yours wrong, tell me here. That's more useful to me than if it gets it right.