300+ waitlist signups, launched March 12... and only 3 paying users. Where is our GTM failing?

Hey everyone,

I'm building initdesk (initdesk.com), an AI-native help desk for lean teams and solo founders. We are a 2-person team, and we've been building this because we were frustrated with the per-seat pricing models of traditional help desks (like Zendesk or Help Scout) that punish you for growing your team.

We had what felt like a solid pre-launch phase. We collected over 300 emails on our waitlist. People seemed genuinely excited about the premise: a shared inbox with AI-drafted replies, auto-tagging, and a "Bring Your Own Data" (BYOD) feature that lets you connect your backend API to show customer data right next to the ticket. All starting at $3.49/mo based on ticket volume, with unlimited users.

We officially launched on March 12. We emailed the waitlist. We got traffic. People signed up and tested the product.

The result? Only 3 paying users.

I'm trying to be brutally honest with myself to figure out where the bottleneck is, and I'd love the community's perspective. Here are my current hypotheses:

1. The Activation Problem (Time-to-Value is too long)
   Our BYOD feature is powerful, but it requires connecting an API endpoint. Even just setting up the shared inbox requires forwarding emails. Are users signing up, seeing the setup required, and bouncing before they experience the "Aha!" moment of the AI drafting a perfect reply? Should we build a sandbox/demo mode with fake data first?

2. The Pricing Perception (Is it too cheap?)
   We start at $3.49/mo for up to 100 tickets. We wanted to make it a no-brainer for indie hackers and early-stage startups. But in the B2B SaaS world, does a $3.49 price tag signal "low quality" or "unreliable" when competitors charge $30+/user? Are we shooting ourselves in the foot by not charging more?

3. The "No Per-Seat Pricing" Messaging
   We lean heavily into "no per-seat pricing" as our main differentiator. But maybe early-stage founders (our current ICP) don't care about per-seat pricing yet because they are solo or only have a team of two? Maybe this messaging only resonates with larger teams, but larger teams won't buy from a 2-person startup?

4. The GTM Channel Mismatch
   We've been running a small Google Ads campaign ($200/mo), which I now realize is probably just burning money in the highly competitive help desk space. We are shifting to founder-led outbound and organic channels, but maybe we are just targeting the wrong people entirely.

If you've built a B2B SaaS, especially in a crowded market, how did you diagnose your early activation/conversion issues?

If you look at our landing page (initdesk.com), what is the immediate red flag that would stop you from converting?

Any harsh feedback is welcome. We are ready to pivot our messaging, onboarding, or pricing—we just need to figure out which lever to pull first.

Thanks for reading.