- Steven Cravotta
- Posts
- Stop being scared to charge for your app
Stop being scared to charge for your app
Hey there,
For the first few weeks after launching PuffCount, I didn't charge a single dollar.
Downloads were coming in. People were using it.
But I kept telling myself the same thing most founders tell themselves:
It's not ready yet, not good enough. Let me add one more thing before I start charging.
That feeling is completely normal and every founder I've talked to has felt it.
But here's what this mindset was doing:
I was training users to expect the app for free.
Every user who downloaded PuffCount for free, I'd have to convince them to pay later.
And if you ever worked in sales you know:
Convincing someone to pay for something they've already been getting for free is the hardest sale.
I see this same pattern every week in my accelerator.
Founders who haven't charged a single dollar because they're waiting for “the perfect time”.
By the time they add a paywall, the free users are already trained.
The conversion rate is terrible and they can't figure out why.
When I put a price on PuffCount and made users commit to a free trial, I finally started adding serious MRR.
Users who paid committed to the app from the start.
They came back daily, tracked their progress, and actually tried to solve their problem.
The founders in my accelerator who charge from day one hit $1-10k MRR faster than the ones who wait.
Every free user you add today is a conversion problem you're creating for tomorrow.
Peace,
Steven