Ok, I’ll bite the bullet.
I’ve been staying away from freemium or free plans for Metronome. Partly because I’m a solo founder with not enough time to handle many customer questions, and partly as I’d rather focus on people who really want the product.
It’s been three months since I launched this. Perhaps it’s time to take a different approach: make a stripped-down, free version available and try to upsell a paid plan to them.
Talk me out of it?
I'd say I would never give away $20 without trying out that thing. But I hate freemiums so I'd suggest a free trial.
Freemiums, IMO, are OK if you sell stuff that is mostly free: mobile apps, desktop utilities, stuff like this. Your product is more B2B, I think people would pay money for this if they clearly see the value.
Also, I wouldn't place the price above the folder, but maybe it's just me. I'd prefer getting hooked on features before learning the price.
Do you have any users at the moment?
If you don't have any users yet, why don't you give it for free to a select few to gather feedback and possibly obtain testimonials?
You probably shouldn't say that on your site though. You don't want to create the impression that your product is free.
If you already have some free users and the problem is traction, even then I don't think freemium is the solution.
Have you tried selling this one by one (no marketing, just sales)?
@gabriel4649 yup I have users, am actively servicing them too.
The 1-to-1 sales approach is what I’ve been doing; but my (severely!) limited time is divided between coding and sales, and manually reaching out to users are proving to be a bit.. slow 😅
@FaizMetronome its a slow grind, but it seems like you are doing well.
Just keep at it!
Slowly but surely word of mouth and other forms of leverage will start giving you dividends.
Perhaps once you have a certain level of traction you can start thinking of finding a co-founder to speed things up.
I don't know the business side of things, but as a consumer--freemium sucks. Nowadays when I see a "freemium product" (you know what i'm talking about if you've seen some of the IOS garbage) I leave. No questions asked.
It really depends on the kind of product you're doing and what is important to you (quick traction to help raise funds and expand or keep it small and more control).
You could consider a free version until you hit certain usage which is very common these days or a free trial for 14 days. I wouldn't offer more than 14 days since it will make your sale cycle long and enough to hit the aha moment.
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