You can’t run a successful business without earning some kind of income.

One option is to delay revenue and put yourself in a constant cycle of acquiring funds. This will dilute your equity, control and take your focus away from what matters the most - the product.

The other is to create a functional product and have it generate revenue from the start. This will let your users fund your progress based on the value they are receiving and give you a sense of the actual market response.

New startup founders might feel that their product isn’t good enough to justify charging people money, but ironically, it’s having to pay for something which makes people value something more. A free product with ads or too much promotion is generally perceived as lower quality.

As you start earning revenue, the market validation in the form of direct income will motivate you to improve your product. This will let you provide even further value to your customers and spark a feedback loop of continuous positive change.

The price itself can be subjective. You can either look at similar products to see what customers are willing to pay or set a price you feel is appropriate and adjust it based on user feedback.

There is a balancing act here, pricing too low can discount your brand, and too high can cost you sales. However, this can change over time and doesn’t need to be a permanent decision. You can also run promotions to get a sense of the best price users are willing to pay.

In the spirit of following my own advice, Startup Flyby will now be offering a premium subscription. You can subscribe directly to access upcoming premium-only posts and help support firing my positive feedback loops. This will allow the publication to improve and evolve into its true potential.

The price is currently set at $2.5 per month (paid annually) or $5 a month (paid monthly). Both equivalent to the price of a coffee, depending on your preferred style of beverage.

This might change over time or based on user feedback so let me know if you have any thoughts in the comments below.

For a limited time, early subscribers will also get 20% off forever on the annual plan.

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No Pressure, and thank you for reading! :)