• Subscribe
  • 10 things I learned from running a lifetime deal for our beta version

    Muntasir Rashid
    4 replies
    We just ended our beta and one time offer yesterday and moving forward with monthly and annual subscription. During our 6 months beta period: - we have acquired 1333 customers - generated $146,000 revenue - reached $250 MRR - collected 70 capterra reviews(4.7/5) - received 500 customer feedbacks - released 4 major updates in our platform - rejected an acquisition offer from a Series A YC company. We are currently at $250 MRR with 8 customers and trying to find a better sense of product market fit. We are in a slightly crowded market with a very unique vision to become the Hubspot for content marketing. Our tech is promising and we have figured out multiple use cases in the same niche. 10 things I learned from running a lifetime deal for our beta version: 1. traditional helpdesks are obsolete, users want instant answer. Live chat is a must. 2. users want to help you build a better product, start a community. 3. early adopters are the best pre-seed investors. 4. feedbacks are everywhere. Collect as many as possible and reflect that in your product. 5. internet communities are the best place to hangout during your early startup days. 6. you can always build a better b2c version of your competitor's b2b feature. 7. early customers help your team learn accountability and process. 8. the best timing for launching on PH was last Tuesday and the 2nd best timing is now. 9. BetaList is 10X powerful than any other communities. 10. launching is better than planning. What's your experience with running a lifetime deal?

    Replies

    Raouf REMIDAN
    Thanks, @muntasir_rashid this is very insightful! We are experimenting with something pretty similar with Lyfpit.com as we are giving a 1-year free upgrade to the early adopter, we had many doubts regarding the price perception of the app if it's given for free for too long. I would be highly interested to know your conversion rate afterward and also did you used the free or paid plan for Betalist? and how did it perform?
    Muntasir Rashid
    @raoufremidan we didn't segment users from each sources but our overall visit>free signup conversion rate is 11% and signup>upgrade conversion rate is 28%. We are a very specific tool in a large pool of users with good awareness. That's one of the reason for higher conversion rates along with the lifetime deal offer. We used BetaList free account to launch. Took around 10 days to get approved but the result was terrific. We received more than 8k traffic over a period of 7 days from BetaList website and newsletter.
    Tyler Dane
    Compass Calendar
    Compass Calendar
    Would to to hear more about #8: "the best timing for launching on PH was last Tuesday and the 2nd best timing is now." I see a lot of people delaying the launch with the hopes that it'll be better & make a bigger splash. Why is now the best time?
    Muntasir Rashid
    @tyhitzeman the thing is, you can always launch more than once on PH. If you check some of the companies growing with community launches, they do it fast and often. So waiting for your MVP to evolve into version 1.0 is waste of opportunity. Launch your MVP and comeback in 6 months to launch again. A lot of companies are doing it brilliantly on PH.