Here's the thing. In order to have a thriving, growing business, you have to have product-market-fit (PMF).

And to get PMF, you have to demonstrate that people will repeatedly pay for your product or service.

Now, in the early days when your product is super bare bones – this is the minimum viable product, or MVP – it may make sense to forfeit revenue in order to get early users. At this stage, it's totally fine to offer the product for free to a select group of people so you can collect data on what's working (and what's not working).

But businesses need revenue to survive. And you need to prove to yourself and your investors that people will continue to use the product even if they have to pay for it.

Our recommendation is to incrementally increase the price as the product evolves. If you retain your users at a price that allows you to grow your business, you are on your way to achieving PMF.

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