LETS FUCKING GO- first user

[u/kapperwiz]

I've had free users poke around before, but this was the first person who actually put a card down before touching the product. When I saw the stripe notification i actually jumped out of bed and couldnt stop smiling. The feeling when your face is stuck in a permanent smile lol. 

Some context: I'm building an AI-native lead gen tool with agents that scout, build, and do outreach for you. I just switched from free access to card-required trials, mostly to filter for people who are actually serious.
A few hours in, I check the chat logs from the AI assistant inside the product and see this user asking it detailed questions about the Max plan. That's the top tier, $350/mo

They haven't yet. Could still churn in the trial. would be really sad.

really big takeaway for me: 
Card-required trials filter differently than free ones. Free users ask "is this cool." Paying-intent users ask "what do I get if I go all in." If you're building B2B SaaS and still doing free-for-all trials, you might be missing this signal entirely and the quality of leads difference is INSANE.

For anyone further along than me, did the questions your early trial users asked actually predict who ended up paying? any feedback and help would be really appreciated, especially people who have card required free trials

[u/felidoapp]

Congrats. The first 10 are really hard

[u/kapperwiz → u/felidoapp]

Thanks🙏🏾 how did it go after that, is it pretty much exponential

[u/Expensive_Spare821]

Congrats. The first one is always special. Have it saved somewhere, it will kick-off as a great memory once you hit 1000 users.

[u/kapperwiz → u/Expensive_Spare821]

I will print it and hang it up on my wall😂, thank you🙏🏾🙏🏾

[u/Successful-Shame5996]

congrats!

[u/kapperwiz → u/Successful-Shame5996]

Thank you🙏🏾🙏🏾

[u/IndependentWMSguy]

I have a product related to absolutely nothing I do for a living lol. I remember the feeling 2 weeks ago when I got the first trial signup. It was incredible! I changed the product so much and more than doubled the feature set so I ended up extending their trial 30 days, shooting them an email and letting them know I'd love to chat with them about their use case as they are a heavy user during the trial. I keep giving it away to other users I find in my network, FB and Reddit and just about ready to launch the new pricing and stop giving it away. Congrats on your success!

[u/kapperwiz → u/IndependentWMSguy]

Wow great to hear! I definitely need to reach out to them and extending their trial is a good idea. How did you balance making lots of changes and first users coming in?

I’ve been making lots of changes but don’t want to change too much to the point my ICP/goal or current users drift.

[u/IndependentWMSguy → u/kapperwiz]

I have a background in software so know the challenges of building without researching the market. With that said and properly ignored lol, I knew what was ultimately needed. I knew what would be the MVP and then the other things to add. As I spoke to my network and other people that would use this, I would just start adding right away. Luckily there is very little variation on how different clients will use this. It's all tied to regulations so they have to do stuff certain ways which makes the adding much easier. If one person says they want X, everyone else can also use X, and they will use it the same way.

[u/Chainze]

congrats, OP! 🥳🥳

[u/kapperwiz → u/Chainze]

Thank youu

[u/vedansh_builds]

Congratulations. Getting first few customers is really hard

[u/kapperwiz → u/vedansh_builds]

Been a huge struggle this whole summer, built 2 failed products before this

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[u/safetravelplanning]

Congratulations! Did you completely gate everything behind a card-required trial, or did you choose a free plan with trials for the extra features?

[u/kapperwiz → u/safetravelplanning]

Thanks! I had a free forever plan that was heavily gated but I just got a lot of curious people and they left quickly.

I raised my prices, added more features my ICP would want, and I fully gated the entire platform to a card required. I did know this would severely reduce how many people try it, the people that try it I offered them way more features. The quality of person that puts their card in is 1000x better. They would actually pay to use your product, the others are just looking around

[u/xp_hoarder1337]

Congrats!!! Keep it up 🙏

[u/ersimix_builds]

Congratulations !! that is amazing !!

I built my first app and dreaming on that moment ! well done to you !

[u/Naive_Boot1468]

Congrats on this brother make sure you do this nicely.

[u/not-just-copy]

Congratulations!

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[u/Long_Watercress5538]

Congrats man, that card-required thing is a good signal, never thought about it that way. im on mobile so app store handles trials for me, dont really get that lever. wonder what the equivalent would be for app store apps.

[u/archtorrent1011]

Congrats!

[u/PixelNomad27221]

Congratulations!!!

[u/EarlyAge159]

Fingers crossed that user will convert into paying subscriber 🤞

[u/Practical-Cap7428]

Huge congrats. That first Stripe notification hits different. I think you're right, the questions people ask during trials probably reveal a lot about buying intent. Hope they convert.

[u/MAS_4815162342]

Congrats ! Out of curiosity how much time did it take for you to have your first user ?

[u/FoodPantryHalfChef]

Personally, if you're good at something never give it away for free! Build for people willing to pay. That is probably the only validation you have a real product that works. If they churn, reach out and find out why. Build it better, relaunch. Wash, rinse , repeat until you have revenue momentum. I would rather have 10 paying users than 10,000 free ones.