Think · Before
Price before you build
Write the price, the promise, and the refund rule on a page. Collect payment or a strong intent. Then decide whether the build is worth it.
Building is the expensive way to test a sentence. Price is positioning: it filters hobbyists and tells you if you have a business.
How to run it
- 01Draft the offer in one paragraph including the number.
- 02Charge more than feels polite for a solo tool — patio11's whole career is this.
- 03Take money, waitlists with a deposit, or a booked call.
- 04Refund fast if you cannot deliver; keep the learning either way.
In the wild
Kagan's tiny-price tests, Walling's insistence on charging from day one, patio11 raising Bingo Card Creator prices and watching revenue go up.
Used by · 4
Patrick McKenzie
@patio11
SEO + copy · charge more
SEO, copy, and charging more — the Kalzumeus school of software marketing
Noah Kagan
@noahkagan
Validation · email
Talking to humans, tiny price tests, and email as a weapon
Rob Walling
@robwalling
Bootstrap compounder · email
Start Small, Stay Small — bootstrap compounding as a go-to-market
Daniel Vassallo
@dvassallo
Small bets · audience
Leaving the big-company script for a portfolio of small, public bets