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If I understand you correctly: You whip up a bootstrap page that describes the product with a 'beta sign-up & pay' button, and if enough people sign up and pay,

If I understand you correctly: You whip up a bootstrap page that describes the product with a 'beta sign-up & pay' button, and if enough people sign up and pay, you build it? - What sort of demo do you have on the website? Or is it just a basic description of the product and a list of features? - Does this mean you get payment processing setup before development every time? - How do you manage returning money if you decide not to do it?

dangero 9y ago
I usually just do believable screenshots and a call to action like, "Request a trial" or "Buy now" it depends on what it's for. I never take any money I just log the actions people took on the site. If it's a buy button, then you can just say, "Thanks for your interest. We are launching soon."
- zeptomu 9y ago
  But it can also have the opposite effect: people get put off as they think the product is vaporware (rightfully).
  - beambot 9y ago
    Let's say you get 20 people to signup, all of whom think it is (rightfully) vaporware. Well, at least now you can be sure there's a real market (>>20) to justify development. Even if you drop those 20 on the floor... the validation is more than worthwhile.
  - Untit1ed 9y ago
    My experience in doing this has been that a surprising number of people who click the buy button still put their email address down afterwards, and none of the people I've talked to who did were remotely miffed about the deception. It probably depends on the audience, but people are more understanding than you'd think about the need to look before you leap, especially when they know you're just a solo entrepreneur.
- crispinb 9y ago
  If I clicked on that button and received that response, everything I could find connected with you and your domain would go on my blacklists. Misleading people is a poor way to build trust.
  - grwthckrmstr 9y ago
    Yes you're right on your count, but you have to consider this scenario (which involves thinking beyond yourself) - - it's only you, and 20 others - - who would be mildly mislead (considering you actually didn't pay anything) Now the dev can go build a working version putting in 200-500 hours into the MVP and find the next set of 20 people who are ready to use that software, with validation at hand. However, I agree that better messaging can be used instead of straight up misleading people. Since if it does become widely practiced, people will generally become mistrustful (again, the odds of that happening is low). ~ 2 cents
    - crispinb 9y ago
      > but you have to consider this scenario (which involves thinking beyond yourself) I'm not denying that poor behaviour can net more customers -- on the contrary, it's by far the easiest way of doing so. My response was in the domain of ethical, not commercial, calculus.
  - logicuce 9y ago
    Exactly. Don't think of people landing on the site as an infinite stream of people. There are influencers who land first and you don't want to be in their bad books.
    - ivanhoe 9y ago
      Not necessarily, you can buy adds and get random visitors for testing purposes that way. Also you can write a better explanation, so that people don't feel tricked.
  - roel_v 9y ago
    Really? You maintain a 'blacklist' somewhere on Dropbox or so, and every time you make a purchase you look through who is somehow connected to it, and cross check your 'blacklist'? I think it's much more likely you're showing some internet outrage here, but when you actually run into it, you won't even remember a week later.
hashmal 9y ago
You don't have to make people pay, when they click on "buy" or "prices" you just display a page that explains the project isn't ready, with a newsletter form. Search for "buffer MVP" to see a classic example of this. The demo can be extremely simple, a sentence describing the concept and a (fake) screenshot. Be aware that presenting the same product in different ways to different people lead to very different results, so you can run multiple tests like this to find the approach that has the better chances of working.

dangero 9y ago

I usually just do believable screenshots and a call to action like, "Request a trial" or "Buy now" it depends on what it's for. I never take any money I just log the actions people took on the site. If it's a buy button, then you can just say, "Thanks for your interest. We are launching soon."

zeptomu 9y ago
But it can also have the opposite effect: people get put off as they think the product is vaporware (rightfully).
- beambot 9y ago
  Let's say you get 20 people to signup, all of whom think it is (rightfully) vaporware. Well, at least now you can be sure there's a real market (>>20) to justify development. Even if you drop those 20 on the floor... the validation is more than worthwhile.
- Untit1ed 9y ago
  My experience in doing this has been that a surprising number of people who click the buy button still put their email address down afterwards, and none of the people I've talked to who did were remotely miffed about the deception. It probably depends on the audience, but people are more understanding than you'd think about the need to look before you leap, especially when they know you're just a solo entrepreneur.
crispinb 9y ago
If I clicked on that button and received that response, everything I could find connected with you and your domain would go on my blacklists. Misleading people is a poor way to build trust.
- grwthckrmstr 9y ago
  Yes you're right on your count, but you have to consider this scenario (which involves thinking beyond yourself) - - it's only you, and 20 others - - who would be mildly mislead (considering you actually didn't pay anything) Now the dev can go build a working version putting in 200-500 hours into the MVP and find the next set of 20 people who are ready to use that software, with validation at hand. However, I agree that better messaging can be used instead of straight up misleading people. Since if it does become widely practiced, people will generally become mistrustful (again, the odds of that happening is low). ~ 2 cents
  - crispinb 9y ago
    > but you have to consider this scenario (which involves thinking beyond yourself) I'm not denying that poor behaviour can net more customers -- on the contrary, it's by far the easiest way of doing so. My response was in the domain of ethical, not commercial, calculus.
- logicuce 9y ago
  Exactly. Don't think of people landing on the site as an infinite stream of people. There are influencers who land first and you don't want to be in their bad books.
  - ivanhoe 9y ago
    Not necessarily, you can buy adds and get random visitors for testing purposes that way. Also you can write a better explanation, so that people don't feel tricked.
- roel_v 9y ago
  Really? You maintain a 'blacklist' somewhere on Dropbox or so, and every time you make a purchase you look through who is somehow connected to it, and cross check your 'blacklist'? I think it's much more likely you're showing some internet outrage here, but when you actually run into it, you won't even remember a week later.

hashmal 9y ago

You don't have to make people pay, when they click on "buy" or "prices" you just display a page that explains the project isn't ready, with a newsletter form. Search for "buffer MVP" to see a classic example of this. The demo can be extremely simple, a sentence describing the concept and a (fake) screenshot. Be aware that presenting the same product in different ways to different people lead to very different results, so you can run multiple tests like this to find the approach that has the better chances of working.