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Guess it depends what you value! Personally I value deep thinking, making good decisions, and doing research higher than entertainment. Now whether the product

Guess it depends what you value! Personally I value deep thinking, making good decisions, and doing research higher than entertainment. Now whether the product is helpful enough with those things to be worth the price, well for that the market will decide :-)

hackstack 6y ago
I think you've already gotten lots of feedback on pricing -- One thing I didn't see mentioned is that your website lacks a pricing page. Yes, you indicate the subscription price, and you hide a little note that says you can try it for free first... but here in the comments you said you have a "generous free tier" -- it would be useful to see information about that tier on your website. All that said, I'll join the chorus of skeptics over the $100/yr price. Apparently you have people willing to pay that, which is great, and hopefully a sign that you have built a good product -- maybe we on HN are just a bunch of cheap, cynical bastards.
- bachmeier 6y ago
  > maybe we on HN are just a bunch of cheap, cynical bastards. I highly doubt that. I've seen a lot of advice to overprice on here, the idea being that you can never charge too much. "Double your price" is the most consistent advice on this site.
  - nodesocket 6y ago
    A point to the contrary, I also see (mostly developers) who try to optimize $5 monthly SaaS expenses (paid Docker Hub, GitHub vs self-hosted) wasting hours and hours of their time and energy. I come from an entrepreneur attitude, my time is my most precious commodity. I don't optimize minor expenses, I optimize the big picture, my time, outcomes, and most importantly income/revenue coming in.
- corobo 6y ago
  Naw I’m shite with cash and 100 a year is still too much for this. Especially if it’s my device I already bought doing all the work. I understand folks gotta make a living but I feel the price is based on “Hey got away with it”. Best of luck but I’ll stick with my notes and scribbles on blank business cards and notepads For me Muse’s competitor is 100 (double sided where appropriate) cards for a fiver every month or two. I’ve never had my data held hostage for nonpayment either (I don’t know if they do this, I’m just not new to subscription models) https://i.imgsir.com/pbdo.jpg https://i.imgsir.com/pbdo.jpg Also if you do happen to use Evernote you know why I’m using business cards. So easy to digitise if I ever do need to
bosie 6y ago
Will the USD100 subscription include a much needed mac app? Or is the plan to make (good?) decisions on a 10" ipad?
bachmeier 6y ago
Out of character for me, my initial thought is that the pricing is probably right. The people willing to pay for a product like this are probably mostly willing to pay $100/year for it. I think there are legitimate concerns that the market for an app like this is small, but in that case, you probably want to capture as much profit per customer as possible. But hey this is just speculation...
techsupporter 6y ago
> Guess it depends what you value! Personally I value deep thinking, making good decisions, and doing research higher than entertainment. At the risk of sounding brusque, that comes off as more than a little reductive. "Your choices are poor compared to mine." I don't think you meant it that way but text doesn't convey emotion. Regarding the what I value aspect: This is yet another (cool-looking) app that asks me to pour my creativity and thoughts into it yet charges me rent to keep them there, even though the app, as you say, does not have recurring costs to you. So now, if I want to invest my time and soul into making this my One True Creativity App and keep it, hypothetically, for the rest of my life, I'm looking at $4,000. Or even if I just keep it for the next decade (assuming it survives that long and the shutdown of the subscription doesn't yank my data away from me with it), that's a grand. I'm genuinely sorry but I'm not going to take that risk or pick up that expense. Sell me the app and I'll buy it; don't rent it to me.
- dchuk 6y ago
  Apps that are worked on consistently have a very high recurring cost - people hours
  - ianai 6y ago
    Idea: flat charge to export the entire library to a standard or competing format. Could vary if the library is particularly large or end format proprietary. That way people who hate subscriptions or lock-in know they have an out and don’t have to lose anything.
  - Closi 6y ago
    True, but they also have a very low incremental cost per unit. It doesn’t really matter if you sell 10 at $100 or 100 at $10, and sometimes selling 100 at $10 is significantly easier.
  - jmnicolas 6y ago
    Do you really think this app will still need major work 5 years from now? As I said in another comment, work on version 2.0 (since 1.0 is probably not complete now) and put it in maintenance mode then, instead of cramming it with useless features.

hackstack 6y ago

I think you've already gotten lots of feedback on pricing -- One thing I didn't see mentioned is that your website lacks a pricing page. Yes, you indicate the subscription price, and you hide a little note that says you can try it for free first... but here in the comments you said you have a "generous free tier" -- it would be useful to see information about that tier on your website. All that said, I'll join the chorus of skeptics over the $100/yr price. Apparently you have people willing to pay that, which is great, and hopefully a sign that you have built a good product -- maybe we on HN are just a bunch of cheap, cynical bastards.

bachmeier 6y ago
> maybe we on HN are just a bunch of cheap, cynical bastards. I highly doubt that. I've seen a lot of advice to overprice on here, the idea being that you can never charge too much. "Double your price" is the most consistent advice on this site.
- nodesocket 6y ago
  A point to the contrary, I also see (mostly developers) who try to optimize $5 monthly SaaS expenses (paid Docker Hub, GitHub vs self-hosted) wasting hours and hours of their time and energy. I come from an entrepreneur attitude, my time is my most precious commodity. I don't optimize minor expenses, I optimize the big picture, my time, outcomes, and most importantly income/revenue coming in.
corobo 6y ago
Naw I’m shite with cash and 100 a year is still too much for this. Especially if it’s my device I already bought doing all the work. I understand folks gotta make a living but I feel the price is based on “Hey got away with it”. Best of luck but I’ll stick with my notes and scribbles on blank business cards and notepads For me Muse’s competitor is 100 (double sided where appropriate) cards for a fiver every month or two. I’ve never had my data held hostage for nonpayment either (I don’t know if they do this, I’m just not new to subscription models) https://i.imgsir.com/pbdo.jpg https://i.imgsir.com/pbdo.jpg Also if you do happen to use Evernote you know why I’m using business cards. So easy to digitise if I ever do need to

bosie 6y ago

Will the USD100 subscription include a much needed mac app? Or is the plan to make (good?) decisions on a 10" ipad?

bachmeier 6y ago

Out of character for me, my initial thought is that the pricing is probably right. The people willing to pay for a product like this are probably mostly willing to pay $100/year for it. I think there are legitimate concerns that the market for an app like this is small, but in that case, you probably want to capture as much profit per customer as possible. But hey this is just speculation...

techsupporter 6y ago

> Guess it depends what you value! Personally I value deep thinking, making good decisions, and doing research higher than entertainment. At the risk of sounding brusque, that comes off as more than a little reductive. "Your choices are poor compared to mine." I don't think you meant it that way but text doesn't convey emotion. Regarding the what I value aspect: This is yet another (cool-looking) app that asks me to pour my creativity and thoughts into it yet charges me rent to keep them there, even though the app, as you say, does not have recurring costs to you. So now, if I want to invest my time and soul into making this my One True Creativity App and keep it, hypothetically, for the rest of my life, I'm looking at $4,000. Or even if I just keep it for the next decade (assuming it survives that long and the shutdown of the subscription doesn't yank my data away from me with it), that's a grand. I'm genuinely sorry but I'm not going to take that risk or pick up that expense. Sell me the app and I'll buy it; don't rent it to me.

dchuk 6y ago
Apps that are worked on consistently have a very high recurring cost - people hours
- ianai 6y ago
  Idea: flat charge to export the entire library to a standard or competing format. Could vary if the library is particularly large or end format proprietary. That way people who hate subscriptions or lock-in know they have an out and don’t have to lose anything.
- Closi 6y ago
  True, but they also have a very low incremental cost per unit. It doesn’t really matter if you sell 10 at $100 or 100 at $10, and sometimes selling 100 at $10 is significantly easier.
- jmnicolas 6y ago
  Do you really think this app will still need major work 5 years from now? As I said in another comment, work on version 2.0 (since 1.0 is probably not complete now) and put it in maintenance mode then, instead of cramming it with useless features.