Should your first customers get it free?
A founding price gets you early users and tells you whether they value what you've built. Free only does the first.
2 min read · Updated 1 Nov 2026
The short answer
Usually not. Free customers tell you whether people will use something, but not whether they value it, and they're harder to charge later. Give early customers a fair founding price, a discount if they ask, or a paid pilot with a clear end date. Keep free for a few design partners who commit in writing to give you time and feedback.
Giving the product away feels generous and low-risk, and it gets people using it quickly. The cost is quieter: you lose the one signal that tells you whether the business works.
What free tells you, and what it doesn’t
A free user tells you someone will try your product when it costs nothing. A paying customer tells you the problem is worth money to them. Only the second one is a business.
Free customers also behave differently. They use it less carefully, give vaguer feedback, and are hard to convert later, because the price they’ve already agreed to is zero.
What the experienced advice says
Jason Lemkin of SaaStr, who has written about this for years, suggests giving first customers “a fair price so that price isn’t an issue”, and adds: “if your early customers want a discount, just give it to them”. He suggests starting at about 80% of what comparable products cost, so prospects have context for the value (SaaStr).
He also splits it by market. For large deals, he says “don’t sell too cheap”, because you’re selling a solution to a big problem. For high-volume, low-price products, he suggests pricing low to take friction out of sales (SaaStr). Neither version is free.
Three better options
| Option | How it works | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Founding price | A real price, a little below where you’ll end up, for the first customers | Most products and services |
| Paid pilot | A fixed fee for a fixed period with a defined result, then a decision | Services and B2B, where the buyer wants to try before committing |
| Design partner | Free or cheap, in exchange for written commitments on time and feedback | Two or three customers while the product is still forming |
When free is fine
Free works when it buys you something specific. A design partner who agrees in writing to a weekly call and real use is paying you in time. A free pilot with an agreed end date and a price afterwards is a sale with a delay. A free product with no agreement is hard to learn from at all.
The Sunday email
Get one of these every Sunday.
One founder problem and one thing to do before Monday.
Questions
Isn't free the fastest way to get users?
Yes, and that's the problem: you get users without learning whether anyone would pay. Speed only helps if it's teaching you the right thing.
How much of a discount is reasonable?
Jason Lemkin of SaaStr suggests starting at about 80% of what comparable products cost. A founding price in that range keeps the signal and rewards being early.
What's a design partner?
An early customer who gets the product free or cheap in exchange for agreed time: regular feedback calls, real use, and sometimes a reference. Write the exchange down.
Next step
Is your idea worth 30 days? Find out free.
Five questions about your idea and a straight answer. It's week zero of Humble's 30 days, and it costs nothing.
More in first customers
Is a waitlist proof that people want your product?
A waitlist proves interest. Here's how to turn it into evidence of demand before the interest fades.
Read it First customers · The answerHow to find your first ten customers
Slack, Gusto and Shopify found theirs by hand, through people they knew and places their customers already gathered. Here's how to do the same in a week.
Read it