The Paid Beta

I like calling them “early access” periods instead of betas, but I won’t hold that against Bryan. He makes some great points about having people pay as soon as possible.

At its core, a paid beta is just a more dynamic version of an MVP. The mechanics are incredibly simple:

  1. You mock out a simple product or even just a promise.
  2. You let people make small, flat payments (think $1 to $5) for access and in return you continue building out core product features.
  3. Over time, the product will grow under the proper evolutionary pressure of what users will pay for.

via Bootstrapping an Idea: the Paid Beta.