Amir

With so many demo building products that have been created in the recent years.

- Reprise - $82.2M funding

- Walnut - $56M funding

- Arcade - $49M funding

I'm seeing more products launch on Product Hunt that require payment to actually use any features. No free trial, no freemium tier, just a download that leads straight to a paywall.

Part of me thinks this makes sense. If your product has real value, why give it away? People on Product Hunt understand they're looking at premium tools. Plus offering free access can attract users who will never pay anyway.

But I also see the argument for temporary free access during launch. Product Hunt users want to actually try what they're upvoting. How can they give meaningful feedback or become advocates if they hit a paywall immediately?

Keeping a startup team motivated without money is one of the hardest challenges I ve faced, harder than growth or sales.

I ve worked on a few SaaS products with let s just say, not-ideal budgets. And honestly, the hardest part wasn t traction. It was morale.