We all know someone who just keeps building: One more feature, One more improvement, One more thing to fix before starting sales.
And to be fair, it s easy to fall into that loop. Building feels productive, and there s always something that could be better. But at some point, you have to ask yourself: are you really improving the product or just delaying sales?
From your experience: When is the right time to stop building and start selling?
When launching a product, offering a free plan feels like the obvious choice. More users, more feedback, lower friction. But at the same time, charging from day one gives you a completely different signal. People who pay often use the product differently, give different feedback, and help you understand what they truly value.
The challenge is that both approaches seem to make sense.
A free plan can help you grow faster. Charging early can help you validate faster. There probably isn't a universal answer and it depends on the product, the market, and what you're trying to learn first.
When we started building @ProdShort , our first instinct was to make the product "ready" before showing it to anyone. Then we started seeing founders launching much earlier. Sometimes with nothing more than a landing page, just to see if people were interested enough to sign up... or even pay.
It completely changed the way we thought about validation. On one side, launching early gives you real feedback much faster. On the other, launching too early can make people leave before they see the real value of your product.
ProdShort
