GetSettledUp Launch

I am super excited to announce the beta launch of GetSettledUp! GetSettledUp is a project I have been working on for a little while now. I started it when my partner and I got tired of sorting through dozens of receipts at the end of each month to work out who owes who what.

Launch

With the beta launch of GetSettledUp I am also trying a new approach. For access to beta I am charging a small fee of $8.75 for unlimited access until we launch (hopefully in August). After launch all beta users receive a base 10% discount while users who provide feedback receive an additional 20% off.

Let's breakdown the approach a bit further:

1) Premium Approach

From my research most of the apps that do something similar take the lower end of the market by offering most of their features for free and only charging a little for "pro" access. While this approach works to reach a mass userbase, it does present some tradeoffs. Most of these apps require some bank access, and while they may not do anything with that access - for me it is scary to give complete bank access to a company I know nothing about. While their Terms of Service may say they don't share your data now, what prevents them from data mining your accounts? Far fetched? Maybe. Still turned me off of most of the apps out there,

So for GetSettledUp, by charging for beta we set the understanding that it will be a more premium platform. We won't cost $1 a month. This sets the baseline for users. Charging for access to something users previously had free always leads to issues because even with the "beta" name it sets a baseline.

2) New Discount Approach

Doing some research into charging for beta access I stumbled across this interesting response on Bright Journey which struck a cord with me.

· a small discount for all beta buyers, if they don't provide feedback.

· a higher discount for all beta buyers, which provide feedback.

One of the biggest issues I have faced in the past with offering beta access is getting good feedback on "what can we do better?" By offering a higher discount in the future for beta users that provide feedback you incentivize feedback from all users.

One question I quickly had to grapple with is what do we define as feedback? In the end, I made this as broad as possible. Any conversation with a user can ultimately lead to feedback that can be utilized, so making it broad opens it up to all users to receive the reward of helping build GetSettledUp.

What do you think about my approach to offering beta access to GetSettledUp? Do you have any suggestions on other approaches to offering beta?

Let me know on Twitter!