Ask for Money, Not Opinions — The Hard Truth I Learned
Published 2025-10-17
Most founders “validate” by asking for opinions.
They post polls, tweet feature lists, run fake waitlists — and feel good when people say, “Cool idea!”
But opinions are free.
Payments aren’t.
And that difference is the whole game.
The Realization
I used to do what everyone does.
I ran feedback loops, filled out surveys, and waited for upvotes. It all looked like traction — but when I finally asked someone to pay, silence.
That’s when I saw a post by Jack on Indie Hackers, where he wrote:
“$9/mo feels too low. $29/mo feels risky… We guess. And sometimes, we guess wrong.”
Jack’s building Pricewise, a tool to simulate pricing decisions with AI personas — because, as he puts it, pricing shouldn’t be a guessing game.
That line hit hard. I realized I’d been avoiding the only test that mattered: asking for money.
My 7-Day Price Test
Here’s what I did — and what you can copy in an afternoon:
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Pick one feature. Not the whole product. Just one piece of clear value.
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Assign a price. I started with $15.
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Ask one person. Literally:
“Would you pay $15 for this right now?”
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Log the result. “Yes”, “No”, or “Maybe — if it had X.”
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Change the number. Next day: $10. Then $20. Then $30.
I did this for seven days.
By day four, I noticed something — people didn’t argue the number. They asked about outcomes. “Does this save me an hour a day?” meant I was close. “What does it actually do?” meant I wasn’t clear enough yet.
What the Rejections Taught Me
Every no gave me sharper data than the yes’s.
It told me:
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My copy was unclear.
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My value prop didn’t match the pain.
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My pricing anchor was untested.
The funny part? The “no’s” rewrote my pitch.
By the time I hit the second week, I’d moved from explaining features to selling relief. And that’s when the first real “yes” came.
Why This Matters
You don’t need 1,000 signups to find your price point.
You need one real ask — and the courage to hear “no.”
Price isn’t just a number. It’s a truth serum. It tells you whether your product is solving something real or just interesting.
Even Jack’s AI approach with Pricewise exists because founders fear asking the question directly.
But nothing replaces hearing a human say: “Yes, I’d pay for that.”
Opinions tell you what people think.
Price tells you what they believe.
The Rep
Pick one feature today.
Set a price.
Message one real prospect:
“Would you pay $X for this right now?”
Log the answer. Repeat tomorrow at a new number.
That’s your price curve — built from truth, not theory.
If you’ve tried your own pricing tests, drop a link to your Indie Hackers post or DM me — I’d love to feature a few in the next case study.