From 0 to Revenue: How to Price Your First 100 Customers

Your first 100 customers are different from your next 10,000. They're early adopters—people willing to take a chance on an unproven product from an unknown founder. Pricing for them requires a different mindset than pricing for scale.

Get it wrong, and you'll either leave money on the table or struggle to close anyone. Get it right, and you'll build a foundation of revenue, feedback, and momentum that fuels your growth for years to come.

In this guide, we'll walk through exactly how to think about pricing when you're going from zero to your first 100 paying customers.

The Unique Psychology of Early Adopters

Early adopters aren't buying a polished product. They're buying a vision, a relationship, and the chance to shape something from the ground up. This changes the pricing equation in important ways.

They're more forgiving: Missing features, occasional bugs, and rough edges are tolerable because they understand they're on the frontier.

They want influence: Many early adopters pay partly because they want to be heard. Access to the founder and influence over the roadmap is valuable to them.

They're often contrarian: People who adopt early are often those who've been frustrated by existing solutions and are actively looking for alternatives.

Understanding this mindset helps you price appropriately—not too high (they're taking a risk), but not too low (they don't want something that feels like a toy).

Strategy #1: Start Higher Than You Think

Counter to popular wisdom, many founders should price higher for their first 100 customers, not lower. Here's why:

It's easier to lower prices than raise them. If you start at $29/month and need to go to $49/month, existing customers will resist. If you start at $49/month and can afford to offer discounts later, everyone wins.

Higher prices filter for serious customers. You don't want tire-kickers in your first 100. You want people with real problems who will give you real feedback. Higher prices attract better customers.

Revenue buys runway. 100 customers at $50/month is $5,000 MRR. 100 customers at $15/month is $1,500 MRR. That difference could mean the difference between surviving and shutting down.

How high? Aim for a price that makes you slightly uncomfortable. If it feels too easy to justify, you're probably too low.

Strategy #2: The "Founding Member" Play

One powerful approach is to offer your first customers a special "Founding Member" or "Early Adopter" tier. This creates urgency and rewards risk-taking while giving you pricing flexibility.

How it works: Offer your first 50-100 customers a lifetime discount (say, 30-50% off forever) in exchange for early feedback and testimonials. Make it clear this price is temporary and will increase for future customers.

Why it works: Early adopters feel special and rewarded. You get testimonials and case studies. And you're not locked into an unsustainable price—new customers will pay full price.

Be explicit about what you're offering: "As a Founding Member, you'll pay $29/month forever. Our standard price will be $49/month once we launch publicly."

Strategy #3: Annual Upfront for Commitment

Consider offering only annual billing for your first 100 customers, or at least incentivizing it heavily. This has multiple benefits:

Cash upfront: A year's payment upfront gives you capital to reinvest. Ten customers paying $400 annually is $4,000 in your bank account today.

Filters for commitment: People who pay annually are invested. They'll actually use the product, give feedback, and stick around.

Reduces churn pressure: Monthly churn can be devastating when you only have 50 customers. Annual plans buy you time to improve before they reconsider.

If you offer both, make annual 20-40% cheaper to push people toward it: "$49/month, or $399/year (save 32%)."

Strategy #4: Value-Based Customization

Early on, you might not have fixed pricing at all. Instead, have conversations with potential customers about the value you deliver and price accordingly.

This sounds scary, but it's incredibly valuable for learning. When you ask "What would solving this problem be worth to you?" and actually listen, you learn:

How customers think about value: Is it time saved? Revenue generated? Risk reduced? Frustration eliminated?

What price points are viable: Are people thinking in terms of $20 or $200? Do they compare you to other software or to hiring someone?

What segments might pay more: Maybe agencies will pay 3x what freelancers pay because the problem is 3x bigger for them.

By your 50th conversation, you'll have enough data to formalize pricing tiers with confidence.

What to Do When Nobody Will Pay

Sometimes you'll try to close your first customer and hear "no" repeatedly. This is actually useful—painful, but useful.

Is the price too high? If prospects love the product but balk at the price, experiment with lower price points. Try cutting the price in half and see if conversion improves.

Is the value unclear? Sometimes the problem isn't price but positioning. If prospects don't understand why they'd pay for this, you have a messaging problem, not a pricing problem.

Is the product not ready? If even low prices don't convert, the issue might be product-market fit. Maybe you're solving the wrong problem or solving it the wrong way.

Don't be afraid to adjust. Your first 100 customers are a learning phase. The goal is to find a price that validates demand, not to optimize for maximum revenue.

Handling the "Can I Get a Discount?" Question

Every founder hears this. How you respond sets expectations for your entire customer relationship.

Option 1: The firm no. "Our pricing is designed to be fair for everyone. We don't negotiate on price, but I'm happy to discuss if our product is the right fit for your needs." This protects margins and signals confidence.

Option 2: Value for value. "I can't reduce the price, but I can offer you our annual plan with a 30% discount, or an extended trial period." This gives something without undermining your pricing.

Option 3: Strategic exception. For your first 10 customers, you might make exceptions: "Normally $49, but for early adopters who commit to giving me feedback, I can do $29." Just be deliberate—don't discount reflexively.

Documenting What You Learn

Your first 100 customers are a goldmine of information. Track everything:

What price did they pay? What tier? Monthly or annual? With a discount?

How hard was the sale? Did they convert immediately or need multiple calls? Were there objections?

What segment are they? Freelancer, agency, enterprise? What industry? What use case?

What's their retention like? Are they still paying six months later? Who churned and why?

This data becomes the foundation for your scalable pricing strategy. Patterns will emerge: "Agencies pay $79 without hesitation. Freelancers won't pay over $29. Churn is 50% lower on annual plans."

When to "Formalize" Your Pricing

There's no magic number, but by the time you're approaching 100 customers, you should have enough signal to establish clear, public pricing. You'll know you're ready when:

You've identified 2-3 distinct customer segments with different needs and willingness to pay.

You can articulate why each tier costs what it costs (based on value, not cost).

You've had enough pricing conversations to feel confident, not anxious, about your numbers.

At that point, publish a pricing page, standardize your tiers, and move from "figuring it out" to "optimizing what works."

Conclusion: Treat Early Pricing as an Experiment

Your first 100 customers are not just revenue—they're data. Every sale (and every lost sale) teaches you something about what your market will pay and why.

Don't obsess over finding the "perfect" price from day one. Instead, start with a reasonable hypothesis, test it in real conversations, and iterate based on what you learn.

The founders who win aren't those who guess right the first time—they're the ones who learn fastest and adapt. Your first 100 customers are your teachers. Price accordingly, listen carefully, and build from there.