Low — can wait months Pre-Revenue

Stripe, Gumroad, or Lemon Squeezy — does the payment stack matter at this stage?

You need to accept payments. Stripe is flexible but requires more setup. Gumroad and Lemon Squeezy handle tax and checkout but take a bigger cut. At £0 MRR, does the 5% difference matter or is speed to first transaction what counts?

1–1 people SaaS, Creator / Media Low — can wait months

The Pattern

Based on 325 decisions

72%

Positive outcome

7.0

Avg score

325

Decisions

63 positive 24 negative 238 pending

10 scale 304 optimise 11 experiment

What founders did

high confidence

Monetisation Case Studies

Curated library

SaaS Founder (Unnamed): Choose between open-source with deployment fee or proprietary GUI with subscription (2026)

An early-stage SaaS founder is grappling with a fundamental business model decision for their software. The strategic choice is between offering the core product as an open-source GitHub repository with …

SaaS Building — Pre-launch Experiment — Promising but unvalidated

5.9

Startup: Evaluate pivot to GUI App + subscription model (2024)

An early-stage SaaS startup is grappling with a fundamental business model decision: whether to continue with a 'GitHub repo + deployment fee' model, which might appeal to developers, or pivot …

SaaS Building — Pre-launch Experiment — Promising but unvalidated

5.9

SaaS Founder: Evaluate business model pivot from deployment fee to subscription GUI app (2026)

A SaaS founder is at a crossroads, considering whether to transition their business model from a GitHub repository with a deployment fee to a GUI application with a subscription. This …

SaaS £0–5k/month Experiment — Promising but unvalidated

5.9

Salesforce: Per-seat subscription pricing model (1999)

Instead of large upfront licence fees (the Siebel/Oracle model), Salesforce charged $50/user/month. This was radically lower entry cost but required sustained retention. Enterprise buyers were unfamiliar with subscriptions for business …

Positive outcome Net revenue retention: 120%+; became industry standard

SaaS Launched — Pre-Revenue Optimise — Working but needs refinement

7.8

Stripe: Transparent, flat-rate pricing at 2.9% + 30c (2011)

Instead of complex tiered pricing with interchange-plus rates, Stripe offered simple flat-rate pricing. This was slightly more expensive for high-volume merchants but radically simpler. No contracts, no negotiation, no hidden …

Positive outcome Millions of businesses onboarded; simple pricing became industry …

SaaS Launched — Pre-Revenue Optimise — Working but needs refinement

7.8

Spotify: Launch freemium model with ad-supported free tier (2008)

Spotify launched with a free ad-supported tier alongside premium subscriptions. Labels were hostile — they feared free access would cannibalise sales. The bet was that free users would convert to …

Positive outcome 615M users; 36% free-to-paid conversion

SaaS Launched — Pre-Revenue Optimise — Working but needs refinement

6.6

Canva: Freemium design tool targeting non-designers (2013)

Canva launched a drag-and-drop design tool aimed at people who couldn't use Photoshop or Illustrator. The free tier was generous — thousands of templates and basic features. The bet was …

Positive outcome 170M+ MAU; $2.3B ARR; valued at $26B

SaaS Launched — Pre-Revenue Optimise — Working but needs refinement

7.3

Reddit Founder: Offer unlimited usage on entry-level SaaS plan (2026)

A SaaS company decided to include 'unlimited usage' as a key feature on its entry-level plan, priced at $29/month. This was likely intended to attract users with a perception of …

Negative outcome Server costs exceeded revenue for power users

SaaS £0–5k/month Optimise — Working but needs refinement

6.1

As founders contribute their monetisation decisions, you'll see what people at your exact stage are doing too.