Lifetime free access for the first 100 Founding Members of bakeqee. What it costs us, why we're doing it anyway, and what we hope to get out of it.
We're giving the first 100 Founding Members lifetime Pro access to bakeqee. Free. No trial, no card, no hidden clause.
Tell that to a SaaS consultant and they'll give you a worried look. "Have you done the math on what that costs you?" Yes, we have. We're doing it anyway. Here's why.
First, the sober calculation. If bakeqee were to cost €6.99 per month or €49 per year, 100 Founding Members with Lifetime Pro means we're forgoing at most €4,900 per year (if all of them had taken the annual plan).
That sounds like a lot at first. But: these 100 people would not have bought bakeqee at this point. They might have looked into it, started a trial, weighed it up, maybe waited, maybe left. The assumption that all 100 would have paid €49 a year is wrong.
What we're actually giving up is the small amount we might have gotten from a subset of those 100. Order of magnitude: maybe €500 to €1,500 in the first year.
Four things.
First: 100 people who give honest feedback. People who pay are polite but hold back on criticism. People who receive a gift often feel obligated to be honest. That's the opposite of what marketing books preach, but we've experienced it ourselves.
Second: A real story. "The first 100 Founding Members at bakeqee get Lifetime Pro" is a story that travels. It attracts a specific kind of person: someone who wants to be in early, someone who wants to help shape things, someone who doesn't just want to consume.
Third: A clear signal to everyone who comes later. If we treat the first 100 seriously, the next 1,000 will know what to expect. We're not a marketing funnel, we're people who listen.
Fourth: A commitment we have to keep for five years. Lifetime Pro is a statement that pins us down. We can't suddenly introduce a "Premium Tier" in two years and say "Founding Members are out." That disciplines us permanently.
Before anyone builds expectations we can't meet, an honest list:
- It doesn't mean bakeqee will never get new Pro features. We will build new features. Founding Members get everything without paying extra.
- It doesn't mean we put Founding Members above other users. Pro access is Pro access, regardless of who pays for it.
- It doesn't mean Founding Members co-determine the product roadmap. We decide what gets built. We listen, but we're not running a democracy.
The honest answer: then Lifetime Pro is a lifetime of maybe 18 months. We hope that doesn't happen, but we can't guarantee it.
What we do guarantee: if we shut down, every Founding Member gets all their data exported. We're not holding anyone hostage. That would be the worst breach of trust we can imagine.
We could have said 500 or 1,000. But at 1,000 Founding Members, spending three hours per person per week would land us at 3,000 hours per month. That doesn't work with two people.
100 is the number at which we trust ourselves to take each person seriously. More would be dishonest. Fewer would be too little variety.
