We Burned $1M Before Learning This Pricing Lesson (Don’t Make Our Mistake)

Just Grow With It with Natalie Barbu

Natalie Barbu

Education, Business, Entrepreneurship, How To

4.8 • 982 Ratings

🗓️ 29 October 2025

⏱️ 17 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Welcome to "Just Grow With It"! In this episode, I share the biggest mistake we made as founders: not charging customers soon enough. We wasted two years and nearly lost our company before learning the hard truth about pricing. If you’re a creator, founder, or entrepreneur, this episode will save you time, money, and heartache. Newsletter: https://thegrowthlist.substack.com/ 00:00 – Why not charging was our biggest mistake 01:00 – The myth of traction vs. real revenue 02:30 – Why free users rarely convert to paid 04:00 – Our failed freemium launch and what went wrong 06:20 – The painful pivot: relaunching with a paywall 08:00 – How charging saved our business 09:30 – Should you charge from day one? 11:00 – Free trial vs. freemium vs. paid: what works 13:00 – The psychology of pricing and perceived value 15:00 – How to set your price and test your model 16:30 – Final lessons and advice for founders If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to subscribe, leave a review, and sign up for my newsletter for more founder stories and lessons every week! Get 10% off your first purchase using code NATALIEBARBU or go to https://squarespace.com/nataliebarbu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	We wasted about two years not charging people, and we would never, ever do that again.
0:06.2	Here's what finally worked and how you can figure out your pricing.
0:09.4	Welcome to Just Grow With It.
0:10.7	I've always been a little impulsive.
0:12.6	I get an idea and just go with it.
0:15.2	But that's the thing about life and business.
0:17.0	You're always growing, learning, and figuring it out as you go.
0:20.6	Welcome to Just Grow with it. The podcast where I share lessons I've learned as a founder and creator, the mistakes, the pivots, and the wins, and how staying consistent can change everything.
0:29.6	So if you're ready to grow with me, let's get into it.
0:32.6	In the age of social media, it is incredibly easy to confuse traction with revenue. We celebrate downloads,
0:39.8	users, and even just like the vibe of a company. At the end of the day, if you are not making
0:45.3	money, then what you have is a hobby or a project. It is not a sustainable business. There are so
0:51.9	many businesses that are launching free products every single day
0:55.2	and they're not monetizing them. And it pains me whenever I see that happening because like I said,
1:01.3	we were in that position for pretty much two years, which was such a mistake. I would say it was
1:07.3	our biggest mistake as business owners. I think a lot of people do this because they'll look
1:11.9	at successful companies like Facebook, for example, or any social media platform for that matter.
1:17.0	And on social media, you're not charging your customers. You are obviously making revenue when it
1:21.3	comes to ads down the line after you've already had a lot of traction. So for social media
1:26.5	companies and things like that, fine.
1:28.8	I understand that you know you're not going to charge in the beginning.
1:31.9	But for virtually every single other business, you absolutely need to have a plan to charge
	...

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