Question
I understand Sean Ellis's view on product-market fit, etc. But while our product is ready (AKA "good enough") to launch and (I believe) start to get some paying customers, part of me wants to hold it back for another 1-2 months to "polish it up", add a few more things, etc. While they will definitely help, I'm not sure we absolutely need them.
We've spent a year building our product and most of the functionality is there. It works and is stable, but we also have 3 big competitors in our space with lots of funding, good (but complicated) products, etc.
So my question is really, should we stay in a private beta for 1-2 more months (with no paying customers, just a few dozen users) or should we launch sooner, even though I personally feel a bit more time on the product is needed?
Answer
Worked in and around SaaS businesses for the last 10 years.
This is a careful dance. Obviously you want the product of high enough quality that it has utility for your users, but you could play that game in perpetuity. If you have customers using the product and getting value from it, release it and start charging. Paying customers often behave different than free users and will give you the real feedback you need. Maybe there are features your paying customers need that your free customers haven't surfaced.
