When a start-up is launching its product or service, is it a good strategy to give away the product to a few select “beta” customers in order to generate awareness? Some people would say you should never give away your product because it lowers the value. Others would argue that you need a few showcase customers in order to demonstrate your product in the real world, as it were, and that you need some case studies to build a white paper around. We are launching a brand new product that really has no exact competitors, and our prospects often ask, “Who else is using your platform now? How are they doing with it?” It would be nice to point to a few real companies that are actually using our platform, because it shows the product works and it also creates a sense of “opportunity cost” to those prospects who don’t currently know what they’re missing.

Our sales team is trying to think of examples of companies that pretty much gave away their product to the first few customers to get the ball rolling and build case studies. Can you think of any companies that started by giving away their product, and then became successful?

Thanks,

Jeff