i want to charge 1 dollar monthly but this can change on the future, now i have focus on how to scale the produc,
my users want to use my product but i can no longer pay for the servers
Have you considered charging a dollar annually (like WhatsApp previously did) and seeing if current users will pay? If you’re out of funds, and have no seed round lined up, why not attempt to monetize immediately?
Also, have you explored if Amazon has any accelerator programs you’d qualify for to get some AWS credits to tide you over (paging jeffbarr).
How long can you survive without funds? If your app dies, all your growth will be wasted.
Edit - I checked out your app and saw that you had to disable some features. If I were in your shoes, I would pull a Whatsapp and monetize immediately. As it stands, you don't have any power and major power imbalances tend not to work out in the founder's favour.
yes, i will think how to monetize
do you have tips to have the same monetization like whatsapp on early days?
is there a tool or software to monetize easily?
Have you considered charging a dollar annually (like WhatsApp previously did) and seeing if current users will pay? If you’re out of funds, and have no seed round lined up, why not attempt to monetize immediately?
Also, have you explored if Amazon has any accelerator programs you’d qualify for to get some AWS credits to tide you over (paging jeffbarr).
$1 per year might not completely solve your cash flow problems, but it will bring some money in and give you some powerful evidence to help with your fundraising.
Amazon has accelerators programs
I have one right now
I was accepted to Startup school of YCombinator, but the credits are only 1000 that is enough only for 2 month
I need at least one year to grow a lot and to get investment from a venture capital fund
So, I will try to charge 1 or 2 dollar maybe by month , so I could pay the servers
It's your startup so do what you think is best, but at $1 - $2 a month, you'll lose a massive number of users. Then, I don't know if your app will be worth $1 - $2 a month (or a year).
That's a good idea. I bet that OP could save quite a bit running something on bare metal. And, if they are looking to extend their runway, maybe a specific ask like "Can anyone hook me up with $x months on $provider?" would have more luck than a generic 'looking for co-founders.'
Also, I understand why you indicate your alma mater as 'one of the best' because most people outside Colombia likely won't know it, but you should still list what institution it is, simply because the vague-ness is a little discomforting.
Overall I think a simple Reddit-style moderation with votes can certainly do a lot to improve an experience like this, but reputation systems are very difficult. There are many ways to game/manipulate systems like this, starting with basic sybil attacks, but also coercion (e.g. show me your privates or I downvote you), and other imaginative abuses. It might be worth discussing moderation strategies beyond the voting system.
Finally, $1 a year payments sound like a lot of user friction for little benefit, and also payment processors are likely going to take a large fraction of that. It's a difficult choice, but some kind of 'freemium' model seems attractive here: a few dollars for high-quality emotes, etc. People that really use and enjoy a service tend to be quite open to payments like this, and it's a proven model for games, Twitch.tv, etc.
>Overall I think a simple Reddit-style moderation with votes can certainly do a lot to improve an experience like this, but reputation systems are very difficult. There are many ways to game/manipulate systems like this, starting with basic sybil attacks, but also coercion (e.g. show me your privates or I downvote you), and other imaginative abuses. It might be worth discussing moderation strategies beyond the voting system.
you are right
but i have not explained the complete system,
this system has some constraints to vote
There's a few ratings that says they were banned for no reason, so maybe you'll have to tweak that algorithm.
Also as someone who has been using these kinds of apps for nearly two decades, it's really hard to detect bad behavior. Poor ratings don't necessarily mean someone is bad - they could just be slow to respond. Dirty words may be acceptable to both sides.
I'd say the safest way to handle it is to ban accounts that exceed a certain ratio of blocks.
People block for really frivolous reasons. Sometimes someone is enjoying a conversation, but have to head out and do something else. They don't want to get downvoted for "ghosting" so they block the other person. I even had one friend who used to block everyone after a conversation because he didn't know what "block" meant, and thought it was a way of closing conversations.
