March 13, 2025 • 12 mins
Watch the video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/WNmupzrWcAA
What goes into setting and justifying your SaaS (Software as a Service) pricing? I had the goal of getting subscription plans setup for https://www.starterpacks.net before a queued job I had running to backfill data that I needed to support those plans was done processing. I ultimately did get the Stripe integration setup, along with defining the plans and everything that goes into supporting subscriptions on the site, but when it came to actually surfacing these plans publicly is where I got tripped up.
In this episode I dig into the plans, some of my thoughts around building value to justify the price, and some ideas I have to get to that value.
To follow along, you can find me at ryanhefner.com, follow me on Bluesky @ryanhefner.com and keep up with the show on allplay.fm and @allplay.fm.
Help yourself, while supporting the show, by trying some of the services that I use, and highly recommend:
Transistor FM
Fathom Analytics
#buildinpublic #podcast #startups #webdevelopment #webdesign #bluesky #indiedev #bootstrapping
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Ryan (00:00):
Hey, I'm Ryan Hefner, and this is the All Play podcast. So
I lost to the queues. The queuesbeat me, but not for the reasons
why you might think. So lastepisode, I was talking about how
on starter packs, I was lookingto, I was running this big queue
job to basically backfill abunch of data for the, I think
(00:23):
at the time, over 240,000 or250,000 starter packs, that I
had, you know, currently on thesite. And my goal was to set up
the Stripe integration,configure the plans, and, get
those live before those queueswere done.
Well, I achieved part of that. Idid end up doing the Stripe
(00:46):
integration. I did create someinitial plans. But you know
what? I got to the part on thepricing page.
I had my nice three plans there.I had a free plan. I named the
the intermediate kind of, like,intro plan, the expand plan,
which I I don't know. I'll getinto the names of those maybe in
(01:06):
this one, maybe in another one.I had this promote plan that I
thought I could maybe try to,like, use as an anchor against
the the cheaper one or thebasically, the only other one
that was charging because it'sfree, expand and promote, which
was the three plans that I cameup with.
And then I got down to thatsection where you're supposed to
list the features that you getfor each of these plans. And I
(01:28):
realized that even with thebackfill data that I was doing,
I just didn't feel like theupsell was really there to
justify, the price. Like, I was,like, thinking about it. I was
like, I don't know if I wouldsubscribe to this. I don't know
if I would pay the $7.
Now I probably, well, actually,I don't even know if I would pay
(01:51):
the high tier price. And this iswhere I started getting a little
bit conflicted about, like, youknow, this is where I don't know
if it's just the resistance or,you know, the monkey mind that's
that's going in and and makingme second guess this stuff. I do
think the the information isvaluable. And I do know that you
can obtain some of thisinformation on other services
(02:12):
for free, which is also probablyplaying a little bit into my
psychology of whether or notit's worth it to charge these
things. But, you know, when Istarted getting to those
features and trying to really,like, differentiate each one
from the free to the the initialpaid and then also this
promotion plan, I I justrealized that there just didn't
seem like there was that muchvalue.
(02:33):
So I can get into what isbasically gonna be included into
the the free, that expand plan,and the, the promote plan, at
least what I what I had then andwhat I'll I'm still trying to
figure out now even. So free,you can obviously browse the
site, log in, authenticate viayour Blue Sky account, and
(02:56):
follow freely. You know, you canexplore these different, starter
packs. You can explore profiles.You can follow as many people as
possible.
And that's really, you know,that's really what you get for
the free plan. For the expandplan, which is basically, I
thought it the idea is you cankind of more expand out your
profile and make it a little bitricher. And by doing that, maybe
(03:20):
it will just offer more ways forpeople to either, discover your
profile or or your packs andvice versa other people and just
make it more valuable, richernavigating experience. Now that,
I was thinking about charging $7a month. And I know that that
seems high, but I do have somefuture plans for that plan,
(03:41):
which I think would justify thatas well as just more stats
around that.
So that kind of brings me to thesecond part. I actually have
another queue job running rightnow, which is backfilling even
more data and trying to bolsterup, all more stuff that I can
basically include into thosestats. And, so I have that job
(04:06):
running. And then the but, youknow, I will get we'll we'll
touch on what what that's gonnado. But, basically, that was the
idea for that plan, as well asthis idea of maybe being able to
kind of, like, connect moreaccounts other than just Blue
Sky and have that associated andand linked to your profile.
And then the promote plan Ithought was kind of the most,
(04:27):
like, simple straightforward. IfI can start driving more traffic
to the site and people canbasically promote or feature
their profiles within veryprominent sections within the
site, whether that's duringsearch, whether that's, within
the within the context of a of aindividual starter pack that
they happen to appear in, andjust really anywhere where you
(04:49):
can explore more of the site andhave, either your profile or
your starter packs appear in ain a featured area. And,
actually, I think that one's waymore straightforward, but that's
also the one that at the time orcurrently, I have it set at,
like, a hundred bucks a month.And then I also do have yearly
plans, which are basically, themonthly fee times 10, so you get
(05:14):
two months free. So the yearlywould be, 70 for the expand plan
and, 1,000, for that promoteplan.
Now if I'm starting to drivetraffic that I was originally
had back in, December andJanuary, I think I'd easily
justify that hundred dollarplan. And that's actually funny
(05:35):
because even though it's moreexpensive, I think it would it
actually already has more valuebaked in, and you can have those
promoted. I'm actually callingthose people supporters as just
like a terminology thing, and Ilike that just from, like, a
concept of, you know, thesepeople are kinda, like,
supporting me, working on theplatform. They're also then
(05:59):
being elevated, because of forthat support. So they get a
little bit more prominent,display within the site.
Feels a little bit better than,like, featured or, I don't know.
I mean, I guess I'm calling itpromoted, but, but really
they're supporters. And, soyeah. So wrestling around with
(06:19):
all that kind of stuff, youknow, it's like, what goes on?
Like, it's just interesting thepsychology that you can get into
when you start thinking aboutpricing plans.
For one, it's like, would I payfor it? What other people's pay
for it? What are other peoplecharging out there? And,
actually, that was one thingthat that kinda started to make
me a little bit more, I guess,less, self conscious of these
(06:44):
plans is when I started lookingaround, especially within the
blue sky space, I actually foundseveral services that maybe were
offering just a core value witha bunch of other features coming
soon. So I might actually takethat tactic and actually get the
subscriptions and make them moreavailable on the site with the
(07:07):
with the kind of the flag of,like, a coming soon or, TBD on
some of the features.
But we'll see. You know, it alsokinda feels a little bit
disingenuine to offer like that,so I don't know. It's it's these
are those things that has come,like, bouncing back and forth
and, like, tipping the scalesfrom one direction to the other.
(07:27):
Regardless, what I did end updoing, though, is I did actually
deploy the underlying code, onthe site that will support
descriptions, the subscriptionsas well as, has the pricing page
and has the hooks into, to beable to view the your account
(07:49):
when you're authenticated and tosee which, subscription you're
currently associated with. It'snot being promoted, and I kinda
have it currently hidden fromthe footer.
But if you connect, you might beable to find it. So the updates
are there, and I also am justusing that as a way to kind of
spot check the, Stripeintegration and make sure that
(08:12):
it's working, against theproduction instance and a few
other things. So I did deploysome stuff, but I didn't go all
in, and I don't feel like I'mnecessarily in promotion mode
right now for starter packs. Ifeel like I'm still kinda
tooling on some of theunderlying features and trying
to build a little bit more valueto then go all in to start
(08:32):
promoting these subscriptions.So that's where that's at.
I do have a queue running rightnow. It is running at a slower
pace, than that previous queuebecause I ended up actually
after I deployed that newupdate, I started listening to
some more stuff off of the firehose, and it turns out that I
ended up overloading my Redisinstance. And so I had to burn
(08:55):
that one down, and I am startinga new one. And so, that is
holding things up a little bit,but I I do have some of the
backfill information. So it isgetting more information.
I also started thinking about,like, I need to come up with
some more value to add to thesite in general just to drive
(09:18):
more traffic. And, so some ofthis backfill is actually
grabbing some more of thenumbers around the people that
have joined from specificstarter packs, both this week
and all time. And so I thinkthere's some interest
interesting stuff that I'm gonnabe able to add to the site for
that. I also think just generalblue sky statistics could be
(09:39):
cool and create, like, a coolvisualization. So I have some
ideas working on that.
But, also, I'm, I don't wannaforget just some of the core
stuff that I wanna have. And Ithink in addition to being able
to explore and follow, reallyhaving a quick way to not only
add and or remove people from,your own starter packs, but
(10:01):
being able to make starter packson the site themselves. So a
starter pack editor that is, alittle bit more streamlined and
also, both during the creationas well as the the updating or
addition to people to the site.So those are some of the things
things I'm working on. Again,I'm hoping that those will both
drive a little bit more trafficand a little bit more value to
(10:22):
the site.
And I also basically didanother, like, refresh of some
of the, the copy and trying toreposition it a little bit less
of a focus on blue sky and moreof a, you know, find your tribe,
grow your tribe, tool to connectand, connect with people, you
(10:45):
know, can, and then expand yourcommunity beyond the the people
that, you know. So yeah. Sothat's that's kind of, like,
just a quick update on what'sgoing on with starter packs. I
have some more stuff I will doin another video, but I'm at
eleven minutes. So I'm gonna endthere.
So check it out. It's atstarterpacks.net. You're
listening to the All Playpodcast. I'm Ryan Hefner. You
(11:08):
can find that at allplay.fm.
And, you can find me atryanhefner.com . And, hit me up
on blue sky. I'm @ryanhefner.com. Let me know what you're
thinking. This is also gonna bethe first episode, launch or
released since transistorf m.
Trans transistor.fm has, added anew feature, basically, that
(11:31):
allows for an auto post to goout on Blue Sky and then
comments on that will get kindof aggregated on the transistor
f m site for that podcast. Sothat's gonna be cool. I'm gonna
see what's going on there.Definitely, you know, drop a
rating, drop a review in yourpodcast player, or, drop a like
(11:51):
or a comment on that blue skypost that will be on the
allplay.fm, blue sky count. Andlet's talk.
And we'd love to know what otherpeople kind of are wrestling as
far as, like, coming up withsubscription plans and obviously
trying to get out of their ownhead as far as, like, what
things truly do add value andwhich don't and, all that good
(12:15):
stuff. So, alright. I'm RyanHefner. This is All Play
Podcast. Have a great one.
Later.
Hey, I'm Ryan Hefner, and this is the All Play podcast. So
I lost to the queues. The queuesbeat me, but not for the reasons
why you might think. So lastepisode, I was talking about how
on starter packs, I was lookingto, I was running this big queue
job to basically backfill abunch of data for the, I think
(00:23):
at the time, over 240,000 or250,000 starter packs, that I
had, you know, currently on thesite. And my goal was to set up
the Stripe integration,configure the plans, and, get
those live before those queueswere done.
Well, I achieved part of that. Idid end up doing the Stripe
(00:46):
integration. I did create someinitial plans. But you know
what? I got to the part on thepricing page.
I had my nice three plans there.I had a free plan. I named the
the intermediate kind of, like,intro plan, the expand plan,
which I I don't know. I'll getinto the names of those maybe in
(01:06):
this one, maybe in another one.I had this promote plan that I
thought I could maybe try to,like, use as an anchor against
the the cheaper one or thebasically, the only other one
that was charging because it'sfree, expand and promote, which
was the three plans that I cameup with.
And then I got down to thatsection where you're supposed to
list the features that you getfor each of these plans. And I
(01:28):
realized that even with thebackfill data that I was doing,
I just didn't feel like theupsell was really there to
justify, the price. Like, I was,like, thinking about it. I was
like, I don't know if I wouldsubscribe to this. I don't know
if I would pay the $7.
Now I probably, well, actually,I don't even know if I would pay
(01:51):
the high tier price. And this iswhere I started getting a little
bit conflicted about, like, youknow, this is where I don't know
if it's just the resistance or,you know, the monkey mind that's
that's going in and and makingme second guess this stuff. I do
think the the information isvaluable. And I do know that you
can obtain some of thisinformation on other services
(02:12):
for free, which is also probablyplaying a little bit into my
psychology of whether or notit's worth it to charge these
things. But, you know, when Istarted getting to those
features and trying to really,like, differentiate each one
from the free to the the initialpaid and then also this
promotion plan, I I justrealized that there just didn't
seem like there was that muchvalue.
(02:33):
So I can get into what isbasically gonna be included into
the the free, that expand plan,and the, the promote plan, at
least what I what I had then andwhat I'll I'm still trying to
figure out now even. So free,you can obviously browse the
site, log in, authenticate viayour Blue Sky account, and
(02:56):
follow freely. You know, you canexplore these different, starter
packs. You can explore profiles.You can follow as many people as
possible.
And that's really, you know,that's really what you get for
the free plan. For the expandplan, which is basically, I
thought it the idea is you cankind of more expand out your
profile and make it a little bitricher. And by doing that, maybe
(03:20):
it will just offer more ways forpeople to either, discover your
profile or or your packs andvice versa other people and just
make it more valuable, richernavigating experience. Now that,
I was thinking about charging $7a month. And I know that that
seems high, but I do have somefuture plans for that plan,
(03:41):
which I think would justify thatas well as just more stats
around that.
So that kind of brings me to thesecond part. I actually have
another queue job running rightnow, which is backfilling even
more data and trying to bolsterup, all more stuff that I can
basically include into thosestats. And, so I have that job
(04:06):
running. And then the but, youknow, I will get we'll we'll
touch on what what that's gonnado. But, basically, that was the
idea for that plan, as well asthis idea of maybe being able to
kind of, like, connect moreaccounts other than just Blue
Sky and have that associated andand linked to your profile.
And then the promote plan Ithought was kind of the most,
(04:27):
like, simple straightforward. IfI can start driving more traffic
to the site and people canbasically promote or feature
their profiles within veryprominent sections within the
site, whether that's duringsearch, whether that's, within
the within the context of a of aindividual starter pack that
they happen to appear in, andjust really anywhere where you
(04:49):
can explore more of the site andhave, either your profile or
your starter packs appear in ain a featured area. And,
actually, I think that one's waymore straightforward, but that's
also the one that at the time orcurrently, I have it set at,
like, a hundred bucks a month.And then I also do have yearly
plans, which are basically, themonthly fee times 10, so you get
(05:14):
two months free. So the yearlywould be, 70 for the expand plan
and, 1,000, for that promoteplan.
Now if I'm starting to drivetraffic that I was originally
had back in, December andJanuary, I think I'd easily
justify that hundred dollarplan. And that's actually funny
(05:35):
because even though it's moreexpensive, I think it would it
actually already has more valuebaked in, and you can have those
promoted. I'm actually callingthose people supporters as just
like a terminology thing, and Ilike that just from, like, a
concept of, you know, thesepeople are kinda, like,
supporting me, working on theplatform. They're also then
(05:59):
being elevated, because of forthat support. So they get a
little bit more prominent,display within the site.
Feels a little bit better than,like, featured or, I don't know.
I mean, I guess I'm calling itpromoted, but, but really
they're supporters. And, soyeah. So wrestling around with
(06:19):
all that kind of stuff, youknow, it's like, what goes on?
Like, it's just interesting thepsychology that you can get into
when you start thinking aboutpricing plans.
For one, it's like, would I payfor it? What other people's pay
for it? What are other peoplecharging out there? And,
actually, that was one thingthat that kinda started to make
me a little bit more, I guess,less, self conscious of these
(06:44):
plans is when I started lookingaround, especially within the
blue sky space, I actually foundseveral services that maybe were
offering just a core value witha bunch of other features coming
soon. So I might actually takethat tactic and actually get the
subscriptions and make them moreavailable on the site with the
(07:07):
with the kind of the flag of,like, a coming soon or, TBD on
some of the features.
But we'll see. You know, it alsokinda feels a little bit
disingenuine to offer like that,so I don't know. It's it's these
are those things that has come,like, bouncing back and forth
and, like, tipping the scalesfrom one direction to the other.
(07:27):
Regardless, what I did end updoing, though, is I did actually
deploy the underlying code, onthe site that will support
descriptions, the subscriptionsas well as, has the pricing page
and has the hooks into, to beable to view the your account
(07:49):
when you're authenticated and tosee which, subscription you're
currently associated with. It'snot being promoted, and I kinda
have it currently hidden fromthe footer.
But if you connect, you might beable to find it. So the updates
are there, and I also am justusing that as a way to kind of
spot check the, Stripeintegration and make sure that
(08:12):
it's working, against theproduction instance and a few
other things. So I did deploysome stuff, but I didn't go all
in, and I don't feel like I'mnecessarily in promotion mode
right now for starter packs. Ifeel like I'm still kinda
tooling on some of theunderlying features and trying
to build a little bit more valueto then go all in to start
(08:32):
promoting these subscriptions.So that's where that's at.
I do have a queue running rightnow. It is running at a slower
pace, than that previous queuebecause I ended up actually
after I deployed that newupdate, I started listening to
some more stuff off of the firehose, and it turns out that I
ended up overloading my Redisinstance. And so I had to burn
(08:55):
that one down, and I am startinga new one. And so, that is
holding things up a little bit,but I I do have some of the
backfill information. So it isgetting more information.
I also started thinking about,like, I need to come up with
some more value to add to thesite in general just to drive
(09:18):
more traffic. And, so some ofthis backfill is actually
grabbing some more of thenumbers around the people that
have joined from specificstarter packs, both this week
and all time. And so I thinkthere's some interest
interesting stuff that I'm gonnabe able to add to the site for
that. I also think just generalblue sky statistics could be
(09:39):
cool and create, like, a coolvisualization. So I have some
ideas working on that.
But, also, I'm, I don't wannaforget just some of the core
stuff that I wanna have. And Ithink in addition to being able
to explore and follow, reallyhaving a quick way to not only
add and or remove people from,your own starter packs, but
(10:01):
being able to make starter packson the site themselves. So a
starter pack editor that is, alittle bit more streamlined and
also, both during the creationas well as the the updating or
addition to people to the site.So those are some of the things
things I'm working on. Again,I'm hoping that those will both
drive a little bit more trafficand a little bit more value to
(10:22):
the site.
And I also basically didanother, like, refresh of some
of the, the copy and trying toreposition it a little bit less
of a focus on blue sky and moreof a, you know, find your tribe,
grow your tribe, tool to connectand, connect with people, you
(10:45):
know, can, and then expand yourcommunity beyond the the people
that, you know. So yeah. Sothat's that's kind of, like,
just a quick update on what'sgoing on with starter packs. I
have some more stuff I will doin another video, but I'm at
eleven minutes. So I'm gonna endthere.
So check it out. It's atstarterpacks.net. You're
listening to the All Playpodcast. I'm Ryan Hefner. You
(11:08):
can find that at allplay.fm.
And, you can find me atryanhefner.com . And, hit me up
on blue sky. I'm @ryanhefner.com. Let me know what you're
thinking. This is also gonna bethe first episode, launch or
released since transistorf m.
Trans transistor.fm has, added anew feature, basically, that
(11:31):
allows for an auto post to goout on Blue Sky and then
comments on that will get kindof aggregated on the transistor
f m site for that podcast. Sothat's gonna be cool. I'm gonna
see what's going on there.Definitely, you know, drop a
rating, drop a review in yourpodcast player, or, drop a like
(11:51):
or a comment on that blue skypost that will be on the
allplay.fm, blue sky count. Andlet's talk.
And we'd love to know what otherpeople kind of are wrestling as
far as, like, coming up withsubscription plans and obviously
trying to get out of their ownhead as far as, like, what
things truly do add value andwhich don't and, all that good
(12:15):
stuff. So, alright. I'm RyanHefner. This is All Play
Podcast. Have a great one.
Later.
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