Subscription, buyout, or usage: price by how long users need youDon’t copy competitors’ billing first. Ask when users feel done, then whether more use costs you more—usage cycle × marginal cost picks buyout, subscription, or metered plans. Short ShipFast / ThinkAny / EasyCV contrasts plus a 30-second checklist.PricingOne-time purchaseUsage-based pricingAug 14, 2026
Starter Story: How a revenue-mandatory founder library became a ~$1M media businessStarter Story forced public revenue on every founder case: interviewees distribute the content, production merges with acquisition; going all-in after a focus reset lifted a ~$8k/mo media asset. Copy the method—scarce data fields, not another interview blog.Content monetizationPat WallsRevenue transparencyAug 13, 2026
Marc Lou: 20 products didn’t break out—why one boilerplate made ~$250kAfter nearly 20 side projects, Marc Lou packaged repeated auth/pay/landing work into ShipFast—~$6k in ~48h on Product Hunt, ~$250k in ~5 months. The lesson isn’t “boilerplates win,” but experience commercialization: reuse audience and trust, and sell labor you’ve already proven.Experience productizationMarc LouBuild in PublicAug 13, 2026
idoubi: 170k users, almost no revenue—why a $299 boilerplate wonThinkAny reached ~170k users at ~0.03% pay rate while API costs scaled with usage; the same maker’s ShipAny boilerplate cleared ~$10k in ~4 hours of preorders. The lesson isn’t “templates sell”—it’s which user value becomes a durable business, and why acquisition ≠ monetization.Developer toolsAI searchShipAnyAug 13, 2026
EasyCV: Why quarterly pricing beat annual for a resume toolEasyCV copied SaaS annual plans until it saw job hunting is seasonal. Dropping annual for ~¥20 quarterly made that tier ~one-third of payers; revenue follows hiring peaks, with content/SEO carrying the long tail. The lesson isn’t “sell quarterly”—it’s billing that matches when users actually need you.Job-seeker toolsIndie makerPricingAug 13, 2026
Carrd: How a one-page site builder became a two-person businessCarrd shrinks website-building to one page you can finish and publish: templates cut decisions, free real publishing drives acquisition, and paywalls sit at “one last step” (domain, unbrand). About $1.2M ARR and nearly 4M sites—still a tiny team. The case is how product boundaries lower acquisition, pricing, and headcount together.Tiny-team businessCarrdOne-page website builderAug 13, 2026
