Continuing on the startup and business development track for another post: One of the topics that comes up a lot is whether customers should pay for using the early stage solution offered by a startup or whether it should be offered for free and have customers pay with their time. Although the latter is exciting and sounds reasonable as it is significantly easier to engage people in that way, my experience is that there is a very, very deep and long gorge between free and non-free. People don’t want to start paying for something that they first got for free. Also, a customer is, by definition, someone who pays you for your product, service on consulting engagement. If this person does not pay you, he or she might be a collaborator, a partner or volunteer and consequently you don’t have a customer. People will often provide socially desirable behavior and when asked about your product, by you or by others, won’t tell you that your product simply sucks and doesn’t solve anything for them. However, the moment you ask them to pay, you get the real signal on the perceived value of the offered solution. This principle does not only apply for startups but for any situation where you are looking to convince someone to do something. So, as my reflection for today: do you really have a “paying customer” for your idea or do you only think you have one?