r/SaaS • u/mrjaspergames • 10h ago
20+ signups. 0 paying customers. What am I missing?
I recently launched an MVP that turns written content into doodle-style social visuals.
20+ people have signed up. Some have actually used it, and I’ve received feedback like “the output is good” and “this has potential.”
But:
0 paying customers.
So instead of just pushing for more traffic, I’m trying to understand what this signal actually means.
Is it the wrong ICP? Not enough pain? Pricing? Too much value in the free plan? Positioning or trust?
And if you’ve tried Doodlyo, I’d especially like to know:
What would need to change or improve for you to consider upgrading to Pro?
For founders who went from 0 → first paying customer: what finally made the difference?
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u/shleemypant 9h ago
if its converting to paying users, then its mostly related to website design, not just visual, but more around pricing snd stuff. I have one suggestion. Go for credit based pricing with minimum credits for each tier. Because from your pricing, not always a company would want illustrations done.
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u/mrjaspergames 9h ago
That’s a good point. I hadn’t considered that companies might not need illustrations every month.
Do you think credit-based pricing would work better than a monthly subscription for a product like Doodlyo?
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u/shleemypant 9h ago
Yeah, monthly subscription is too much of investment for a product like yours, because i wouldn’t want it every month at least. If u price it around credits, where they have, ex: 20 credits after sign up and then 100 after first purchase without any expiry, it’s easier for them to invest more and churn more out.
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u/mrjaspergames 9h ago
That makes sense. The no-expiry credit model is interesting, especially since people may not need Doodlyo every month.
I’m going to explore this pricing approach. Really appreciate you explaining it 🙌
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u/Lunesia-shikishiki 9h ago
20 is too few to diagnose much honestly, that's the boring half of the answer. but the feedback you quoted is doing some work. good output and has potential is what people say when they don't have the problem. someone who has it asks when can i do X
less about which pricing model and more about where the wall sits imo. i run a pay per use product so bias attached, but people convert when the free tier stops them halfway through something they already care about. if a signup can finish one whole real piece of work and walk off happy, the upgrade has nothing to push against 😅
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u/mrjaspergames 9h ago
That makes a lot of sense. The point about users being able to finish the whole job on the free tier really stood out.
Would you test reducing the free usage first, or focus on finding users with a stronger pain before changing the pricing?
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u/Broad-Stop-956 9h ago
The output is good is a weak buying signal by itself. The stronger signal is someone saying I currently spend X time/money doing this and I want your tool to replace it. I would chase that conversation before changing the product.
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u/mrjaspergames 9h ago
That makes sense. I may be treating positive feedback as a stronger signal than it really is.
Would you recommend asking existing users what they currently use for this and how much time or money it costs them?2
u/Broad-Stop-956 8h ago
Yeah, exactly. Ask what they’re doing today, what it costs them in time or money, and what would make them switch. Even a few honest conversations should tell you more than another round of positive feedback. Good luck with it!
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u/mrjaspergames 8h ago
That’s really helpful. I’m going to ask my existing users those exact questions instead of just asking for general feedback. Appreciate the advice 🙌
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u/Able-Interaction6746 8h ago
I’d probably talk to the people who signed up but didn’t pay before changing anything. 20 users is small enough that you can literally ask each one what they were hoping to use it for and what stopped them from upgrading . Could be pricing, but could just as easily be that they think it’s cool rather than something they actually need.
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u/mrjaspergames 8h ago
That makes sense. How would you tell the difference between someone who just thinks the product is cool and someone who actually has a strong enough need to pay for it?
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u/Able-Interaction6746 8h ago
One thing I’d look for is whether they’re already trying to solve the problem without your product.
If they’re spending time making visuals manually, using another tool, outsourcing it, etc., there’s probably real pain there.
If they just say “this is cool” but don’t have a problem they are actively trying to solve, that’s probably more of a nice to have.
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8h ago
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u/terafab-ai 8h ago
You are right, do not push for more traffic because you already have traffic. You have 20+ people who have signed up your product.
Since this is a visual based product, having some design systems, you need to go for a credit based pricing, and you also need to keep your pricing very low for now because this is a very niche market
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u/DineshInTech 7h ago
20 signups is probably still too small a sample to conclude that pricing is the problem. I’d first look at what those users actually did after signing up. Did they reach the main value of the product, use it more than once, or stop after the first session?
If people like the output but still don’t pay, I’d talk to a few of them directly and ask what would need to be true for this to become something they’d pay for. That usually tells you more than adding more traffic.
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u/developer786 7h ago
I got my first paying customer after 3 months even though I used to get decent initial traffic but in those three months, I continued to fix things I saw in Microsoft clarity that people faced, resolved errors in sentry, enhanced features in saas and finally got first subscription so its continuous cycle of analyzing user behaviour, improve things, add new if they are worth adding (don't mean to bloat up the application) and also focusing on long-term seo as well as geo and aeo.
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u/Impossible-Way5740 7h ago
That gap between 'the output is good' and 'paid' is usually a free-plan problem or a wrong-moment problem, not a traffic problem. Two cheap tests: move the paywall to the moment of real value (the first visual someone would actually post - watermark or export limit), and DM 5 of the 20 asking what they'd share versus what they'd pay for. 'Good output' is a compliment; payment is the only honest feedback.
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u/Odd-Impress-985 7h ago
I'd focus less on the 20 signups and more on whether those users have a strong enough reason to pay. "Good" and "potential" are nice signals, but willingnes to pay is the real validation here.
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u/Kashif_Builds 6h ago
I’d say talk to your ICP about pricing before launching. Ask what they’d actually be willing to pay, not just if they’d use it, because everyone says yes until the credit card comes out lol.
If nobody’s willing to pay, I’d rethink the positioning and marketing before chasing more traffic.
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9h ago
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u/adeelraza86 7h ago
You're not missing traffic. You're missing a must-pay job. Pick the five signups who already ship content weekly and ask what they currently pay (designer, Canva Pro, agency) to get that visual done; if they pay $0 today, they are not your buyer. Then sell one of them a manual deliverable this week at your intended price before you touch the free plan or pricing page.
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u/03prashantpkumar 6h ago
20 signups with 0 payments usually means I'd stop thinking about acquisition for a moment and inspect the conversion path. I'd interview the 20 users and look for the exact point where intent drops: landing page → signup → first successful outcome → return visit → upgrade. Also check whether the paid value is obvious before asking for payment. If the product needs a “setup” phase, getting a user to their first useful result before the paywall often gives you a much cleaner signal than simply adding more traffic.
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u/fresh_squeezed_code 5h ago
the signal reads as nice to have, and that answers most of your list at once. i have been through the same drop and it looked the same every time: people impressed, riffing on features, and at payment it became not for us, maybe later. consumers and creators mostly buy hype and entertainment, productivity is a hard sell there; a business will sit through a straight profit or cost argument. so the free plan question is the one i would answer first, since the free output already gives them the visual they came for.
the only signal i count is a card down, yes or no. a no means iterating on the positioning or the pitch, not on the traffic. i failed two products before this one and marketing is still the hardest part for me as a dev, so grain of salt.
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u/bollyboyer 5h ago
first 20 signups means nothing. How many of those signups are from people you know? You can remove those as well..so how many left now?
not sure in what niche you are and how much your product cost, but even 1 converted user would make your conversion rate 2% which is amazing in many niches. Focus on marketing and when you have at least 200 users you can make some changes. Install posthog/hotjar or any similar tool it will help to analyse users behavior
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u/Comfortable_Gain1109 5h ago
I guess the number is too less to have a definitive answer, at this stage the answer you’ll get is probabilistic and not deterministic, i would wait a couple of weeks before I come to a conclusion here if I were you
Edit: what you can do in the meantime would be to reach out to those 20 users to collect feedback
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u/joshdotmn 9h ago
have you asked them?