B2B SaaS: Launch Early, Launch Fast and Offer a Freemium or Free Trial

Everyone knows that launching quickly with a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is important.

But sometimes it can be really difficult to decide just how "minimal" your product can be before it is no longer “viable”. Which features can you strip out, are which are must have?

And that’s where many first time founders fall into a trap: they never feel like their product is ready to launch. 

They build, refine, tweak, and overthink, holding themselves back while the market keeps moving. If you're guilty of this, it's time to rethink your strategy.

And this is where founders have to start considering possibly offering free trials or adopting the freemium model for their business. 

We spoke to Abdul Alim from Posterbooking.com to get some insights on why founders should launch as quickly as possible, what the benefits are of freemium vs free trial and what else founders can do to ensure that their SaaS business will thrive. 

You can watch the full interview here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqJxFWB3esw 

What you can expect to learn:

- How ballsy marketing can actually work for you

- Whether you should or should not have a freemium version

- Why you should launch your SaaS ASAP (and complete it later)

- How to get people to want to pay you

Here's a short clip from our interview

 Abul’s background in SaaS and Marketing

Abdul Alim is a serial entrepreneur; he sold his first startup for £6 million at just 23 years of age. He is the founder of PosterBooking.com - a platform that allows you to create free digital signage software for Amazon Signage Stick and Android. Apart from this Abdul is also currently working on:

• Teekpay.com - which is a payment service that uses Whatsapp
• Doctor.com that is an appointment scheduling tool for doctors. 
•  wvm.ai -  which is a web hosting service. I have a 
• Whatblast.com - which is a WhatsApp mass messaging platform, which bypasses Facebook's APIs to do direct messaging 
•  Tomorrowsweather.org - a website showing you what the weather will be like for your location tomorrow

Why Founders Shouldn't Wait to Launch

Abdul's best advice to founders is to launch as quickly as possible, even if it feels natural to hold back until your product is “ready,”. His reasoning behind this is that having the mindset of only launching when ready is one of the main reasons why many SaaS businesses fail. 

The reality is that, as a startup, you aren’t competing with established businesses like HubSpot or Zoho. Meaning you don’t need 10,000 features. You just need one.

The best way to spend your time as a founder is to figure out what these big companies are overlooking or neglecting and to build that as a standalone product. The idea is to find the gap and offer a solution that will work best to fill it.

Think of it like this: You’re not Netflix—you’re the local indie film that’s getting attention because it does one thing better than anyone else. 

Founders have to focus on solving a single problem that their competitors are neglecting, and get it into the hands of users as fast as possible. Go to your competitors' Google reviews and see what people are complaining about. Are they missing some features? Are they lacking in customer support? 

Once you start doing your research and finding out what people need it will help you to make the right choice in terms of what SaaS to build.

Avoid Perfectionism, Get to Market First

Another important thing that Abdul mentions is the feature parity trap that SaaS founders often fall into. He mentions that he has seen so many founders building out features before even knowing if the product is worth building.

He goes on to emphasize that founders often focus on small features like a comment button or minor styling adjustments that end up costing a lot of time and money (neither of which bootstrapped founders have in excess when starting out). 

Founders need to remember that every extra feature impacts developers, budget, and launch date. What could’ve been two months of work spirals into two years of delays. 

The brutal truth is that: The button, the company logo, and all the extra bells and whistles don’t matter. 

Customers care about whether your product solves their problem. They won't want premium features if they don't even know that 1. the product exists and 2. It's basic functionality will ease their pain points.

Remember, building the “perfect product” is endless— because it’ll never be perfect. 

The Two-Month Rule: Launch Ugly, Launch Now

Abdul's ideal timeline for a launch is two months. No more. 

Why?

Because at the end of two months your resources might already be strained. It also creates a sense of urgency that gets you moving. Your business model should aim to have your product built and shipped before the first two months are out, otherwise it's not worth it. 

Sure, there are pros and cons to this, but the thing is that doing it this way keeps you focused on what truly matters and forces you to cut the fluff. 

If you're thinking about stripe integration? Skip it for now. 

Pricing model? Don’t worry about that yet. 

Just give people the chance to use your product, for free - even if it’s ugly or basic.

Every additional feature you delay to include is just more weeks of development your users won’t care about. This isn’t just about speed—it’s about getting ahead of competitors who are sitting in “let’s-add-one-more-feature” land.

Another advantage of launching as soon as possible is that you’ll start getting indexed on Google.  And that's another thing you'll want to do as soon as possible because you need to start building some authority even before you start planning your customer acquisition strategy or deciding which model is best for your SaaS. 

Once people know that there is a product that exists (even an unpolished one) that’s half the job done. From there on out you can focus on refining the product and executing your customer acquisition model.

Every feature you add after going to market is a marketing opportunity. It’s the “what’s new” information that you send to clients. In the words of Abdul:

" If you build a fully fledged product with all of the features and bells and whistles, then where's your news? How would you get clients excited for improvements?"

These are the things that will make sure your customers keep on using your product.

Freemium vs Free Trial Model

Charging users upfront might seem like a great idea. You went through all this effort, so why not make them pay immediately? You start looking at different SaaS pricing models and then you get stuck. This is where freemium and free trials come in.

Abdul is a firm advocate of offering a freemium product and/or free trials in your SaaS.

Why?

Because offering a software product to prospects free of charge it eliminates the payment barrier. 

But before we get into more details, let's take a quick look at the difference between free trial and freemium model. 

Freemium means that people are able to use your SaaS tool for free for as long as they'd like. Freemium users typically only get access to the basic version of the software. When it comes to making money, freemium pricing is aimed at getting people to switch from the free tier to the paid tier. 

Freemium is a customer acquisition technique and it might just be what's best for your SaaS. Because once your users see the value you're delivering, it becomes so much easier to convert your free users into paying customers. But this all depends on your users having a positive freemium experience. And last thing to keep in mind is that you don't necessarily need a million active users for freemium to work. 

A free trial means a user can get access to all of the features your SaaS has to offer but only for the trial duration (which can be anything from a 14 to a 30-day free trial), after which they would have to start paying for it. The advantage of having people use a free trial is that they get the maximum experience and value of your product.

In the SaaS world both freemium and free trial models are commonplace.

Now, coming back to the benefits of these. People often hesitate when they see a price tag. They question the value, compare alternatives, or think, “What if I don’t like it?”  

Making your offer free, eliminates that hesitation and generally has a positive outcome on your conversion rate. Looking at the traditional sales model, offering a free product or letting users experience a free trial without asking for a credit card is also commonplace when it comes to SaaS. 

Think of it as your marketing cost. You’re paying (in effort and resources) to get people through the door and hooked on the free version of your solution. 

Looking at some basic examples, Dropbox nailed this with free storage. From that first free taste, they built long-term users who didn’t want to move elsewhere. They offered their product for free, made themselves indispensable and then started charging for it. 

The trick is to not just acquire users— but to get them addicted to your service. There is nothing more satisfying than converting free users to paid customers. 

Starting with a free trial model is a great way to get people in the door, but that doesn't mean it always has to be free. There are many founders that fall into the indefinite free trial model trap. You need to plan carefully and make sure that it pays off in the long run. If you have free trials or offer a freemium model with no incentive for your users to upgrade to a paid version, then you're setting yourself up for failure.

You also need to keep in mind that when you offer the trial, you need to decide on the free trial period (the norm these days seems to be 14 days). 

Depending on your business model and pricing strategies, the freemium model may not be the right option for your business.  Freemium is considered by a lot of founders to be a danger zone. But again, this depends on the founder and the business. 

Here's a framework to help you decide whether a free trial or freemium model is right for your business. And if you're still unsure to decide which one will work best, ask a fellow SaaS founder, someone with experience in the space, because this also makes it much easier to decide between a free trial or freemium model. Be careful, because you can't just Google the pros and cons of these - talk to people with experience. 

Build A SaaS That Solves REAL Problems

It’s tempting to jump on the hype train. 

AI is hot right now, so why not ride the buzz and create the next ChatGPT clone? 

But it doesn't necessarily mean that if a SaaS product follows a dominant trend that it will be a good product. 

A good product solves real problems instead of just following short-term trends.

One example that Abdul refers to is Remove.bg, the tool for removing backgrounds from images. Photoshop already existed and could do that—along with a thousand other things. But Remove.bg stuck to one feature, did it extremely well, and got acquired by Canva. It's the perfect example of simplicity winning over features.

The lesson?

Great SaaS products focus on clear, necessary solutions. By avoiding the feature creep, you can focus instead on solving one problem so well that users can’t help but come back.

The Benefits of Feedback Loops

You know what’s better than building features based on guesses? 

Building them based on actual user feedback. But you can’t get feedback until people start using your product.

This is why launching early—even with a stripped-down version—is key. 

Your first set of users will tell you what’s working, what’s frustrating, and what’s missing. 

Tools like Hotjar are invaluable here since they let you track user behavior, clicks, and scroll patterns for real insights. It's also a great tool to help you decide whether your SaaS product follows the needs of your users.

For a new SaaS product, Abdul recommends not relying on friends or family for input. Because they’ll either tell you it’s amazing (because they love you) or that it’s doomed (because they’re skeptics). 

Your real audience is people who’ve never met you and just need their problem solved.

Reducing Onboarding Friction

According to Abdul, one huge mistake SaaS founders make is drowning users in friction points. Especially when considering sign-up flows that prompt your customers to:

• “Enter your name, email, and confirm your email.”
  
  
• “Set a password (must include uppercase, lowercase, symbol, and 12+ characters).”
  
  
• “Verify your email to proceed.”
  
  

By this point, you’ve lost tons of potential users. Remember, your idea is to get people from trial to paid. 

People want something easy. So your best bet is to simplify it. Better yet, auto-generate accounts or passwords if you can. This will also help you take a sizable amount of stress away from your new users.

Let your new users hit the ground running with as little friction as possible.

Removing friction doesn’t just help user acquisition—it makes them stick around for longer, too.

Customer Support: Handhold Your First 50 Users

Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, put it best: “Do things that don’t scale.” In the early days of your SaaS, personal attention is your secret weapon.

In his experience growing SaaS companies, Abdul advocates for hand holding. Get your first 50 users and handhold them. Reach out personally. And you have to do this before you can even consider having a self-service arm of the business. It might seem simple but this is an underrated growth strategy and can help your SaaS business grow. 

Offer Zoom calls to set up their accounts. Guide them step by step, not because you’re their technical support, but because that insight into their experience is game-changing for your product’s growth.

This in turn, can help you to reduce churn in your SaaS 

Remember, these first users can become your best advocates So you have to treat them like gold.

Another important point Abdul also brings up is the Attrition Rate (or churn rate). Which he calls "The Hidden Metric You Must Monitor". 

If you’re losing customers faster than you can replace them, the math doesn’t add up. 

Your churn (or attrition) rate tells you whether your service is sticky enough.

You need to obsess over why people are canceling. Are you solving their problem? Are they just testing your product and leaving? 

The lower your churn, the more sustainable your growth becomes. High churn isn’t just a growth issue—it’s a long-term survival problem.

Your SaaS needs to hook users in for the long haul. 

Creative B2B SaaS Marketing Tactics Will Help You Grow

Abdul is a firm believer that traditional advertising isn’t always the answer. He goes on to say that:

"You've got to find smarter way to market and have the guts to do something ballsy"

For a lot of founders, buying Google ads might seem tempting, but they can drain your budget quickly. Instead, you need to get creative and look at:

• Reddit Groups: Engage in communities where your users already hang out. But don’t advertise—add value or tell a compelling story. People remember the people who helped them, not the people who sell them stuff.
  
  
• Competitor Support Hacks: Imagine helping your competitor’s frustrated customers on forums, then subtly suggesting your solution. It shows confidence in your product.
  
  
• Smart Positioning: Use social proof and customer stories to position your product as the best choice—without directly pitching it.
  

With all of these, there is a certain amount of tact to it. So please make sure you know what you're doing. 

Final Thoughts: Launch Fast, Learn Faster

The bottom line is that you have to launch quickly, offer your product for free and get feedback as quickly as possible.

Once it’s live, you’re in the game. You’ll collect feedback, refine your product, and—most importantly—start solving real user problems.

Start off with free to get as many users giving feedback as possible and don’t be scared to try ballsy marketing techniques. 

Once you get your first 50 customers, handhold them and treat them like gold - because they could be the key to you getting your next 50 customers. 

Speed beats perfection every time. Launch small. Launch ugly. Solve one problem, and grow from there. The faster you’re out in the market, the faster you’ll learn, improve, and succeed.