The pricing mistake that's capping your MRR at $2-3k
Ran into this pattern constantly with early-stage founders, so figured I'd write it up.
Most bootstrapped founders price their first product based on "what feels fair" instead of what the market will actually pay. That usually means $9-19/mo for something that solves a real, painful problem — and it caps growth in a way that's not obvious until you look at the math.
Here's the thing: at $15/mo, you need 667 customers to hit $10k MRR. At $49/mo, you need 204. At $99/mo, you need 101. Same product, wildly different distribution problem.
The fix isn't "just raise your price" blindly — it's:
Price to your most painful use case, not your average one. If 20% of your users would pay 3x for a specific outcome, build your pricing page around that outcome, not the median user.
Add a tier above your instinct, even if nobody buys it yet. It anchors your mid-tier and tells you fast whether there's appetite for more value.
Track conversion rate AND revenue per visitor, not just conversion rate. A price increase that drops conversion 15% but raises revenue per visitor 40% is a win — most founders kill it because the conversion number looks worse.
If you're sitting at low MRR with decent signups, the problem usually isn't traffic. It's that you're solving a real problem and charging like it's a nice-to-have.
Curious what others here are charging and whether you've tested moving up a tier.