Are you charging for the product yet? If not, why not? Free is easy! But if people are using it they may well be willing to pay for it.
Would it work to continue to work on it while having a normal job?
Sounds like it may be too early to give up by you have to figure out what level you need to reach to be profitable and how much $ you need to get there.
I need at least $25,000 to push this startup to it's real potential. It will give me 18 months, a point I would be able to monetize comfortably without worrying about churn rate.
After 18 months, and after burning $25,000... this is the point I would reach the break even point, and I might get profitable as well. It's well calculated! Ecommerce is booming in the middle east!
I am providing long free trial - up to 1 year! Still my sellers/users know very well they will be charged after a trial ends. I have 10+ paying customers.
It won't work if I get a job. I am working alone on this, and I have to work full time on this. otherwise I would not be able to achieve such progress!
I do everything! I code, I sell, I provide customer service!
If what you say is true then your problems will be solved, if you are making an error of assumption then it will surface and maybe you will be able to address it, or maybe not and then you will have the answer to your question.
Best of luck!
I like your approach and I plan to do it as a last resort. my point is that I expect at least 30% churn rate when I start charging my customers.
So I prefer to reach 1000 or 1500 sellers signups before starting charging.
$25 is too much for an emerging market like Egypt. I prefer to charge $5 or $6.
That's a huge assumption. It might be 0% it might be 99.9%. Answering that question will give you a much better idea whether or not you should shut down your startup. Willingness and ability to pay for your product are the most important bits. The rest is secondary.
I can force a portion of users to do pay and check the percentage Of the churn rate.