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I've also seen prepay or discounts work well.

Such as a free pro account for life or 50% off platform fees

I like your idea too. Id expect that it would create a trusted beta group that has more buy in... How did it work out?

Worked out great! We were fully funded, and I reached out to the community again when we launched a tool for another platform (Chrome extension). Several years later, and we still have thousands of active users.

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