[chatmasta]

This is a product where clearly some kind of free sample is necessary, because when you make claims like you are about your coffee, people want to try it before subscribing to it. If you're giving free samples, you need to collect credit card information to avoid fraud anyway, so you may as well add the customer to a subscription after 30 days unless they opt out. The rebill model is profitable for a reason.

I would go so far as to say you should create an affiliate program. I know the "rebill" affiliate marketing model was quite scummy (acai berry, teeth whitening back in 2008-2011), but it worked very well and doesn't have to be so scummy. The problem then was that the major products were hiding the terms of the rebill and made it impossible to cancel without multiple angry calls to callcenters. But it doesn't have to be this way. Lots of reputable products have rebill models, but they are clear about the terms when you enter your credit card info, and you can opt-out of auto-renew with a button click at any time in the next 30 days. If you can do this you can capture the advantages of the rebill model without high chargeback rates and reputation damage. The rebill model will increase customer LTV and enable you to pay competitive commissions to affiliates who drive signups.

Once you know the percentage of customers who convert from free trial, you can start measuring the average length of subscription to calculate LTV (if churn is negative the average LTV will increase over time). Then you can use that LTV to determine maximum customer acquisition cost (CAC). With that, you can launch an affiliate program (by registering as an advertiser on the few big affiliate networks) and pay a commission as some percentage of customer LTV (hopefully around $20 if you want to compete with other affiliate offers). As LTV increases you can raise commission for your best affiliates.

This is the kind of product that affiliates can sell very efficiently. You should let them do your marketing for you, and use the funding you're raising to bankroll your affiliate program.