[mariusz331]

A friend and I have been working on a side project that depends on Google Auth to send emails on a user's behalf. It's one of the app's two critical features. We're not necessarily deterred by this story, but we'll start rethinking our dependence on Google.

A $15-75k fee is something that's hard to stomach at our stage. We have about 10 Gmail users excited to try our product and they might not have an issue accepting the "Unverified App" screen because we have earned some of their trust through phone calls and meetings. However, converting people that come across the app organically will be difficult.

We aren't sure when the right time will be to pay the fee and become verified. Anyone have ideas on strategy here? It could help us and other developers in the same position. We'd like to avoid raising money but this might be a good reason to - investors may see Google verification as a competitive advantage.