[laurieg]

If you start free, you're setting yourself up to get a lot of price sensitive customers. If you set a price in 6 months, even if it's very low, they'll likely be annoyed. Maybe they didn't have any money to pay for the service anyway?

Setting a price up front means you're getting customers who get value out of your service from day one. Money talks, and there's a huge gap between free and $1.

The other option is choosing a business model where these customers never need to pay to be on the marketplace. Maybe you get money from councils? Maybe you negotiate a commission on every signup through you? You and your confounders know about the problem domain so can come up with more ideas.

[custominstall]

Thanks. We are considering other models especially for non-profits who are most reluctant to pay.