I’ve grown 2 bootstrapped SaaS tools to $80k MRR and $20k MRR (in <5 months)
we have never offered free plans!
the reason free plans don’t work has to do with pricing psychology
here’s a story that forever changed how I think about pricing:
This guy's chickens kept getting targeted by hawks, so he started feeding local crows. Now he has an army of crows that patrols his property and chases the hawks away.
⚡️High-paid workers are quietly admitting they do not trust the corporate ladder to protect their future.
The deeper move is converting temporary wage advantage into exit velocity.
A Meta engineer making 300K+ and living like a monk is using money as a weapon against dependency.
The salary is not the dream.
The salary is the extraction phase.
Spend almost nothing, accumulate assets, buy optionality, escape before the machine changes the terms.
That is the real psychology.
The old prestige path said: get the elite job, upgrade lifestyle, buy the apartment, lease the car, join the consumption class, signal success, keep climbing.
This new path says: take the elite paycheck, refuse the lifestyle trap, stack capital, minimize attachments, and get out before work absorbs your life.
That is a very different relationship to status.
The reason this is spreading among successful young tech workers is obvious: they can feel the bargain degrading. Layoffs. AI compression. corporate politics. burnout. housing insanity. dating dysfunction. meaning collapse. endless performance culture. rising cost of normal adulthood. The job pays well, but the job no longer feels like a stable identity. It feels like a temporary arbitrage window.
So the rational response is: monetize the window while it is open.
The bleak part is that even winners are building escape plans. When people making 300K feel the need to live without basic comforts to retire early, that says the culture has lost faith in continuity.
They are not planning lives inside the system.
They are planning exits from it.
Salary ilidelay nkainivite my then gf sleepover nikamshow I won't be able to get her treats she's used to labda tukule ugali mayai tudoz akasema tureschedule adi siku kichele itaingia.Niliumwa ajab but atleast that day I knew she's in love with Spiderman not Peter Parker
Being attractive but neurodivergent is such a weird experience because people become fascinated with your appearance. Then uncomfortable when they realize you require depth, honesty, reassurance, patience, and emotional intelligence.
ignore that it's four minutes long and know that it's going to feel like a healing to your neurodivergent soul to hear every single thing he lists NOW LOCK IN
I keep fuel stats to track my engine’s efficiency.
Here’s how petrol prices have changed in 10 years.
9/May/16 - Sh80.7
8/May/17: Sh 98
7/May/18: Sh 106.8
2/May/19: Sh 106.6
5/May/20: Sh 92.8
13/May/21: Sh 122.8
8/May/22: Sh 144.6
10/May/23: Sh 179.3
4/May/24: Sh 193.8
… 👇🏾
My manager stopped asking me for updates on my biggest project. I told myself I had finally earned absolute trust. Six months later, I understood what they were actually telling me:
Case Study #139
A Johannesburg company discovered it had been losing millions through procurement fraud. There was no hacking. No fake suppliers. No missing invoices.
Every payment had been properly approved. That was exactly why no one noticed the fraud for years.
A thread.
Men are probably the most confusing human beings when you try to understand them logically. Sometimes a man can suddenly feel empty or restless when he is alone in his room doing nothing. But the moment he goes out and hangs out with his friends, that feeling disappears.
1/6
Someone who wants you to constantly explain yourself or thinks you are guilty of everything she suspects so it’s your job to prove your innocence. If I’m that bad to you just stay away from me…