I'm about to finish an application that I've been developing for about a month, and I have a list of 2,000 qualified leads that are waiting for my application to be released.<p>My question is, should I charge for a closed beta? I feel like I shouldn't charge for a closed beta, but I also want to have a reward for my hard work, at least to break even with my expenses.<p>Any advice will be greatly appreciated!
Personally I wouldn't charge during the closed beta because the insights you will gain from your first customers is worth more than money.<p>That being said, if you need to keep the roof over your head, let a few people try the product for a short amount of time, and ask them how much they would be willing to pay. You can fine tune the amount as you add more customers and get more feedback.
I work for a startup and we didn't charge for our closed beta. I think it is better to get feedback from everyone, including people who would have been scared away by a price tag.