What changed when someone paid for a featured spot on my launch platform

Hi HN,

I’ve been building a small launch platform for solo founders and initially kept everything free to understand usage and behavior.

Recently, I added a simple paid option (a featured spot) mainly to test whether the product provided enough value for someone to pay — not to optimize revenue.

One founder purchased it, which was a small but important signal for me.

What I learned:

Free users engaged, but paid users were clearer about their goals

Visibility mattered more than vanity metrics

Simplicity in the offer converted better than complex pricing

This made me rethink how early-stage products should validate value before scaling features.

Curious to hear:

When did you add payments to your side project?

What was your first real signal of validation?

Context: https://sololaunches.com