I’ve talked to about 3 entrepreneurs over the past week about making revenue a product line. Each was excited by the liberation that comes with that idea but expressed an undefined hesitancy. Check out the original post for context.

I think the hesitancy from most entrepreneurs about experimenting early and often with revenue is fear of it killing the dream. Either theirs or those of their investors or potential Investors. I can understand this concern, but I think it disadvantages the company.

I think you can maintain big ideas and execute in incremental steps. Minimum viable product exists in revenue and it is through iteration and feedback that I believe the best revenue products evolve.  The dream will come because of the experimentation not in spite of it.

The keys are:

• Set expectations with customers and users. Explain that these are alpha revenue ideas, subject to change, and just a glimpse into what you’re thinking.
• Prices may and will change
• Ask for feedback as you would with any other product. i.e. Would they pay more or less if the reporting metric was changed? What are their service expectations?
• Evaluate and work with partners but don’t sign exclusives when in an alpha phase. Keep your options open as you discover margins and working relationship styles.
• Put your users first. Before pushing an alpha revenue product ask yourself if it will piss off your users.

I don’t think we’ve seen the innovation in revenue that we’ve seen in other feature sets. I think revenue innovation has been starved as companies await scale beyond scale that is not necessary and likely will never come. Again, I do think a certain level of scale is necessary, but its lower than most people believe – again see original post.

Revenue as product is the corollary to hackable business development.  Deals via hacking, revenue via hacking.

What not turn revenue on tomorrow?