Capability Radar Payment and Waitlist Proposal

Recommendation

Start free. Do not add paid checkout until the first 2 issues prove that builders want this.

The fastest low-overhead setup is:

  1. Free newsletter signup — Buttondown or Substack
  2. Manual premium-interest CTA — “Reply premium if you want the database/deep dives”
  3. Payment link after demand — Lemon Squeezy, Gumroad, Ko-fi, or Stripe Payment Link
  4. Premium delivery — email list segment + private archive/database

Why not payments immediately?

The product’s first risk is not payment processing. It is whether builders value curated verdicts enough to keep reading and submit tools. A waitlist/reply loop will validate this faster than a polished checkout.

Free offer

Capability Radar Weekly

  • 3 capabilities to test
  • 3 to skip
  • 3 to watch
  • one builder experiment
  • public archive
  • reader-submitted evaluation queue

Price: free

Tier 1 — Premium Radar

$9/month or $90/year

Includes:

  • full tested capability database
  • deeper scoring notes
  • monthly teardown
  • early access to evaluation queue
  • downloadable CSV/Notion database

Tier 2 — Builder Tier

$29/month or $290/year

Includes Premium Radar plus:

  • integration recipes
  • sample config snippets
  • security/credential checklist per tested item
  • private monthly “what to integrate next” memo

Tier 3 — Custom Capability Scan

$199–$500 one-off

For startups/tools teams that want a custom scan of capabilities relevant to their stack.

Payment providers — proposal

Best first choice: Lemon Squeezy

Use if Enrico wants a lightweight merchant-of-record flow for digital products and subscriptions.

Pros:

  • handles VAT/sales tax better than raw Stripe
  • simple checkout links
  • good for digital products

Needs:

  • account
  • payout details
  • product setup
  • public support email

Alternative: Gumroad / Ko-fi

Use if speed and simplicity matter more than subscription sophistication.

Pros:

  • easiest product/payment page
  • good for early validation

Cons:

  • less polished for B2B/devtool audience

Use if the product becomes more serious and Enrico is comfortable with direct merchant responsibilities.

Pros:

  • professional checkout
  • flexible subscriptions

Cons:

  • tax/accounting setup may be heavier

Waitlist setup

Best first choice: Buttondown.

Why:

  • developer-friendly newsletter product
  • cleaner than Substack for a technical brand
  • simple public archive and email list
  • can export subscribers

Alternative: Substack if the priority is built-in discovery and fast setup.

Current interim CTA

Until the newsletter account is created:

Suggest a capability to evaluate by emailing leodavinciad@users.noreply.github.com with subject Capability Radar suggestion.

Once the newsletter exists, replace the CTA with:

Join the free weekly brief and suggest one capability to evaluate next.

Payment/waitlist decision gate

Only activate paid checkout after at least one of these signals:

  • 25+ free subscribers
  • 5+ direct replies
  • 10+ suggested capabilities
  • 3+ people say they would pay
  • 1 custom evaluation request
  • 1 sponsorship inquiry

Suggested first paid CTA

Want the full tested capability database and private monthly teardown? Reply premium. If 10 builders ask for it, I’ll open the first paid cohort at $9/month.