That's the thing. In my mind $500 proves nothing. Well, it proves that you can get $500 a month. I think it says zero about the actual ability of this business to become a success.
Put differently, if I believe in the idea behind a startup, I'm willing to overlook the fact that they have no rapid growth yet. If the idea is not enough to convince me, a miserable $500 is sure as hell not going to make a difference. It's too little in too short a time. It says zero about customer retention or satisfaction, etc. It's akin to taking two data points, zero revenue and $500 MRR and then extrapolating the growth. Nobody but a fool would believe such a metric.
If they went away, hustled hard for 2-3 months and got to say 50-100 paying customers (with that number consistently growing), good reviews or some feedback that customers actually like the product, I'd be more inclined to think of it more than just a fluke.
And honestly, seeing something like this would make me less confident in a startup, because as I said in another comment, the impetus for charging seems to be completely tied to getting accepted by YC, rather than trying to build revenue for the business. "Let's just hack our way to $500 then we can show we have revenue and the objection they listed will be moot and we'll get accepted."
The better move would be to have a solid plan for a pro product, start charging, be able to show growth in paying users, and then reapply for the winter YC class showing those data points.
Put differently, if I believe in the idea behind a startup, I'm willing to overlook the fact that they have no rapid growth yet. If the idea is not enough to convince me, a miserable $500 is sure as hell not going to make a difference. It's too little in too short a time. It says zero about customer retention or satisfaction, etc. It's akin to taking two data points, zero revenue and $500 MRR and then extrapolating the growth. Nobody but a fool would believe such a metric.
If they went away, hustled hard for 2-3 months and got to say 50-100 paying customers (with that number consistently growing), good reviews or some feedback that customers actually like the product, I'd be more inclined to think of it more than just a fluke.