“Don't say 'Please pay for my non-existing solution.' The better way is deliver as much value as you can and give them a 100% refundable deposit offer — say $500. The buyer gets full access to your product once it launches.”

Refundable deposit framework collects real payment before product exists

Teemo outlines a four-step deposit framework as step four of their validation playbook. Rather than asking for a subscription to something that doesn't exist, framing payment as a refundable deposit lowers buyer resistance while still confirming real intent. They collected $500 before their first line of code was written.