Hey everyone! Long time no talk.
At the veeerrryy beginning of TR (2010), I promised our beta users that they could lock into a price, and their price would stay the same as long as I was CEO (I can’t control stuff when I’m not).
Back then, I literally thought we’d have a total of 5,000 athletes, pull in a 50k/month split between a few people, and we’d be set for life!
Well, TR got a tiny bit bigger than that 
and we now have 92 employees! 
Over the years, we’ve done price raises as we’ve made TR better and to keep up with inflation. But this entire time, we’ve been kneecapped by a promise I made back in 2010 that I didn’t fully understand the ramifications of. 
Years ago, we even tried to do what many SAAS companies do by raising prices without giving notice, and we had pitchforks at our door. So we rolled it back and gave people a week to lock in.
It’s now 2023. We have inflation and significant economic pressure on us (I think you’ve seen what the other companies in the industry have done). We’ve always been a financially conservative company. We haven’t taken investment, and we haven’t overextended ourselves.
For us to stay viable and succeed as a company, we’re going to set everyone to the same current price (monthly or yearly) but still keep my promise by letting people opt out of the price change or choose a 15% perpetual discount.
Choices for Athletes on Legacy Pricing:
- Do nothing: Pay the current price at your next billing period
- Opt-out: Perpetual 15% discount
- Opt-out: Stay on your legacy pricing
We’ll have a year-long grace period to opt out that starts from your first billing date at the higher price. This gives you at least one year to opt out and keep your legacy pricing.
Legacy Monthly Pricing Example
- Jan 1st - You paid $15
- Jan 6th - Email goes out about updated pricing
- Jan 13th - Legacy updated pricing takes effect
- You do no action
- Feb 1st - You get charged $19.95 (Current TR price)
- If you missed the notice, you’d have until Feb 1, 2024 (1 year after your first price increase) to choose to stay on legacy or choose to get a 15% discount.
We’ve decided on the opt-out because a lot of people (tens of thousands in our estimation) don’t mind paying an extra $5/month or so.
But we also want to recognize that there is inflation/economic pressure, and any price change can be too much for some people. We want them to still be able to use TR.
And some people can pay more but want to have the honored promise, and I think I’m still keeping it this way by not forcing anyone to pay more.
I also think the year-long grace period to opt out is enough time for someone to see the change and take action. And even if you go a bit longer than a year before you notice, message me directly, and we’ll talk.
You can stay on your legacy price.
I want to be crystal clear that everyone who wants/needs to stay on legacy pricing can do so (and they have over a year from today to do it).
If anyone sees wrong information shared about this on the internet (including here on the TR forum), we’d be grateful if you could help us correct it.
I also want to put the change in perspective. Most legacy athletes will see a $5/month (33%) increase.
The 33% sounds scary, but it’s not that bad when you find out it’s $5.
We have some people who love to hate us, and I think they will concentrate on the percentage, not the actual amount, when discussing this.
If ya’ll see this, we’d be grateful if you put it in perspective.
But! I want to acknowledge for some people (especially in foreign countries), this could be too big of a burden. That’s why everyone can keep their legacy pricing if they want. We’re not forcing anyone.
Regardless of your choice, I want to thank everyone for supporting TrainerRoad over the years.
Timeline
Emails go out tomorrow with a link to opt-out. It then goes into effect one week later, on Jan 13th.
Note: We’re also going to start charging sales tax in US and Canada where required by law. We have a forum post about it here.
