I’m not sure why software agencies don’t tune founders into this problem – you’d think they would as there’s money in it for them – but founders nearly always forget to build some sort of “billing solution” to run alongside their actual product.
i.e. they go to an agency, get their MVP built, start putting in front of customers, hopefully customers like it enough to sign up, then the founders find out they don’t have a way of collecting money.
Hence some random last-minute temporary fix like using PayPal subscriptions or something equally puke-worthy.
The problem with temporary fixes when it comes to computer systems is that there’s a 99.9% chance that temporary fix becomes a permanent feature of the business.
So, giving some credit to my good friend Wally, remember that “getting paid is a feature”.
Don’t forget to build a decent v1 billing system to go with your v1 MVP.