I don't think they can't charge that, nor find customers happily willing to pay it. The issue is that if you're going to break from the norm in your industry (

I don't think they can't charge that, nor find customers happily willing to pay it. The issue is that if you're going to break from the norm in your industry (and analytics for startup companies, oh yes, they did) then it would be nice to give people a heads up before reeling them in for a free beta. In this example, the guy actually invested time writing code to integrate with it. There's a learning curve associated with beta testing a product and without giving any indication of price ahead of time, it's a reasonable assumption that it will be ballpark what it's competitors are, not 10X that. This is not a complaint about the price they chose, it's a complaint about spending a great deal of time and money marketing to startups (god, did I see them everywhere) and then flipping to a point where they could not afford them. I do believe that someone who has made his money not off a disruptive product or social media network, but carefully analyzing metrics and conversions (like Patrick) could benefit from it, and perhaps that's who it's for, but that's not how it was marketed. In his case, he clearly feels he can make > $200 a month by using it. But what if it cost $1000 or $1M? The point is you have no idea and they clearly aren't concerned with ballparking where there competitors are. I've always been nervous about signing up for a "free" beta that my business can become dependent on without knowing the price. This just convinces me to continue doing that.