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Some really quick unsolicited feedback (while I acknowledge upfront I know nothing about your business except what I gleaned from 10 seconds on your website): Y

Some really quick unsolicited feedback (while I acknowledge upfront I know nothing about your business except what I gleaned from 10 seconds on your website): You say your model is "freemium" but I don't see a way to pay for anything on your website? That's not freemium, that's donationware. I'm not aware of any business like yours (consumer-focused desktop software) that's been successful as donationware, are you? If not don't expect to be the first. I wouldn't read into the survey results, while better than nothing, look at what people do, not what they say they'll do. The survey results are great if you want to dig into the subconscious rationalizations people have for not donating, but it's not going to help actually get people to pay. Instead look for real-life examples of products like yours that people are paying an amount for that you'd be satisfied with (if you have examples like these I'd love to see them, I'd love for the model you're trying to actually be viable, I've just never seen it succeed). Finally, the business model for this product seems obvious to me: Charge a subscription for users that want to use sync more X than some threshold Y.

burtonator 8y ago
> Some really quick unsolicited feedback go for it... really appreciate it. > You say your model is "freemium" but I don't see a way to pay for anything on your website? That's not freemium, that's donationware. Most apps that are freemium allow the user to use the app for free first and then convert later. Right now the app will prompt you to upgrade once you hit a threshold. Right now one of the challenges (with freemium) is that since we're a new app many people haven't fully integrated it into their work flow so asking them to pay for something which they are unsure about or uncommitted is a tough sell. > nstead look for real-life examples of products like yours that people are paying an amount for that you'd be satisfied with (if you have examples like these I'd love to see them, I'd love for the model you're trying to actually be viable, I've just never seen it succeed). Freemium has succeeded (github, evernote, etc) and OSS + freemium has too (Wordpress.org vs Wordpress.com). > Finally, the business model for this product seems obvious to me: Charge a subscription for users that want to use sync more X than some threshold Y. Yes... right now most of the users are still early so aren't actively using the sync feature. I might step this up though and require more users to pay earlier than later. Honestly the biggest challenge right now is distribution and user base. We have a smaller user base (1500 active users, 4-5k monthly users) and I need to get this 10x at least. This is my goal for now. Without the larger user base all this other discussion is worthless honestly. The challenges there have been around distribution. Improving our SEO, getting into the app stores, etc. It's not as easy as it would seem. Takes a lot of science and testing unless you've had a ton of experience here before.
- robenkleene 8y ago
  Got it all makes sense, regarding "Right now the app will prompt you to upgrade once you hit a threshold." Is there somewhere you advertise what the threshold is and how much you'll be charged? I didn't see it on the site. That's the first thing I'd look for when evaluating a product like this, answering what's it going to cost me if I like it? (Not to mention it's comforting for me to know the owners have a plan for making a living maintaining it...)
  - burtonator 8y ago
    Not yet but it's mostly because we're iterating and trying to figure out what will work. For example, I'm considering not charging at all, and instead charging just for private teams - at least in the future. That's a feature we haven't shipped yet. Like I said, my main goal right now is to get us to 30-50% month over month growth and then trying to get us to at least 30k users. Until then monetization is irrational for the most part. I might start a kickstarter with our user base as they might be more motivated by that rather than asking to pay directly since they're buying the vision of the project not the actual implementation.
    - robenkleene 8y ago
      Got it makes sense, thanks for explaining. Good luck!
UncleEntity 8y ago
> I'm not aware of any business like yours (consumer-focused desktop software) that's been successful as donationware, are you? Blender While they do sell books and DVDs along with various other things in their e-store the majority(?) of their income is from donations "to the cause". They've actually started to become a viable alternative to the Autodesk monopoly and are being used in more and more commercial projects which leads to more donations which makes the software better which leads to more usage, rinse and repeat.
- robenkleene 8y ago
  This is a great example, I wasn't aware of Blender's funding model. Thanks for sharing! For those interested, blender is crowdfunded and supports six full-time developers, and three part-time developers[1]. There's more interesting details on their funding page[2]. [1]: https://code.blender.org/2018/12/blender-development-fund-projects-for-first-half-2019/ https://code.blender.org/2018/12/blender-development-fund-pr... [2]: https://fund.blender.org https://fund.blender.org
  - UncleEntity 8y ago
    They also get a bunch of money together every so often to do their open movie projects which get some major dev support. Gov't art grants, company sponsors and donations. Pro tip: If you want to be famous push some patches their way while they're working on one of them and they put your name in the credits...got my name in the one with the dragon (or maybe the one with the sheep, dunno?)

burtonator 8y ago

> Some really quick unsolicited feedback go for it... really appreciate it. > You say your model is "freemium" but I don't see a way to pay for anything on your website? That's not freemium, that's donationware. Most apps that are freemium allow the user to use the app for free first and then convert later. Right now the app will prompt you to upgrade once you hit a threshold. Right now one of the challenges (with freemium) is that since we're a new app many people haven't fully integrated it into their work flow so asking them to pay for something which they are unsure about or uncommitted is a tough sell. > nstead look for real-life examples of products like yours that people are paying an amount for that you'd be satisfied with (if you have examples like these I'd love to see them, I'd love for the model you're trying to actually be viable, I've just never seen it succeed). Freemium has succeeded (github, evernote, etc) and OSS + freemium has too (Wordpress.org vs Wordpress.com). > Finally, the business model for this product seems obvious to me: Charge a subscription for users that want to use sync more X than some threshold Y. Yes... right now most of the users are still early so aren't actively using the sync feature. I might step this up though and require more users to pay earlier than later. Honestly the biggest challenge right now is distribution and user base. We have a smaller user base (1500 active users, 4-5k monthly users) and I need to get this 10x at least. This is my goal for now. Without the larger user base all this other discussion is worthless honestly. The challenges there have been around distribution. Improving our SEO, getting into the app stores, etc. It's not as easy as it would seem. Takes a lot of science and testing unless you've had a ton of experience here before.

robenkleene 8y ago
Got it all makes sense, regarding "Right now the app will prompt you to upgrade once you hit a threshold." Is there somewhere you advertise what the threshold is and how much you'll be charged? I didn't see it on the site. That's the first thing I'd look for when evaluating a product like this, answering what's it going to cost me if I like it? (Not to mention it's comforting for me to know the owners have a plan for making a living maintaining it...)
- burtonator 8y ago
  Not yet but it's mostly because we're iterating and trying to figure out what will work. For example, I'm considering not charging at all, and instead charging just for private teams - at least in the future. That's a feature we haven't shipped yet. Like I said, my main goal right now is to get us to 30-50% month over month growth and then trying to get us to at least 30k users. Until then monetization is irrational for the most part. I might start a kickstarter with our user base as they might be more motivated by that rather than asking to pay directly since they're buying the vision of the project not the actual implementation.
  - robenkleene 8y ago
    Got it makes sense, thanks for explaining. Good luck!

UncleEntity 8y ago

> I'm not aware of any business like yours (consumer-focused desktop software) that's been successful as donationware, are you? Blender While they do sell books and DVDs along with various other things in their e-store the majority(?) of their income is from donations "to the cause". They've actually started to become a viable alternative to the Autodesk monopoly and are being used in more and more commercial projects which leads to more donations which makes the software better which leads to more usage, rinse and repeat.

robenkleene 8y ago
This is a great example, I wasn't aware of Blender's funding model. Thanks for sharing! For those interested, blender is crowdfunded and supports six full-time developers, and three part-time developers[1]. There's more interesting details on their funding page[2]. [1]: https://code.blender.org/2018/12/blender-development-fund-projects-for-first-half-2019/ https://code.blender.org/2018/12/blender-development-fund-pr... [2]: https://fund.blender.org https://fund.blender.org
- UncleEntity 8y ago
  They also get a bunch of money together every so often to do their open movie projects which get some major dev support. Gov't art grants, company sponsors and donations. Pro tip: If you want to be famous push some patches their way while they're working on one of them and they put your name in the credits...got my name in the one with the dragon (or maybe the one with the sheep, dunno?)