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I think the real parts in these stories are - 1. Have free plan to pick up 10x more users (and gain more traction, exposure, feedback, etc). 2. When the time
by powertower 13y ago
I think the real parts in these stories are -
1. Have free plan to pick up 10x more users (and gain more traction, exposure, feedback, etc).
2. When the time is right, remove free plan to convert some of those users.
The rest is just b.s. to justify a perfectly good strategy to those free users and the rest of the market. Which is b.s. in itself (...thinking you have to justify it with b.s.).
But it was so well done here that you kind of have to admire it.
Gaining H.N. exposure for a day, and getting picked up on some other sites is also not too bad.
- moraitakis 13y agoHaha, I would be surprised if anyone intentionally plans this to happen this way, but I would guess that in many cases it plays out more or less like that.
- marincounty 13y agoNailed it!
- patio11 13y agoThey won't get any significant number of paid signups from either closing free accounts or from appearing on the HN front page.
- pstack 13y agoI like to think of it as a modified version of the thing where businesses start out doing shady stuff and then suddenly go legit and everything is just okay. Think Napster, for example. They built their audience and popularity and business on facilitating the sharing of other people's copyright and then they go legitimate. They would never have been able to build their business being legitimate from the start, though. And once you go legitimate, everyone forgets that you essentially built your "Ford dealership" by stealing the Ford's from the other Ford dealerships in your town, until you could make enough money off their products to go legitimate and open up your own honest Ford dealership. Granted, this isn't that extreme, but it reminds me of it.