Ask HN: Is it crazy to offer a freemium package in a "lo-fi" startup?

Psst: internal dashboard to track the number of stamps which non-paying users used this month won't take you five minutes to implement. It is a single SQL query, right? I know you'll have to discard a working Excel system to do it but from the moment you're done to the moment you die you will never have to update that Excel file again. Process efficiency! You can crank out as many of these little micro-things as you want and put them in a single dashboard, which will give you a quick health check at a glance, minimize time spent bookkeeping, and make you not waste too much time digging into reports when you could be working. OK, tangent over.<p>There is nothing wrong with giving people free things that actually cost money, as long as your COCA (cost of customer acquisition) is substantially lower than your LTV (lifetime customer value). It is no different, conceptually speaking, from doing something like paying from AdWords for a user who might convert into the trial but never into a paying user. I'll probably pay Google close to $1,000 this month for that: this is safe because I have historical data and a failsafe (discussed later).<p>It has also been my experience that most users go up-or-out very quickly on my service. If that continues to be true for you, you have very little to worry about.<p>If you speak to an accountant, who are generally conservative types, they will recommend you to do something to cap your maximum liability via this. For example, you can clarify that unused free stamps expire at the end of the month. (That might already be the policy. If so, smart.) You could also reserve the right to yank that offer at any time. I'm not a lawyer, but I think that is likely to be as simple as merely yanking the offer at any time.<p>I'd put a failsafe in the system to prevent you from spending over $X on free stamps in a day, for reasons similar to why Google only has authorization to charge me $X in a day: if the process goes suddenly out of control, have a human think things through before saying "Oh, sure, 1500% growth is totally normal under these circumstances. Spending approved!" It might happen because you ended up featured on the front page of the NYT. Congratulations. It also might happen because you ended up on 4Chan when some enterprising individual suggests using your service to send a million pictures of genitalia to some public figure who has made statements they do not approve of.

I think it's more like a traditional trial model than freemium - the real benefit of your service is its convenience, not the ability to send letters at all. To benefit from the convenience you need to be sending more than two letters a month, so the free stamps just give people a way to try the service out before they sign up. Anyone wanting access to the real benefit then starts paying (either by default or by switching to a subscription). Nice. Do you have stats on how many people use their first stamp to send a letter to themselves?<p>On an unrelated note: why isn't there a nice big picture of your gorgeous-looking paper and envelopes on the site?

What i Think your doing is dangling a "carrot on a stick". Just the same as many mobile companies offering you free calls or sms. They/you want them comfortable with your product, used to using it. Then the barrier to going past the free quota is a little lower.<p>I equally like to a point how your tracking it via excel, instead of building a system for hours. Once proven it might aid growth of revenue, then i see the system being built.<p>Even if the above is not correct for you, it has given me food for thought and helped solidify a few liquid thoughts.

Why two free stamps per month? If someone uses your free service for three months, or six, or twelve, what are the chances that they will upgrade to a paid service? Why would this be more profitable than a plain pay-as-you-go plan with no free stamps, or one or two initial trial stamps? If I choose to sign up with one of your monthly plans, will you offer me a refund of my unused credit if I decide not to use it?

You are using the best strategy, but you should care about people leaving. Why do they leave? May be they were not satisfied with your product, or they just don't want to pay.<p>There is a trick to make people pay, the same that Microsoft and other software companies are using. Give your service for free and start charging when your customers can't afford to stop using it, then they afford to pay!<p>Evil, but works.