Well, that was interesting. Now my thoughts.<p>What is he offering? Podcast hosting service? That's commodity. Of course it doesn't make sense to offer free trial if you are selling commodity-based service. How many hosting companies are there offering free trial? Hint: Not many.<p>However, if you are offering a service with lots of added value which has strong lock-in effect (it's difficult for customers to switch), then do free trials by all means. If you don't, you will eventually do anyway. Let me explain...<p>When your startup acquires first customers, you really want to be selective about who your first customers should be. Ideally you want to find "zero-maintenance" customers who just use your service, pay monthly and never really bother you so you can concentrate on growing your startup.<p>It's true your conversion rate will decrease when you do free trial because as a new product, your free trial will suck so much that hardly anybody will make it through (think 5% if you are lucky) but those that make it true will be the most forgiving and the easiest customers you will ever have.<p>If you charge up-front, many people who would normally drop off during free trial will try to make your product work by making various compromises. They have all the incentives to do so because that will avoid them hassle of trying to cancel their subscription and get refund.<p>But I'm afraid this will also kill your little startup. Now you will get needy customers who are not completely in love with your product, made certain compromises and basically hate you for tricking them into using your service and they will make you work hard for a few dollars they are paying you. Not to mention, your churn rate won't be anything to write home about.<p>You need to work hard to acquire new customers, and hardly work on supporting existing ones. Your startup can't afford your existing customers to be pain in the neck when you are the most vulnerable.<p>By the time you have a lot of customers, your free trial on-boarding process will improve so much that you won't even think of charging up-front anymore.