As someone who helps companies price their products, I’ve always been wary when I hear things like “we’re going to give our product away and worry about monetization later.”
Monetization is, of course, critical to the long-term viability of any startup. Founders who’ve struggled to fundraise are 3x more likely than their peers to say they monetized too late and 2x more likely to say they picked the wrong business model.
Yet 2020 proved to be the year when a free offering became an essential survival strategy.
SaaS companies quickly adapted to the COVID-19 pandemic by making their products available for free or at a steep discount. But then they realized that doing so had a real and positive impact for their business.
It wasn't altruism from companies with strong balance sheets. Pluralsight said their #FreeApril campaign was "by far our most successful campaign we've ever had," bringing in 1M+ new sign-ups. Atlassian said that free is building “a big base of customers and potential cust…
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