We’ve been contacted a couple of times with an opportunity to participate in promotions where we give away a few free Sifter accounts. We’ve always been curious and considered participating, but ultimately never pulled the trigger. Similarly, we’ve never even come close to considering a freemium model. Both are probably great at generating attention and new customers for apps like ours, but we have one simple concern.
In giving away free accounts to Sifter, there’s a chance that we’ll end up with customers who use Sifter not because they like it, but because it’s free. We want people to use Sifter because it’s right for them and because they like it.
Decisions like this are difficult to make. In and of themselves, they might seem almost trivial, but over time, they add up and come to define a company. I want us to be as confident as possible that our customers use Sifter because they choose to not because they have to. This is just one more small way to do that. It may not be the fastest path to growth, but we believe it’s the right path for us.