Free users won’t fund your future
Stop giving your product away for free
Why are so many products with millions of users that don’t monetize? This question can mark the difference between sustainable growth and silent collapse in the software world.
And yes, there are many reasons not to monetize (at least at first): validating the product and achieving a market fit, building a solid market share (by avoiding early friction), gaining traction to attract investors (with metrics like active users and engagement), or simply not knowing yet what to charge—or how. A freemium model? Subscription? Pay-per-use?
This “pricing paralysis” is common in many startups that survive on investor money—until the moment to monetize arrives. And when they finally try, they face user resistance and discover that their product doesn’t have the perceived value they thought it had. So how can we avoid this painful realization?
The most common pricing mistakes are:
Waiting too long to start charging
Underestimating what the product is worth
Failing to review prices once they're set
Pricing is one of the most important levers for growth, and one effective way to define it is by starting from perceived value. And no, I’m not referring to the unique value proposition of the product or service. I mean the real value that the user gets from using the service. For example, this could be measured as: messages sent (WhatsApp), GB stored (Google Drive), trips completed (Uber), and bookings made (Airbnb)...
Perceived value data is key to setting pricing and identifying user segments (based on their usage needs). That way, you can segment based on perceived value and tailor pricing to each profile. This only confirms that pricing is not a consequence of the product—it's a core part of its architecture. Because every pricing decision directly impacts how the product is used, who uses it, and for how long.
That’s why offering a product for free can be a valid early-stage strategy—but it should be time-bound and aligned with a clear logic of acquisition, learning, or community-building. Waiting too long to monetize—or doing it poorly—not only costs you revenue: it distances you from your most committed users, distorts value perception, and may jeopardize your startup's sustainability.
In the end, good monetization isn’t about charging sooner or more. It’s about charging better.