If startups learned to charge earlier than later, they'd build a better service... and they'd discover the winning product earlier. I've been down the freemium road before. The free users became the pretty girl; they'd ask for new features and we would add them hoping they'd choose us and eventually enter a credit card number. Inevitably, they were a big distraction from building a product with higher margins and lower support costs. Focusing on conversion rates and monetizing those users earlier than later makes building a better product a no-brainer. Then, it's just about marketing the product once the fit is right. Isaac