SaaS companies scale revenue not by adjusting price points, but by creating distinct packages for different segments. The same core software can be sold for vastly different amounts to enterprise versus mid-market clients by packaging features, services, and support to match their perceived value and needs.

When Figma saw users adopting its design tool for unintended purposes like brainstorming, it created separate, dedicated products (e.g., FigJam). This strategy prevents the core product from becoming bloated and complex, allowing each new product to develop its own focused identity and user experience.

In the 1970s, the prevailing culture was that software should be free and openly shared. Gates's deeply contrarian vision was to build a "software factory," creating an entirely new business model based on the conviction that the demand for high-quality, paid software would become nearly unlimited.

In a B2B context, the most effective freemium products don't just offer a limited tool. They act as a diagnostic, giving away value by clearly identifying a painful hole in the user's business—a hole your paid product is designed to fill.

Many founders mistakenly view freemium as a complete business model. It's actually a top-of-funnel acquisition strategy that replaces marketing spend with a free product to generate leads. The real business model is the subsequent upsell to paid tiers.

The founder of AI content startup Dream Stories deliberately rejected the common VC-fueled model of offering free, subsidized products. By charging customers from the beginning, he forced the business to find immediate product-market fit and build a sustainable economic model, grounding the company in real-world validation rather than burning cash on an unproven concept.

Many subscription companies employ a "penetration strategy," pricing below cost to attract a large user base. Once loyalty is established, they leverage their pricing power to increase profits, shifting focus from pure growth to appeasing shareholders who now demand profitability.

Despite Figma's massive success, Dylan Field considers their long pre-monetization period a mistake. The company started in 2012 but didn't earn its first revenue until 2017. He strongly advises founders against this path, emphasizing the need to ship and learn from the market more quickly.

To prevent a community from becoming a sales-driven failure, consider charging for access. This reframes it as a standalone product with its own P&L, forcing genuine investment and protecting it from the short-term pipeline pressure that corrupts its purpose and value.