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by Axsuul 2343 days ago
It wouldn't be a financial loss but it can hurt your growth. Free users are a huge distraction since what they ask for can be very different from what paying users ask for.

As a bootstrapped startup, your goal is probably to get to ramen-profitability as soon as possible so you can quit your job and focus on it full-time. You're not gonna get there fast enough by making free users happy. Paying users are what move the needle.

1 comments

Can't you restrict feature voting (or whatever kind of request prioritization) to paying users?

> "your goal is probably to get to ramen-profitability as soon as possible... You're not gonna get there fast enough by making free users happy"

But I already have! Making my free users happy has lead to a portion converting to premium and many more sharing my offerings :D

That's awesome! There's no one way to do this so if it's working for you, then keep doing what you're doing. Are you running a B2C startup by any chance?
It's prosumer. A few customers are businesses, many are freelancers and most are employees.