[tgflynn]

I'm not a "founder" in any real sense of the word but my feeling is that it depends on what market you're targeting. If your goal is to become a billion dollar unicorn, then yeah it's going to be tough to beat free because you're going to need a huge number of users. On the other hand if you're OK with building a small sustainable business to support yourself, family and maybe a small number of employees then I think it's possible to target niche markets of people who are willing to pay for a high quality, well designed product that does exactly what they need.

For now this is just my working hypothesis, I'm still far from being in a position to test it.

[scombridae]

If ever there were a premature optimization...

No one's calibrating their prototype roll-out according to how big or small they think they're going to be. That'd be a bit like turning down a soap commercial because it'll be embarrassing when you join the MCU, although to be fair, an unknown Gwyneth Paltrow did turn down "Cool as Ice" (1991).

[tgflynn]

> No one's calibrating their prototype roll-out according to how big or small they think they're going to be.

I don't think that statement is true at all. My impression (mostly from being a long-time reader of HN) is that VC's are primarily/only interested in investing in startups that have some chance of becoming billion dollar unicorns, so if you're looking to get VC funds you pretty much have to set your goals at that level. Some little web app with 10000 paying customers will never get you there, but it might be enough to make a decent living.

[jd_illa]

definitely makes sense. even if you intend to become a paid product, it's hard to figure out the right pricing in the early days.