Korva is a scroll of the internet’s best ideas.
Put the paywall after the aha moment
Placing the paywall
The first job is to make the aha moment happen as soon as possible and keep that feeling going. The paywall goes inside that phase, whether it takes the form of words per week or credits. Victor is hyper-refining how many free credits to give and how to nudge users toward useful workflows. The moment one of them proves game-changing, that is the moment to hit the paywall.
Organic buzz
Wispr Flow had its rocket ship moment when LinkedIn filled with posts about a thing called Wispr Flow that meant no more typing. A lot of it was organic because people had hit that magic moment. About half of the posts about Victor are organic, and half come from a creator program that pays in credits, and all of it is genuine.
Counting free credits
Free trial credits, and anything free given away, count as marketing cost. Victor sums trial credits with marketing spend into a fully loaded CAC. Without that, the acquisition cost isn't real.
How do companies find their aha moment?
Teams look for an early action that separates users who stay from users who leave. Chamath Palihapitiya, who led growth at Facebook, has said the team found that people who connected with seven friends in ten days tended to stick. Slack co-founder Stewart Butterfield has cited teams that had sent 2,000 messages as the point where retention became likely. Such thresholds are found by comparing the behavior of retained users with those who left.
How did freemium get its name?
Venture capitalist Fred Wilson described the model in a 2006 blog post: give a service away for free, then charge a premium for advanced features. He asked readers for a name for it. Jarid Lukin of the firm Alacra replied with freemium, a blend of free and premium.
More from The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
