They also seemed to give up very quickly on the low-friction version. Maybe they could have iterated to reduce time-to-value, by pre-populating some example dummy data or something.
It's measuring a random quantity in the bigger picture.
Retention percent doesn't matter as much as number of users retained, which leads to total revenue. But then you have to factor in the cost of acquisition. And the cost of infra to serve non-paying users.
My take on it: they took a multivariate analysis, plugged in the details of their business model, came up with a result, and then publish it as if it's advice applicable for all kinds of companies.
When a business is new, you don't want every client, you need the "right" type of client. The ones who don't fit (yet) can be a huge drag. After a more general PMF they're ok.
I think the article had this generalization but went too specific (for their case) and then lacked numbers.
This is why I always put typos in my spam emails, and make sure to always mention that Javascript is a good programming language at least once in all of my HN comments.
There are very few businesses that get away with this, of those - they are mostly entrenched monopolies that can get away with anything that doesn't cause regulatory reaction.
Irony is that equals product would probably be useful for our org since we use salesforce and snowflake heavily.
If you want true stickiness via sunk cost, selling to someone who is already using your product and doesn't want to learn a different thing when deciding what the team will use is it.
It can also be pretty damn good for recruiting down the line!
Credit card vs none. Is that better retention or just eliminating those that would have never paid so retention looks higher?
Just seems like fluff with a clickbait title.
I made a decision early on with my electron app (Label LIVE, to design and print labels from excel/CSV) to make it fully functional on first start. The only catch is the print has a randomly placed watermark. If it works for the user, they can signup for a free trial to remove the watermark for 14 days. If after two weeks they have found value in the product they can purchase a perpetual or subscription license.
We aren't trying to hide anything, just tried to share a single number.
There’s not even 8 points on that line.
