It’s not early. It’s never too early

NOTE: beware, a product pitch follows

I often get asked why we put a “paywall” on @murmel_social so early.

Murmel goes out of beta 🎉 | Our Blog

My answer: It’s not early. It’s never too early.

Why?

I have built enough free services in my life as a software developer to know that they become unsustainable, unless you turn your user into a product.

Or, flip the switch and elevate your user into a real customer.

We are products for many of the services we use. Even this one right here. The fact that I write about my startup adventures will allow Twitter’s ad targeting machine to know me better, and correspondingly, sell me better products.

These targeting engines are getting so good at knowing people that most ads result in instant sales. That’s how they sustain us staying there for free. Buy a plastic piece of crap you didn’t know you wanted, and we’re square.

I want none of that for my customers! I want them to have skin in the game. Paying that little amount of money we charge for https://murmel.social/ is enough to make anyone get more involved and provide us with constructive, actionable feedback.

In turn, the product becomes better and serves your needs as a customer better. It’s also more sustainable — by having a constant trickle of fresh cash, we can continue working on it safely, without having to beg VCs, or be forced to scale unnecessarily.

Who wins at the end?

You, the customer.

Now, after all I’ve just blurted out, you might still want to give it a try:

Murmel: Start making sense of your Twitter stream

First 30 days are totally free. Try it and see if it works for you. We’d be happy to see you there.