The Economics of Free: When Zero Breaks the Pricing Curve

Описание: In this episode of Mostly Growth, Kyle Poyar, CJ Gustafson, and Ben Hillman break down the economics and psychology of “free,” explaining why the jump from free to even $0.01 fundamentally changes behavior. They unpack freemium, free trials, reverse trials, ungated products, and credit-card trials, sharing real conversion benchmarks and CFO-level tradeoffs between acquisition and revenue. The takeaway: “free” isn’t one strategy—it’s a set of levers that must match what you’re optimizing for.

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SPONSORS:

HockeyStack is an AI platform for modern go-to-market teams that unifies sales, marketing, and customer data into a single system of action. With AI agents that prospect accounts, support reps, improve forecasting, and automate what’s already working, HockeyStack helps teams move faster without guessing. Trusted by companies like RingCentral, Outreach, ActiveCampaign, and Fortune 100 teams—learn more at https://www.hockeystack.com

RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform built for modern pricing models like
usage-based pricing, bundles, and mid-cycle upgrades. RightRev lets companies scale
monetization without slowing down close or compliance. For RevRec that keeps growth moving,
visit https://www.rightrev.com

Tropic is an intelligent spend management solution that consolidates your spend data and processes into one unified offering, enabling insights and decisive action. From spotting hidden optimization opportunities to automating painful procurement workflows and giving you the best market data to turn vendor negotiations in your favor, Tropic combines smart insights with real human expertise to keep you ahead of the curve. Visit https://www.tropicapp.io/mostlymetrics to learn how.

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LINKS:
Mostly Metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com
CJ on LinkedIn:   / cj-gustafson-13140948  

Growth Unhinged: https://www.growthunhinged.com/
Kyle on LinkedIn:   / kyle-poyar  

Slacker Stuff: https://www.slackerstuff.com/
Ben on LinkedIn:   / slackerstuff  

https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/10...
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science...
https://x.com/samwhoo/status/20075909...
https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/29/guy...

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TIMESTAMPS:
00:00:00 Personal Stories About Free
00:02:38 Mostly Growth Introduction
00:03:01 Why “Free” Changes Consumer Behavior
00:04:30 The Psychology of Free Pricing and Promotions
00:06:10 Why “Free” Works Differently in B2B vs B2C
00:08:12 Free Trials vs Freemium: Key Monetization Differences
00:09:04 Credit Cards, Free Trials, and CFO Anxiety
00:09:21 Sponsors — HockeyStack | RightRev | Tropic
00:13:02 Reverse Trials and the Calendly Playbook
00:15:39 Ungated Free Products and Zero-Friction Adoption
00:18:17 The Math Behind Free Funnels and Conversion Leakage
00:20:31 Why Small Conversion Gains Matter in Freemium Models
00:21:25 Newsletter Paywalls, Email Gates, and Monetization Tradeoffs
00:23:50 How the Freemium Conversion Data Was Collected
00:24:49 Why Free Trials Are Still More Popular Than Freemium
00:27:36 When Freemium Works: Network Effects and Compounding Value
00:29:14 Choosing Trial Lengths and What to Gate in Freemium
00:31:11 Designing Freemium Around User Needs and Conversion Extremes
00:33:25 Credit Card Trials: Higher Conversion vs Lower Quality Users
00:35:08 Comparing Freemium, Free Trials, and CC-Gated Trials
00:36:22 Choosing the Right Free Motion for Your Company Stage
00:37:43 StackOverflow’s Decline in the Age of AI
00:38:35 Apple’s AI Monetization Problem and Industry Uncertainty
00:40:29 Credits

#mostlygrowthpodcast #pricingstrategy #freemium #productledgrowth #SaaSMonetization