Owen Tripp discusses ReputationDefender's transition to a freemium model to educate the market about their privacy and reputation services. He explains that creating a new category requires establishing understanding among stakeholders and proving demand. While expensive, freemium allows planting seeds through free products to attract users and iterate based on metrics before converting some to paid subscriptions. ReputationDefender is testing concepts like RepAlerts that provide free, limited reputation monitoring to demonstrate value and expertise on the path to paid upgrades. The goal of freemium is to educate the market at scale about needs their services address.
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Owen Tripp Presentation
1. Freeing a Service to Educate a Market
Freemium Summit
Owen Tripp, COO and Co-Founder
2. FREEMIUM SUMMIT: Freeing a service to educate a market
A little bit about ReputationDefender
• Founded in 2006. Based in Redwood City, CA
• Comprehensive suite of privacy and
reputation tools focused on controlling
publicly visible, online data
• Customers in over 100 countries
• Direct to consumer marketing (70%),
distribution partnerships (30%)
• Backed by Maples Investments, Kleiner
Perkins, Bessemer and JAFCO
5. FREEMIUM SUMMIT: Freeing a service to educate a market
So why in the heck would we pursue
Freemium?
(and why have I been invited to speak here?)
6. FREEMIUM SUMMIT: Freeing a service to educate a market
Creating a category is hard…
• You need to invent a lexicon
• You need to prove that anybody cares (to
partners, investors, your colleagues,
yourselves?)
• You need to ask somebody for some of their
precious time
• You need to establish the flow of how the
experience should work
7. FREEMIUM SUMMIT: Freeing a service to educate a market
…and expensive
• Demand generation media is $$$
• UI iteration and testing takes investment
• Evangelism means time and money
• Experimentation necessarily means total ROI
is less than ideal
8. FREEMIUM SUMMIT: Freeing a service to educate a market
Plant a few seeds…
Knowing where to plant:
• Isolate unique pain points
within your product
solution
• Find the “greatest common
factor” in how people relate
to your product flow
• Lower the barrier to entry
to a painfully low point
9. FREEMIUM SUMMIT: Freeing a service to educate a market
…then weed
Kill relentlessly:
• Toss out ideas that don’t
meet a minimum metric
threshold (conversion,
engagement, etc.)
• Diagnose which of your key
assumptions might have
been off
• Shelf concepts which lack a
diagnosis
11. FREEMIUM SUMMIT: Freeing a service to educate a market
The seeds we’re planting
① Turn heads, don’t stop
iterating until ‘wow’
② Demonstrate irrefutable
expertise, leadership
③ Provide path to paid in a
consistent manner
④ Demand metrics but don’t
halt product innovation
because of tracking issues
Our Current Projects:
PRIVACY:
MyPrivacyFree Results
MyPrivacyFree for All
PrivacyDefender
uProtect.it
REPUTATION MONITORING:
-> RepAlerts
Social Proof (RIP)
Idiot Friend of the Day (RIP)
FAMILY PRODUCTS:
-> KidAlerts
Principles of reverse freemium
16. FREEMIUM SUMMIT: Freeing a service to educate a market
Free Take-Aways
• Spend time thinking about your greatest
common factors before launching your tests
• Feed your best LTV opportunities with paid
media (also, understand the differences
between cohorts)
• Educate through Freemium models
• Don’t forget that free is not a business model
17. FREEMIUM SUMMIT: Freeing a service to educate a market
Help us try ‘em out!
www.privacydefender.net
www.kidalerts.com
www.reputationdefender.com/free
http://uProtect.it
www.reputationdefender.com/freeprivacy
Thank you!