Holleran sees LinkedIn (LNKD) as an excellent example of a successful Business Freemium company.
FORBES: Matt Holleran: Silicon Valley's Business Freemium Go-To Guy
Some charge a fee for 6-9 months and then move to the freemium model.
If you or any company decides that want to go freemium they lose everyone.
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He blames his woes on the freemium model, which he likens to a Samurai sword.
The freemium approach doesn't make sense for any business that can't eventually reach millions of users.
Merriam-Webster put a free dictionary online starting in 1996 and migrated to a freemium model over time.
In a typical freemium model, you can expect to support 50 free users for every paying customer.
The idea of freemium is that the basic service is free, but the fancier version costs money.
When it comes to the SVSC, Holleran helps by providing capital and marketing expertise to business freemium start-ups.
FORBES: Matt Holleran: Silicon Valley's Business Freemium Go-To Guy
Craigslist uses "freemium" pricing, charging only for certain listings, such as job ads and some real estate listings.
Marc Benioff is making a bet on freemium with the newly-launched version of his collaboration software, called Chatter.
With respect to freemium, fancy can mean more features, more usage, more seats, more time, or no advertisements.
In the past few years, this "freemium" business model has become increasingly popular in mobile and social gaming.
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Voxer (freemium): Created by a former communications specialist with the U.S Army, Voxer is a walkie-talkie app for smartphones.
Mikengreg Games LLC, a two-year-old start-up in Ames, Iowa, launched a freemium iPad game called "Gasketball" earlier this month.
The result is that freemium players have begun to seep into the enterprise.
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About a quarter of the roughly 50 companies that participate in TechStars every year use a freemium strategy, he added.
The company has grown quickly to 45 million users with its freemium strategy enabling people to sync and share documents.
Therefore, a business freemium start-up may have lower fixed costs than a business software company that employs a big sales force.
FORBES: Matt Holleran: Silicon Valley's Business Freemium Go-To Guy
Adobe just announced that Creative Cloud is over 300, 000 paid members, with a million trying it out on the freemium model.
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Mavenlink operates on a freemium model, providing its core tools for free, while paying customers get additional storage space and other features.
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This is how freemium games, which is the direction most mobile game developers and publishers are going these days, can become money-generators.
Outlook Email integration: Similar to the freemium version of harmon.ie, Cisco has created bi-directional connections from email to WebEx Social.
Tweepi (freemium): Ever feel like your Twitter account could use a tune-up?
Fortunately, for such startups, there are a number of precursors to paid customers, such as: trial users, freemium customers and qualified prospects.
They did confirm SoundCloud Next will continue to follow a freemium model.
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As an investor in other ventures that use the Business Freemium business model such as Box, Yammer, and YouSendIt, Holleran sees its advantages.
FORBES: Matt Holleran: Silicon Valley's Business Freemium Go-To Guy
App Store use a freemium pricing plan, up from just 4% in 2010, according to Velti PLC, a mobile advertising and marketing company.
Besides a freemium-based iPad application, the service includes a patient website for patients to access their health records that doctors make available to them.
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While consumer Web freemium firms have a tough time getting 3% of their members to pay, Box.net is seeing 8% of business members pay.
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