How I Got $8,367 of Free Perks by Being "First"
Grandfathered-in perks are an often-underutilized benefit of early adoption in the software-as-a-service sphere.
As startups or tech platforms try to gain adoption and enter the mainstream, they'll sometimes give users generous perks in service of an aggressive user adoption strategy.
Sometimes early adopters get features so generous, it's not a sustainable business model. Interestingly, though, rather than completely taking those features away from existing users, they usually just remove them as features for new users going forward.
If something seems too good to be true, grab it while you can, and there's a chance you can hold onto it - at least for a while.
Platform Feature Timeline
Below is a list of when various features were added or removed - usually beginning with a platform's launch and removed later in its life as it matures.
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
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2015
2016
2017
2019
2020
2022
2023
So, how much value have I gotten for free, based on the lowest-possible monthly pricing?
Based on these estimates, that's $8,367 in total value saved.
The Takeaway
If you have an opportunity to become a user of a SaaS product with a free option early - you should. You don't know what's about to hit the mainstream, or what currently-free features you have now will be deprecated in the future.
Other Ways to Save: Cancel Your Free Trials
Everything listed above doesn't even take into account starting and canceling free trials, which I've done a lot of as well. Audible, Amazon Prime, Netflix, Adobe, LinkedIn Premium, Asana, Xbox Live - you name it!
Start the habit now: don't let the allure of free trials trick you into unintentionally paying for premium services. Instead, start and then cancel or set a reminder in your calendar to cancel just before it ends.
Or even better - just use Privacy.com and create a virtual card with a lifetime spending limit of $2, and then you'll never accidentally get locked into a monthly subscription ever again.
If you want to learn about more tips like this - check out my course for content creators, CheapMarketing.io. I dig into how you can leverage deals and free tools to maximize your cost savings and optimize your online presence.
Director of Growth Marketing at Virtasant, Gigster
1yJohn Bacon - will never forget in university when you used me as an example of an early adopter. Really stuck with me, and it turns out it pays. 😂