Freemium Lunch

The screen filled with code.

“We’ll make it free,” Ronson Goer said.

“And we’ll be in the bread line,” Jekyl Montebank replied.

“All we have to do is let people come to the site and see it. The traffic will—”

“The traffic will be a waste without money.”

“I don’t want ads.”

“There’s no such thing—”

“As a free lunch, of course. Let’s try a freemium lunch.”

“How so?”

“We can take on the subscribers and give them perks. More money for competitions only open to members, greater features to their profiles, and access to chat.”

“Okay. So this freemium model is only sustainable to million-dollar companies. I thought you were about billions,” Montebank mentioned.

“If we implement this model, we’ll definitely be in the billions,” Goer replied.

“Yeah, when we’re in our nineties,” Montebank shot back.

“If the problem is the free aspect, we can look into donations.”

Monetbank chuckled. “From where? And what are we going to give them for donating? A complimentary tote bag?”

“I’m just saying we shouldn’t be using ads?”

“Your plan is radical…but it may be doable. I’m not totally on board but I’m at least listening.”

“When we bring the idea of making a .org where people can come in free and leave out having paid for something, then we might be able to make it.”

“I’m not above the tote bags.”

“I know you’re not. But we’re less than fledgling. We’re just on the brink of launching this thing and we’re going to need California.”

“We’re going to be based in Delaware.”

“Yeah, I know. But we’re going to need backers. And designers and a team to spread the word.”

“Can we do that in a commercial?” Goers asked.

“Ha, ha. If we take the freemium route, we’re going to have to have enough staff on hand to aid in the launch.”

“I think we’re able to set a precedent with the amount of dollars we’ll be able to generate. Though, if we grassroots this thing, we’ll clear more in the way of saving on overhead.”

“We’re already avoiding the taxes. We should be making money and saving it, too, with the advent of various types of free market incentives.”

“If we get the government all the way out of the way, we’ll be on the track for more dollars to go into upkeep.”

“You think?”

“I know.”

“For the way we adjust ourselves we can do this.”

“I don’t think you’re seeing this as clearly.”

“It comes down to us haggling, making this the best site of all time. In all of the time we take fussing over a header we lose even more time and money to work this thing out, we’re losing ground,” Montebank remarked.

Goer darkened. “This doesn’t have to be that complicated. We can easily trust each other enough to not repeat another Facebook.”

“Well that’s one of the biggest .com’s in the world. Maybe for all time. But we’re a charity. We’re providing education for k-12 and up to post doctorate. This is revolutionary stuff.”

“To take our efforts and hire PhDs and Ivys and folks who actually graduated from college, we stand a chance of sparking Web 4.0,” Goer stated.

“In all of this, money is still the motive. It’s about making our brand shine and actually work. And make money,” Montebank said.

“Okay. Dollars. I’m about billions. I want the charity to be at five hundred billion dollars.”

“A half a trillion?!” Montebank asked incredulously.

“We’ll be eating the other guy’s lunch.”

“Which isn’t free and that’s like multiple times the size of the red cross. How do you figure that?”

“I can make the right contacts.”