sutton020

I've just answered a question on Quora and thought it might be worth cross-posting it here. Just in case there's still someone who isn't using Quora yet (admittedly unlikely given their current growth rate which is absolutely incredible). The question was: "For web apps, is it better to ask for the credit card before their trial starts (e.g., on the signup page) or after their trial expires?" My Quora answer follows below. * * * * * I don't know the answer, and there probably is no general answer, but I recently put together a little model that helps to understand the determinants better: Click here to open the Google spreadsheet The blue values are sample (dummy) input values that you can change. The model is based on the following ideas and assumptions: There are two types of visitors: Those who sign up whether or not a credit card is required (let's call them Group 1) and those who sign up only if no credit card is required (Group 2). There is of ...

Here's the fourth and last part of my 2010 portfolio update. The first three are here , here and here . The last (but definitely not least) update takes me back to Berlin, which is not only home to my portfolio company Momox , covered in the first update , but also to another great company that I've invested in together with XING-founder Lars Hinrichs : samedi . samedi offers a SaaS booking and resource planning solution for doctors in Germany. In some ways, samedi is doing for physicians what Clio is doing for lawyers – provide an easy, secure way to manage your practice from any device that is connected to the Web. Using samedi, physicians and clinics can also easily offer their patients a way to conveniently make appointments online, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. samedi also allows healthcare providers to optimize their practice workflow using a simple ERP solution and lets practices, health insurance companies and other players in the healthcare industry collaborate onlin...

Here's the third part of my 2010 portfolio review. If you're new here, please start with part 1 , move on to part 2 and then (hopefully) return to this post. The next stop is Crakow in Poland, home of inFakt.pl . inFakt.pl was founded in 2008 by two extremely sharp students of the Cracow University of Science and Technology who wanted to build a simple, easy-to-use, web-based invoicing and billing application for small businesses in Poland. I invested in the company together with Team Europe Ventures early last year. 2010 saw the company dramatically expand its product offering to become a complete accounting solution for SMBs in Poland and grow the team from just five people at the beginning of the year to 14 today. To date, more than 80,000 companies have signed up for the software, which is marketed using a freemium model, making us the largest provider of our kind in the Polish market. Dziękuję bardzo , Wiktor and Sebastian, and congrats on a very successful year! Anoth...