If I can run workflows for free, how are you making money?
The constraints are listed in our docs - https://docs.pipedream.com/pricing/
No thanks, I've been there before. You'd be better off just charging from the get-go. Otherwise, this should be 100% open source.
The risk here seems small.
The value seems to be free hosting for the polling and scheduling.
This isn't too different than IFTTT abstraction-wise, and is easily reproducible in AWS using data pipelines and lambdas.
Why take an external dependency if what they are doing is rather simple?
I'd argue you are right about the complexity. The hook of the service seems to be easy integration and lack of infrastructure requirements.
At scale, a freemium model won't work. But it would provide initial traction for small use cases. This can be funded for a while without major rounds.
The advice to monetize now versus building community and getting users / crowd sourcing plugins is solid if the aim isn't to open source it.
I ask because I see a lot of these dismissive comments on HN which end with "open source it" - and that doesn't seem like a super constructive piece of advice to a new startup team.
FWIW, at my current company, an analytics company, about five years ago, we made it clear that no matter what data we collected, if you leave the service or we shut down, we will get you all that data to take with you in a very reasonable format.
It's always risky to invest in a new service, but sometimes risks bring great rewards, and I think it's helpful if you're giving input, to try to make it constructive.
If the model turns out to be inaccurate: A) Change the architecture to reduce costs to the point where it becomes profitable at an attractive price point for customers, or B) Move on to the next idea.
It's not that complex, and more startups should be more realistic about profitability.
That said, I get your point that if you can create a model that gives you a good sense of future profitability, you are in a better position not to die as a company.
This provides a signaling of value, creates a real business relationship, and directly contributes to the lifespan of the vendor.
A free model doesn't really tell their business if there's actually demand and if people actually value it when supply is "infinite" when in reality it isn't.
Guess a high price with some research for similar things and lower it iteratively. Def. see what sticks.
Also they could combine this with discounts, such as if someone preallocates capacity for X month, they get f(X) % discount.
They should build a core customer base. Solicit feedback about what niche feature they would happily pay for.
For example here's a GitLab issue that I think people would (might?) use: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/issues/15536 (provide a "lock service" or a queue with max concurrency gate and launch pipelines / jobs)