The Human Cost of Increasing Freemium Users with Peer Richelsen

Peer Richelsen is the Co-founder of Cal.com, an open-source calendar scheduling tool. This week, Peer and I discuss his personal experience with needing a customizable scheduling tool, the big leap from taking donations to running a profitable business, and the thought process behind seeking VC funding. Peer also talks about the major advantage of starting with only a paid version of the product in order to build a small community of super users. Lastly, I pick Peer’s brain about how he feels being constantly compared to non-open-source scheduling products.

Highlights:

  • Intro (00:00)

  • I introduce Peer Richelsen, the Co-founder of Cal.com, and he discusses the company and its calendar scheduling tool (00:59)

  • Does Peer think about Cal.com as a dev tool (2:09)

  • What is Cal.com’s business model (03:57)

  • The lack of customizability in the scheduling tool marketplace (06:15)

  • Switching from accepting donations to selling a profitable product (09:48)

  • Launching without a free version (12:50)

  • The human cost of freemium usage (16:20)

  • The decision to raise VC funds (17:41)

  • What business value being open source brings to the company (20:48)

  • How Cal.com positions itself in the market (24:13)

  • Interesting mistakes Peer has made as an entrepreneur (28:22)

  • How “free” is the software (30:57)

  • Peer’s parting words (32:27)

  • Where listeners can connect with Peer and learn more about Cal.com (33:04)

Links:

Peer

Chris Hill