“premium is not a revenue model it's an acquisition model it does make acquisition easier but I'm going to put that in finger quotes because while it makes it easier it puts a lot more pressure on having an incredible product experience”

Freemium is an acquisition model, not a revenue model

Freemium is one of the hardest models for a bootstrapper to make work. It demands a massive TAM with real willingness to pay AND a dialed-in onboarding flow — most solo founders don't have the product engineering depth to nail both. A self-serve free trial (ideally opt-out credit card) is almost always the better default until the activation curve proves itself.