“There's a typical model where a consumer gets unlimited access to a limited amount of features. There's another model — the New York Times model — where you get limited access to features. After your third time using these features you're no longer allowed. There are pros and cons to both. Ultimately I'm a bigger fan of not limiting engagement.”

Two freemium MVP architectures — unlimited of some vs metered of many

Paul breaks freemium into two canonical scoping choices: gate by feature (unlimited use of a small free set) or gate by usage (metered access to a wider set). He prefers the feature-gate because high free engagement creates more in-product touchpoints to message and convert later.