“When you think about freemium, really what the hypothesis is is that you can launch this freemium model that over time will reduce your CAC. That's the goal. I'm building this model that will result in lower customer acquisition costs than if I don't have it.”

Freemium's real goal is lowering CAC, not just adding a free tier

Freemium isn't a feature decision — it's an acquisition strategy. If the free tier isn't measurably lowering blended CAC over time (via habituation, word-of-mouth, organic funnel), it's not working — and a paywalled-only model may serve you better. Always tie the freemium debate back to CAC, not to free-user volume.