“Our business is driven by ugc right we have this classic ugc flywheel and so obviously we know our pro users are more engaged but a ton of engagement comes from our free users as well and so you can't kind of turn the screws on them too hard without like really fundamentally damaging the business.”

UGC Flywheel Means You Cannot Over-Monetize Free Users — They Power The Core Product

AllTrails' trail data — ratings, photos, condition reports, closures — is entirely user-generated. Free users produce the content that makes the product valuable to paying subscribers. This creates a constraint on aggressive monetization: squeeze free users too hard and you destroy the input supply for the whole flywheel. Any app where free users generate value for paid users must treat free-user experience as a product asset.