Most of the startups that I see are nonsense. They lack a business model, an understanding of their competitive environment, and a compelling technology. After all, as Peter Drucker said, “business has two functions: marketing and innovation” and if a company has neither, they are dead in the water. Sometimes, however, you spot a company that’s got it, and TrialPay is just such a company.
Essentially, TrialPay is a way to monetize stingy customers. It’s an advertising network that gives consumers the choice between paying for the products they want, or getting the product by signing up for a trial offer from TrialPay’s partners. Ie. I’m considering purchasing some software for my computer, but the $50 price is a bit steep for me. However, if I sign up for a subscription with Netflix then the software is now free. Netflix gets a new customer, and I get the software (and movies from a subscription I had considered purchasing anyways).
Obviously, the business needs both partners offering these trials and businesses offering TrialPay as a payment mechanism, and it looks like they are lacking in the latter. I counted only 10 products that I could buy on their site, though I saw claims of over 400 products using TrialPlay on various blogs. I’m not sure why there’s this discrepency, but frankly, I’m sure that they will have no problems getting more businesses to offer TrialPay to their customers. If WebNotes had a consumer offering (instead of selling to professionals) I guarantee we would seriously consider it.
