In their case, it's like "Free for when you'r working on your own personal passion stuff, but it's paid when you go into the office and hack on your companies private code". The huge community and discussion is essentially a massive funnel, users already have an account, etc.
There's actually some potential parallels with Trak.io and I'm definitely going to keep Github on my whiteboard as a reminder why Freemium can work if you're a tool aimed at developers
Right, having a look at trak.io(had no idea you existed) I can say that mass freemium may not be the best business model for you. Although you could try offering some separate service adjunct to trak which would offer value to everyone, with minimal cost to yourself at any scale.
In their case, it's like "Free for when you'r working on your own personal passion stuff, but it's paid when you go into the office and hack on your companies private code". The huge community and discussion is essentially a massive funnel, users already have an account, etc.
There's actually some potential parallels with Trak.io and I'm definitely going to keep Github on my whiteboard as a reminder why Freemium can work if you're a tool aimed at developers