For most of my time building Buffer, I've felt called to be generous in the product, pricing, and our customer service. I simply believed it was the right thing to do, and in many ways that's enough of a reason. Over time, I've realized that not only does generosity feel great, it's also a strong strategy.

Freemium was perhaps our original expression of generosity, and is one I've enjoyed doubling down on in the past few years. Giving away a meaningful part of your product for free is an inherently generous act: you give up revenue you could collect today. But it's also a strong strategy and for us has led to long-term sustainable growth. A great free plan leads to more overall users, which drives word of mouth, builds a stronger brand, and steadily grows a pool of users who reach our free plan limits over time and upgrade.

One of my favorite acts of generosity happened in 2025, when we proactively cancelled the subscriptions of customers who hadn't been using Buffer. Recently, we launched our API on every plan, including free.

Another way to think about a strategy of generosity is taking an approach of under-extraction. One of the ways I sometimes think about it is: if Buffer was acquired by a Private Equity firm (don't worry, that won't happen), how many immediate changes would they make to extract more revenue? The longer that list, the more differentiated we are from purely growth-focused competitors. I love how Tobi Lütke from Shopify put it: "Your customers notice if you're going into value extraction." The way he describes his job is inspiring: "adding as many levers as possible to the room and then not pulling any of them."

Our ability to be generous is directly connected to our ownership structure. We do not have pressure for short term growth and results. We can utilize this advantage to lean further into generosity. Many of our acts of generosity are decisions that would never enter competitors' minds, and would almost certainly never get board sign-off. This is also why I'm comfortable sharing this aspect of our strategy: it's very challenging for others to encroach on this position. And ultimately, if more businesses felt pressure to be more generous, I'd see that as a great contribution for Buffer to make.