Brian Donohue discusses the early financial metrics of Instapaper following its spinout from Pinterest in 2018.
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Donohue: Instapaper recouped lost revenue within eight months of going free
“We took a pretty big hit, I think, which was expected on the revenue side for a couple months. But within six to eight months, we had re recouped what we had lost on the monthly revenue. And we were actually back into a growth trajectory, which was awesome to …”
Opinion
Donohue: Capital invested in Pinterest yielded better returns than funding Instapaper
“The reason being is that treating it as a business unit, I just felt that every dollar put into Instapaper could maybe return 70 cents a dollar. Like, it would be pretty challenging to, like, have it kind of be an investment that had a solid return. But I felt…”
Insight
Donohue: Instapaper preserves simplicity by hiding power-user features
“Our strategy for simplicity with new feature development, and it's not a great strategy, is we just hide all the features. We put them kind of in hidden places. And I think our idea and our philosophy behind it is the people who want those features are gonna g…”
Insight
Donohue: Read-later apps became a limited niche without massive growth
“Both Pocket and Instapaper wound up landing at larger companies back in 2016, and Readability wound up shutting down, because actually I think the market appeal for that product is fairly limited, and it's not one that's, like, massively growing over time.”
Insight
Donohue: Users will always choose the free competitor between two strong services
“You have this dynamic where you have this service that's really strong, but there's a free competitor that's also really strong, and people will always seek the free competitor.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Donohue: Instapaper downloads tanked after Pocket launched for free in 2012
“In relaunching Pocket in 2012, I think, you know, I've looked at the downloads for Instapaper, and they just start tanking after April 2012.”