Essay · ~7 min read

Customers, End Users and Beneficiaries

Isaac Jeffries Free Beginner

When people happily use your product for free, the fix is often to stop assuming the user and the payer are the same person. This essay cleanly separates three roles: the customer who decides and pays, the end user who experiences it, and the beneficiary whose life improves, and shows with school and university examples how those roles split apart. It is a starting point for asking who in your setup actually has budget and reason to pay, which may not be the delighted free user.

• The payer, the user, and the beneficiary can be three different people, and businesses survive by serving the one who actually holds the purchase decision.
• If your enthusiastic users won't pay, look for a distinct customer (a parent, an employer, a platform) who benefits enough to fund the value they get for free.
• Design your offer around the real customer's problem, since chasing beneficiaries emotionally without a paying customer is how models run out of money.