410 Labs makes ‘Inbox Zero’ app Mailstrom a paid product

While the Mailstrom web app for clearing out e-mail inbox clutter is free to test out, it’s no longer a free product for use in the long-term.
Earlier this month 410 Labs, the startup that built Mailstrom, introduced a monthly and annual pricing tier for the service. Once a user clears out 25 percent of their inbox messages, they’ll have to sign up to continue using Mailstrom.
At $4.95 per month, the product is aiming for a low cost. But the addition of the pricing tier represents an important move for 410 Labs, which has so far built apps and web-based services by sustaining itself on funding, which includes an equity round of nearly $800,000 raised in 2011.
“From the beginning we have been focused on building useful services that can grow to a large enough scale that we can monetize them meaningfully,” said 410 Labs cofounder Dave Troy in an email. “Mailstrom has met that criteria, and is on course to be a very successful product and the basis of a strong business.”
Troy said that based on testing 410 Labs conducted in fall 2013, he expects that 18 percent of people who try Mailstrom will become paid subscribers. (Right now Mailstrom counts 80,000 registered users. If 18 percent of that number signed up solely by the month, that would be a little more than $71,000 in monthly revenue.)
He also said that 410 Labs is “in the process of finalizing an additional modest funding round to expand the Mailstrom business this year.”
Read more about Mailstrom’s switch to a paid service here.