Chapters · 3 min read
How we make money
The actual business model: each product charges its users directly, close to what it costs to run, with the markup stated plainly.
A company that can't explain how it makes money is usually hiding something, so here it is plainly. Flagon makes money from its products. Each product charges the people who use it, for what they use, at a price close to what it costs us to run, with our markup stated out loud. That's the whole model. The pricing philosophy, why it's set close to cost and stays there, gets its own page in priced close to cost, on purpose; this one is about where the revenue actually comes from.
Each product pays its own way
Every product sets and publishes its own pricing on its own site, because the team that owns it knows its costs and its users best. What they share is the principle: honest, close to cost, the markup in plain sight, no per-seat pricing, no bill shock. The company doesn't skim a hidden layer off the top; each product earns its keep from the people who find it worth paying for, and that is what keeps the company running.
g1t is the first worked example. It charges what it pays its providers (such as Cloudflare) plus 20%, by the second, from the first second. You can read the formula, check it against the provider's own prices, and know exactly what we keep. If a price changes, the change is recorded with its reason.
Usage-based, and self-serve
You pay for what you use, and you can start, grow, and leave without talking to a salesperson. No per-seat pricing that charges you for adding a teammate (or an agent). No annual contract you have to sign before you can try the thing, no "contact us for pricing," no quote that depends on how much they think you can afford. The price is public and the meter is honest.
Revenue from people glad to pay
The healthy kind of revenue comes from people who'd be a little sad if we vanished: they use the thing, get real value, and think the price is obviously fair. That's who the business is built around. It means we never have to trap anyone, because the people paying us are doing it on purpose and would do it again.
We'd rather make less per customer and keep far more of them, glad, than squeeze the ones we have until they resent it. A business that only holds customers because leaving hurts has already lost the argument on the merits.
Sustainable on purpose
This model only works if it keeps the lights on, and we take that seriously; the discipline behind it is in staying alive. A stated markup is how a price close to cost still pays for the people, the support, and the next product. But the point of being sustainable isn't to maximize what we extract. It's to never be so desperate that we're tempted to. A company that isn't worried about next month doesn't need to reach for the dark patterns, and that freedom is worth more to us than the margin we'd gain by using them. How that conviction turns into actual prices is the subject of priced close to cost, on purpose.