Looks like we&#x27;ve got some interesting thoughts from Marco.<p>Seems like he regrets keeping Instapaper a paid app and not making it free to go after marketshare and take on Pocket.  He seems to conclude he &quot;lost&quot; against Pocket, and now doesn&#x27;t want to make the same mistake with Overcast.<p>I personally don&#x27;t think the patronage model will go very far.  I think he&#x27;s doing more to make the full app free and gain marketshare, and any money made by &quot;donations&quot; is just bonus.  If he can grow his marketshare and get a lot of users, then it looks like he&#x27;s going to try to raise funds.  So, this business model makes sense for now... at least until he&#x27;s able to raise outside funds.<p>Overall, Marco seems to be insinuating that the podcast market is bigger than people think, and VC money is going to enter the space; thus, he wants to prepare for that and maximize the potential for his app and the possibility to raise funds and go really big.<p>It does seem that when VC funds enter a market it presents a challenge to existing indie developers who are making a living with a paid app.  The VC-funded company will provide a great app (usually) for free, since they don&#x27;t need a monetization stream right away.  They usually are aiming to build a big audience and then monetize later.<p>Indie developers are then faced with a decision.  How do they compete with VC funded companies?  They likely are going to have to either make their app free and go head-to-head with these VC funded companies (and maybe raise money themselves to do so).  Or they can narrow their scope and become more niche apps appealing to a more limited audience with high-end (hard-to-copy) features that might not appeal to the masses but to the minority who might pay.<p>But overall, Marco&#x27;s blog post does bring up the challenges indie developers face when VC funded companies enter their space.<p>Would love to hear more thoughts on this.