Our mission at Quo has always been to make access to building wealth more equitable. This has been the center of our company since day one and informs everything we do, from determining which features to build next to hiring people who are as passionate about this mission as we are.
We are constantly evaluating if what we are doing aligns with this mission, and one area that we have come back to again and again is how we price our product. Price has always been a tricky question for us: on the one hand, to give as many people access to our services as possible and help as many of them build towards homeownership as we can, we should directly charge as little as possible. On the other hand, not charging enough means we cannot build a strong business that can expand its reach and impact, we cannot deliver a high-quality experience to those who use it, and we have to drive revenue from alternative sources that can be unaligned with what our members want.
This has been a constant debate for us, and for the most part, we have fallen onto the side that we need to charge something for the product to drive the best experience possible. Having an even nominal price meant we could ensure we delivered a first-class experience, could sustain our operations, and ultimately could help users buy homes better, smarter, and faster. To this end, since we launched the very first version of the Quo app back in July of last year, we have charged a subscription fee for access to it.
One of our core values and beliefs is that to build a great business, you have to succeed when your customers do. Originally, that meant making money when our customers felt they were getting value from us every month. However, as we tested different trial lengths, talked to dozens of customers, and looked at our data, we found two issues with this approach. First, the customers who needed us most were the ones with the least leeway to pay for a monthly subscription. Despite the fact that many of them loved our app and were diligently building towards buying a home, they needed every dollar to go towards that goal while still making ends meet. Second, not everyone needs to interact with the Quo app on a daily or weekly basis. For some, taking recommendations and implementing them over a few weeks or months while tracking their progress was perfect, but that does not lend itself to paying a fee every month for access to that service. To accommodate both those who needed us most and fit the way they used our app, we needed a new approach.
To this end, starting today the Quo app will be free to access.
This was not an easy decision for us — we have built our business on charging a monthly subscription. But we also know that we need to succeed when our users do, and so we have decided to instead focus on making money when you actually achieve your goal and buy a home. By shifting towards this model, we can better serve our users across every stage while better matching both to what they can afford as well as how they interact with our product and service.
We are incredibly excited about what this means for the future of Quo. By making our app available to anyone, we move one step closer to making building wealth more equitable. We are working on building the future of homeownership, and we look forward to building that with you.
Best,
Tucker Haas
CEO and Co-founder of Quo
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