By September 2014, we officially made Instapaper free and launched a new subscription pricing model, which led to a recovery in revenue and a growth trajectory for the app.

The decision to spin Instapaper out of Pinterest was made in early 2018, as I felt it was important to keep the product alive and aligned with its original mission. I believe Instapaper can continue to be self-sustainable based on existing usage and a reasonable conversion rate from free to paid subscriptions.

The launch of Pocket as a free competitor in 2012 led to a decline in Instapaper's downloads, prompting Marco Arment to consider the future of Instapaper and eventually sell it to Beta Works.

In late 2016, I proposed several options for Instapaper's future, including staffing a dedicated team or putting it in maintenance mode, ultimately deciding to keep it running with minimal resources.

After being acquired by Beta Works, I joined Instapaper as an iOS developer in 2013, where I advocated for transitioning Instapaper to a freemium model due to the strong competition from free apps.

We raised $80,000 from friends and family to support Instapaper after it spun out, with the goal of making it a long-term sustainable business.

After the acquisition, I was tasked with maintaining Instapaper while also focusing on my work at Pinterest, dedicating a few hours each week to updates and server maintenance.

Pinterest acquired Instapaper in August 2016 after a lengthy negotiation process that began in December 2015, driven by interest from both Pinterest and other media companies.

In the early days of Instapaper, it addressed three key consumer pain points: slow mobile networks, the lack of good reading applications on the iPhone, and the need for a better reading experience on mobile devices.