In this episode of Across The Funnel, Adil Saleh sits down with Vova Feldman, Founder at Freemius, to explore what it really takes to sell software globally when payments, subscriptions, invoicing, and tax compliance start competing with product work.

Vova shares Freemius’s origin story: building software was fast, but turning it into a business took a year of implementation work because monetization has too many moving parts, especially once global tax rules and subscription complexity enter the picture. They break down why “just use Stripe” often hides the full cost of cross-border fees, billing, taxes, and invoicing, and why founders should measure their payment stack like any other growth decision, with real unit economics, not assumptions.

The conversation also gets practical about GTM and retention: Freemius reduces churn by making value visible, shipping features tied to revenue lift and support reduction, and building a tight maker community that drives product ideas and creates buyer and investor connectivity. Looking ahead to 2026, they discuss how AI is pushing more products toward usage-based billing, and why pricing and packaging will become a core operator skill, including Freemius’s plans for pricing recommendation tools and pricing page feedback.