The term 'enshittification' has become overused to the point where any change to a product is viewed with suspicion. Not all venture-backed companies inevitably degrade their products - incentive structures matter. For B2B tools like Tailscale, maintaining a strong free personal tier isn't charity but essential business strategy: happy individual users become advocates who bring the product into their workplaces. The real revenue comes from companies, not individuals, so degrading the personal experience would destroy the primary customer acquisition channel. Trust compounds slowly and breaks quickly, and treating enshittification as inevitable removes accountability from companies that actually make poor choices.
Table of contents
EnshittificationThe VC-backed engineProduct-led growth, actuallyInevitability is lazy thinkingTrust is a business constraintWhat would actually force this to change398 Impressions