Productivity app Evernote has roughly 41 million users, but only 1.5 million of them pay anything for the service.
Those users pay $5 a month or $45 a year for Evernote's premium service—or less if they get discounts. On that revenue, the company isn't currently profitable.
Still, Evernote CEO Phil Libintells Rachel Emma Silverman of The Wall Street Journal that he's not in a hurry to convert its free users into paying customers.
That's because the company has started exploring alternative revenue streams, like a subscription program for corporations, licenses for an enhanced version of the app, and partnerships like its one with Moleskine to create smart, digital notebooks.
Libin also says that Evernote has a "long-term greedy" business model.
"We have the rest of your life to make money from you," Libin says. "Trying to put pressure on people to start paying earlier would increase our short-term revenue, but it would also drive people away."
Libin's theory is that the more people use Evernote, the more likely they are to naturally convert to paying customers.
"People love buying things, they just hate being sold to," he says.
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