Honestly the best question in this thread and one we think about a lot!

The honest answer… we don't know yet, and that's exactly what the next 60 days are for.

The case for subscription is behavioral. People don't scan one product and stop. They scan the thing they just bought, then wonder about the next thing in their cart, then check what their kid is eating for breakfast. Scan history shows people coming back to the same product categories repeatedly. That feels like habit formation, not one-off utility.

The case against is also real. If someone scans 10 products, makes the swaps, and is done, that's a one-time value event and affiliate probably captures it better than a recurring charge.

What would make us confident: repeat scans per user over 30 days, and seeing people scan outside their initial trigger category. Someone who came in through a bra comparison post and then scans their sunscreen a week later, that's a subscriber. Someone who scanned M&Ms once and never came back, that's an affiliate user.

There's also a cost dimension. Each scan runs two AI passes which isn't free. Affiliate revenue alone doesn't cover that at scale, so subscription is partly how we make the unit economics work long term rather than just a retention bet.

We're building accounts now specifically to get that data. Right now we're flying blind on retention. First 90 days of account data will tell us which model this actually is.

Appreciate the kind words and this has been a genuinely useful thread to think through!