What's In It for Us?

Someone recently asked me a pointed question: “When I read your vision, I can’t help but wonder — what’s in it for you?”

It’s a fair question. In a world where “free” cloud storage comes with strings attached and privacy-first services often disappear after a few years, skepticism is earned. So here’s the honest answer.

The Simple Exchange

Abrio’s business model is straightforward: you pay us to store your photos and videos. That’s it.

No advertising revenue. No data mining. No selling insights about your memories to third parties. No “free” tier that requires you to be the product. The math is simple: you give us money, we give you storage. If you stop paying, we stop storing. If we stop being useful, you stop paying.

This might sound obvious, but it’s surprisingly rare. Most cloud storage services have complex revenue streams that create misaligned incentives. When a company makes money from your data in ways you don’t fully understand, their interests diverge from yours in ways you can’t predict.

We Win When You Stay

Here’s the alignment that matters: Abrio succeeds when you choose to keep using it.

Not when you’re trapped by proprietary formats. Not when switching costs are artificially high. Not when your data is held hostage. We succeed when, year after year, you decide the service is worth paying for.

This is why export is a first-class feature. Making it easy for you to leave means we have to earn your decision to stay. Every month you renew is a vote of confidence. That feedback loop keeps us focused on what actually matters: being useful, reliable, and worth the money.

No Growth-At-All-Costs Pressure

Many tech companies are built to grow fast, monetize users in creative ways, and exit before the bill comes due. We’re not taking that path.

Abrio isn’t designed to become a unicorn. It’s designed to become a reliable service that exists for decades. We’re not optimizing for metrics that look good to investors at the expense of the people actually using the product.

This means slower growth, sure. But it also means decisions that prioritize long-term sustainability over short-term gains. We can afford to say no to features that would compromise your privacy or complicate your experience.

It’s Also About Values

Beyond the business logic, there’s a simpler truth: I believe this service should exist.

People deserve a place to store their irreplaceable memories without trading away their privacy or getting locked into ecosystems they can’t escape. The big players aren’t providing this. Not because they can’t — because their incentives point elsewhere.

I might be able to build what’s missing. So I’m trying.

The Bottom Line

You should be skeptical of companies that claim to have your best interests at heart. Claims are cheap. Structure is what matters.

Abrio’s structure is simple: we make money when you pay us for storage. That’s the only way we make money. Our interests stay aligned with yours not because we’re uniquely virtuous, but because the business is designed so that your success and ours are the same thing.

That’s the bet we’re making. If you’re curious whether it works, you can find out.