> As soon as you get even remotely serious, for example spending money on marketing, you're going to wish you captured email addresses up front.
Just to add a dissenting view, I am ruthless when it comes to who gets (or, usually, doesn't get) my e-mail address.
If you require one at any stage before I am ready to commit to your company, you will almost certainly lose me as a customer forever.
If you take one and ever use it for anything other than the explicit purpose for which I gave it, including sending unrequested marketing spam, you will almost certainly lose me as a customer forever the first time I receive such a message. You will certainly get killfiled so you can't reach me again in future.
The only exceptions are likely to be established companies with which I have some sort of history, if they are sending something that might be genuinely interesting, e.g., when Amazon started sending out recommendations e-mails and gave a clear way to opt out right from the start. If you are a start-up, it is highly unlikely that you will be in this category, however.
Just to add a dissenting view, I am ruthless when it comes to who gets (or, usually, doesn't get) my e-mail address.
If you require one at any stage before I am ready to commit to your company, you will almost certainly lose me as a customer forever.
If you take one and ever use it for anything other than the explicit purpose for which I gave it, including sending unrequested marketing spam, you will almost certainly lose me as a customer forever the first time I receive such a message. You will certainly get killfiled so you can't reach me again in future.
The only exceptions are likely to be established companies with which I have some sort of history, if they are sending something that might be genuinely interesting, e.g., when Amazon started sending out recommendations e-mails and gave a clear way to opt out right from the start. If you are a start-up, it is highly unlikely that you will be in this category, however.