Money, pricing & model

Business models explained

How the money actually flows.

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What business model should I choose for my startup? Don't 'choose' a model in a vacuum, copy the model that already works in your customers' world and improve one thing about it. Recurring revenue (s... Beginner 3 resources → What's the difference between SaaS, marketplace, and transactional business models? SaaS = you rent software for recurring fees (predictable, high margin, sticky). Marketplace = you connect buyers and sellers and take a cut (huge u... Beginner 3 resources → How do I make money from a free product or freemium model? Freemium only works if free users become a growth engine and a clear slice of them hit a wall they'll pay to remove. Give away what's cheap to serv... Intermediate 3 resources → How does a marketplace actually make money and solve the chicken-and-egg problem? Marketplaces earn a take rate (a % of each transaction), so your revenue is GMV times take rate, get both wrong and you have nothing. Solve the col... Intermediate 3 resources → Should I sell to businesses (B2B) or consumers (B2C)? B2B usually means fewer customers paying more, longer sales cycles, and rational buyers, easier to reach ramen profitability. B2C means huge market... Beginner 2 resources → How does Zerodha make money without charging brokerage on delivery trades? Zerodha runs a low-margin, high-volume model: free equity delivery, a flat ₹20 per intraday/F&O order, plus float income and account fees. The less... Intermediate 2 resources → How do I figure out my unit economics before I have real customers? Build a simple model of what one sale costs you and what it earns you: price minus the cost to deliver it (COGS), minus what you spent to acquire t... Intermediate 3 resources → What's the difference between gross margin and contribution margin, and which one should I obsess over? Gross margin is revenue minus the direct cost of making the thing; contribution margin subtracts the variable cost of each additional sale, which f... Intermediate 3 resources → My competitors give the product away and make money on something else. How do I find that hidden revenue layer? Look at where the real value pools once you have users: data, distribution, a captive audience, or a financial transaction you're sitting next to. ... Advanced 3 resources → Should I charge a subscription or charge per transaction for my product? Subscriptions win when customers get continuous, predictable value and you want smooth recurring revenue; per-transaction pricing wins when usage i... Intermediate 3 resources → How does a lending or fintech startup actually make money in India, beyond just interest? Lending revenue comes from the spread (what you charge borrowers minus your cost of capital), plus processing fees, late fees, and increasingly fro... Advanced 3 resources → When does an ads-based model actually make sense versus just charging users money? Ads make sense when you can reach genuinely large scale, your users won't or can't pay, and you have enough attention or intent data to make advert... Intermediate 3 resources → How do I price my very first product when I have no idea what to charge? Start from the value you create for the customer or the cost of their current alternative, not from your costs, and then just talk to people about ... Beginner 3 resources → What business model can I realistically run solo as a bootstrapped indie founder in India? Solo-friendly models are ones where you can deliver value without a big team or heavy operations: software products, info products, productized ser... Beginner 3 resources → How do I model a business that sells to enterprises with long sales cycles and few big deals? Enterprise models trade volume for deal size, so your math is driven by average contract value, win rate, and how many months a deal takes to close... Advanced 3 resources → What are the most common business model mistakes that quietly kill early startups? The recurring killers: negative unit economics disguised by growth, buying revenue through discounts you can't sustain, depending on one channel or... Intermediate 3 resources → How do I decide whether to add a services layer to my product business, and will investors hate it? Services can be smart early: they fund you, teach you what customers really need, and open doors that pure product can't. The catch is margin and s... Advanced 3 resources → What does 'take rate' mean and how do I set the right one without scaring off my users? Take rate is the cut you keep from each transaction flowing through your platform, and it's the single biggest lever in a marketplace or payments m... Advanced 3 resources →

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