Money, Pricing & Model

How does Zerodha make money without charging brokerage on delivery trades?

A starting point

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 lesson for founders: you can win a commoditized market by ruthlessly cutting the thing everyone else overcharges for, then earning on volume and adjacent revenue. Transparency itself became their moat.

Go deeper

Read

📄 Article
India Free Intermediate

Z-Connect: Business Updates & Why We Do What We Do

From zerodha.com by Nithin Kamath blog post

Why we picked it

A primary-source, founder-written account of how India's largest and most profitable brokerage actually makes money and thinks about business design. Rare candor on pricing, transparency, and building profitably without VC, from Nithin Kamath himself.

  • Low-margin, high-volume flat pricing disrupted a whole overcharging industry
  • Charging fairly and transparently can itself become a durable moat
  • A profitable, bootstrapped model gave Zerodha total freedom over its direction
Open zerodha.com →
📄 Article
Freemium Intermediate

Lenny's Newsletter, Growth, Business Models & Monetization

From lennysnewsletter.com by Lenny Rachitsky newsletter archive

Why we picked it

Lenny's Newsletter is the most trusted operator-written resource on product, growth, and monetization, drawing on data from hundreds of companies. It's specific and tactical where most business-model writing is generic.

  • Match your monetization model to how customers already buy in your category
  • Freemium is a growth engine only if free users convert at a meaningful rate
  • B2B vs B2C is a fundamental fork that changes sales, pricing, and funding needs
Open lennysnewsletter.com →

People also ask

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 → Can I really build a successful startup without raising money? Yes, some of India's best companies (Zerodha, Zoho) were built entirely on customer money, and you keep full control and all the upside. Bootstrapp... Beginner 3 resources →