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Money, pricing & model

Business models explained

How the money actually flows.

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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 → 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 → 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 → 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 → 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 →
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